[ColonialMarine]

The Colonial military is organized much the same as in the original series, however both are significantly different from any existing military organization. From the episodes aired, a Battlestar is the lead vessel in a battle group which normally consists of many smaller vessels. The re-imagined series explicitly places the Galactica as one of two (or three) Battlestars within battle group 75. A Colonial Fleet and Colonial Marines exist; there are very few of the latter as Galactica only had a small contingent on board due to its impending decommissioning. Also, no marines appeared in the miniseries. Security duties were handled by what appeared to be fleet officers. A distinct marine corps did not start appearing until after the television series began running.

Officers in the Colonial Fleet are given ranks that are a fusion of those presently used in western armies and navies. Ronald D. Moore outlined the rank structure in a blog entry in February of 2005, stating that he wanted to keep the "co-mingled" ranks of the original series rather than reassign ranks based on real-world naval structure.

The Colonial Fleet commissioned officers are identified as:Admiral

• Vice Admiral
• Rear Admiral
• Commander
• Colonel
• Major
• Captain
• Lieutenant
• Junior Lieutenant
• Ensign

The ranks for enlisted crewmen are:Chief Petty Officer

• Petty Officer (first class)
• Petty Officer (second class)
• Specialist
• Deckhand
• Recruit

The Colonial Marines have a different rank structure for enlisted men: Private, Corporal, Sergeant, etc. Their officer rank structure, if indeed one exists, has not been shown and it is unknown whether any commissioned Marine officers survived or if indeed the Colonial Marines had an officer corps.(Marines on the show have only been led by Fleet officers such as Apollo, Starbuck, Tigh, Athena or Sergeant Hadrian).

The command and executive officers of the Galactica are a Commander and Colonel, respectively, and have been since before the destruction of the colonies. Dr. Cottle holds the rank of Major, as did Lee Adama prior to his promotion to Commander (this is later reversed). There are a few senior officers with the rank of Captain as well as several lieutenants. The second season introduced Admiral Helena Cain (played by Michelle Forbes), in command of the Battlestar Pegasus (mentioned by Admiral Adama as being specifically a Rear Admiral at one point).

Recurring Marine characters include Galactica's Master-at-arms, Sergeant Hadrian, played by Jill Teed. The character, however, is never explicitly identified as a Marine. Another recurring Marine character is Corporal Venner, played by Chris Shields. In addition to these Marines, numerous Privates and at least two Gunnery Sergeants are known to exist (one appeared in the season 2 episode "Sacrifice" and another appeared in the season 3 episode "Exodus Part 1").

In addition, at least two Marines have been seen with two vertical, white bars painted on the backs of their helmets, similar to the symbol used for a Captain by the US Military.

Colonial Marine Insignia:


Sources
http://starland.com/catalog/product_info.p...products_id=140
http://en.wikipedia.....2004_TV_series)

[Chris McKeown]

Thanks for the info ColonialMarine. very interesting, maybe we will see more of the Colonial Marines in upcoming eps to give a little more info about them.

[boomstick]

Doesnt the colonial marine symbol look a lot like the origional insignia for TOS Galactica?

[137th Gebirg]

I think the two vertical white bars painted on the marines' helmets are cats-eyes - reflective pieces of plastic that allow someone to be seen in minimal light conditions from the rear. I highly doubt the TOS Colonial blue squadron patch is used anywhere in the new series...unless someone puts up a screen cap to prove otherwise.

[137th Gebirg]

Additionally, there has been no on-screen reference to "Vice Admirals" in the Colonial Fleet. Nor was there any reference to "Rear Admirals" until formerly deleted footage from "Pegasus" was released in the new Season 2.5 boxed set. This is a chart I assembled of all the known rank devices.

Yes, it was recently shown that Ensigns appear to use the exact same device as LT Junior Grade. The conjectural Ensign design I propose is more of a conceit that I hold on to more than anything else. The MCPO device is based on a small picture for the new Quantum MechanX rank devices that are planned for release later in the year. Similar to Tyrol's CPO device, but with an apparent star burst motif instead of a chevron, similar to that used by Colonels, Commanders and Admirals.

I am hoping one day for a more clear and concise breakdown of the Marine ranks. Until that time, I'm settling for the Colonial Fleet for now:

[137th Gebirg]

I've also made a chart of all the special "dress grays" decorations seen on the show. I have no idea what any of them represent, sadly.

[Zipper]

I've also made a chart of all the special "dress grays" decorations seen on the show. I have no idea what any of them represent, sadly.

Very cool. Great work!

[ColonialMarine]

I've also made a chart of all the special "dress grays" decorations seen on the show. I have no idea what any of them represent, sadly.

Showoff !

[Zipper]

Showoff !

He does do great work!

[137th Gebirg]

Yeah...I try

Thanks all for the kind words...

[nexedzero]

I like the rank chart it looks awesome nice job

[cloudCAs]

surely the patch is from TOS Gold Sqn i think

[maneth]

Yeah, something very similar was certainly seen on TOS. The colors may be slightly different, but the pattern is the same.

[137th Gebirg]

Blue Squadron, actually, which is a derivative of the ancient Sri Yantra Mandala of India symbolizing universal harmony and balance.

There was also a little-seen Red Squadron patch:

(of which Starbuck was initially a member) in the pilot where the yellow was replaced by red, but it was only seen under Galactica's red alert lighting, so there was actually no visible difference and the patch was scrapped for the remainder of the series. At least, so the story goes...

And, for the "Second Coming" continuation trailer that was funded by Richard Hatch back in the 90's, they added a whole bunch of new squadrons to Galactica's armaments:


And there was also the "Ship of Lights" all-white variant, which I unfortunately don't have a pic of right now.

Yes, I have no life.

[cloudCAs]

Great stuff you guys realy know to do this

[airbornewarrior]

Fantastic posts again guys, thanks

[ensign edwards]

Yes, I have no life.

Join the club!

[jacki]

Very good everyone

[Captain Taurus]

Thanks for the posting of the ranks. But can you help explain why Lee Adama went from Major to Commander. What happened to colonel? Greatly appreciate the feedback.

[137th Gebirg]

After the Pegasus lost Cain and Fisk, Adama promoted Chief Engineer Garner to Commander. It was at that time that Apollo was promoted (briefly) by Adama to from Captain to Major as the Pegasus XO. You're right - he should have been promoted to Colonel to be a "true" XO, but perhaps that was a bigger jump than from Captain to Major. Don't know the thought process behind that. After Garner was killed while trying to save the ship, Apollo was promoted again at the end of the same episode to Commander, skipping Colonel. This is especially weird since, as we saw in "Razor", Cain had two Colonels under her. One was her XO who's head she blew off for refusing her orders, and the second one was Fisk. I guess she didn't like the thought of having a second flag officer like a Commander running around on her CIC, so she kept two pet Colonels around in case she needed to space one.