Question about Rear Admiral, lower half

"Jake Donovan" wrote in message
news:tVJdb.22376$AH4.14139@lakeread06...

SNIP SNIP SNIP SNIP!
PS - But for the life of me, I could never understand the AF / Army Lt Gen
out ranking a Major Gen. LOL ( and before someone tries to explain it to
me, I KNOW that a Lt Gen is 3 stars and a Major Gen is 2 stars. As it is
the
same in the Marines)

Many, many years ago I heard an explanation for this. As best I recall they
said Lt Gen was a rank in the regular army. The mounted (calvary) army
decided to be different and call their general of the same pay grade a
MajGen. Of course it wasn't long before they were trying to convince
everyone that MajGen out ranked Lt.Gen. The regular army didn't buy it.

Your fables may vary.

Red

"Red" wrote in message
. ..

Many, many years ago I heard an explanation for this. As best I recall
they
said Lt Gen was a rank in the regular army. The mounted (calvary) army
decided to be different and call their general of the same pay grade a
MajGen. Of course it wasn't long before they were trying to convince
everyone that MajGen out ranked Lt.Gen. The regular army didn't buy it.

Your fables may vary.


It's simpler than that. Originally (17th century) it was "Captain General,"
"Lieutenant General," and "Sergeant Major General." That's "general" as in
above all others, like Attorney General or Postmaster General. Over the
years the "captain" and "sergeant" were dropped, and "general" went from an
adjective to a noun.

--Justin