Earthforce Ranks & Insignias

Earthforce's rank and insignia draws from a number of predecessor militaries in several member states from across the Earth Alliance, without being directly based on any single one in particular. They in fact combine the structures from traditionally separate services - army, navy, and air force - into a single cohesive command structure.

Overview

Earth Alliance Badge

The Earthforce uniforms are color coded according to branch: Teal for fleet, grey for security, and brown for marines. Officers are allowed to transfer between those divisions; Richard Franklin was a general in the Earthforce Marine Corps at the time of Operation Sudden Death, but earlier in his career he was the first officer on board the EAS Ares.

The rank insignia is usually displayed on the shoulder epaulets, with the exception of non-comm EF Marine Corps BDUs on which the rank insignia is displayed on the upper sleeve. Stat bars are worn by Earthforce officers and enlisted on the left breast, directly underneath the stylised Earth Alliance Badge and denote the wearer's branch of the service. Flag officers wear an irregular star over their stat bar; also, while most Generals are by definition in command positions, not all of them wear the gold command bar.

The division badge is worn on the upper left shoulder and denotes the wearer's speciality. The exception being the Marine Command patch which is worn on both shoulders of an officer in Marine BDUs. Pilots wear their division patch on the right breast, as the left shoulder is reserved for their squadron patch. The flight wings patch is worn on the upper right shoulder of the standard duty uniform, or incorporated into the upper left breast name patch on the flight suit. The patch itself denotes that an officer is a qualified pilot and the extent of their qualification.

Commissioned Officer Ranks and Insignia

Rank	Description	Insignia
Joint Chief of Staff	Part of a group comprising the Chiefs of service of each major branch of Earthforce.
Admiral	High ranking career military officers, of equal standing to Generals. Admirals serve as commanders of large strategic fleets and are not often seen by front line personnel.
General	High ranking career military officers, of equal standing to Admirals. Generals serve as commanders of tactical fleets or infantry divisions.
Vice Admiral	High ranking career military officers, of equal standing to Lieutenant Generals. Sometimes found in command of Earthforce destroyers with a Commander serving as XO.
Lieutenant General	High ranking career military officers, usually serving as a General's second in command.
Colonel	High ranking career military officers, usually in command of bases or military installations.
Lieutenant Colonel	High ranking career military officers.
Captain	Career military officers, usually in command of single capital ships, bases or military installations.
Commander	Career military officers, usually Executive Officers on single capital ships, or in command of small bases, military installations or EA colony governors.
Lieutenant Commander	Career military officers, usually Executive Officers on single capital ships, small bases or military installations.
Major	Career military officers, usually in support roles or as adjutants to higher-ranking officers, usually Generals.
Lieutenant	Junior officers, usually in support roles, as seconds to mid-level or Executive Officers, or as senior pilots/squadron leaders.
Lieutenant Junior Grade	Junior officers, usually in support roles or as seconds to mid-level or Executive Officers.
Ensign	Junior officers, usually in support roles or bridge officers on Starships. Sometimes leading a Marine squad or EVA team.

Non-Commissioned Ranks and Insignia

Rank	Description	Insignia
Chief Warrant Officer	Non-commissioned rank that has all the authority and responsibilities of a commissioned officer, but restricted to a single speciality or discipline. Warrant officers are placed in authority over enlisted personnel, but answerable to senior officers.
Sergeant Major	Senior Non-commissioned rank most often held by Marines.
Sergeant	Non-commissioned rank held by both Marines and non-military peace officers in Earthforce Security.
Private First Class	Non-commissioned rank most often held by Marines.	No Insignia
Private	Low non-commissioned rank most often held by Marines.	No Insignia

Other Insignia

Stat Bars

Flag Officer	Commanding Officer	Executive Officer	Executive Officer (Telepath - Circa 2267)
Command Staff	Medical	Science	Security

Flight Wings

Master Pilot	Senior Pilot	Junior Pilot	Pilot

Division Badges

Command Division	Command Division (Marine BDUs)	Security Division	Presidential Security Division
EF Internal Affairs Division	Medical Division	Engineering and Maintenance Division	Earth Central Division (Security & NCO)
Mars Command (Security & NCO)	Earthforce Command (Starfury Pilots)	Earth Forces Off World (Starfury Pilots)	Babylon 5 Strategic Forces (Starfury Pilots, 2260 onwards)

Earthforce Science team (Pilots)

Notes

• This article includes only those ranks seen or mentioned on the show or from other canon sources, as such there are some gaps where other ranks might logically be.
• Some ranks, such as CWO and LtJG, do not appear to have any specific insignia at all, while some ranks have seemingly identical insignia to one another. For example, there does not appear to be any noticeable difference between the insignia for LtCmd and Lt. While the addition of a stat bar can help identify an officer's status, it is not directly linked to rank.
• Though no characters with the rank of Admiral were ever named or depicted, the existence of the rank was mentioned twice, in "And the Sky Full of Stars" and "Points of Departure." In addition, though the footage has never been released, Wayne Alexander portrayed Admiral Hudgins in the cancelled video game Into the Fire. Interestingly, his insignia appears to been identical to a that of a JCoS.
• It is unclear exactly where the rank of Major fits into the Earthforce structure, as no character is ever seen being promoted directly to or from that rank. In regular US/British services, the rank of Major is equivalent to that of Lieutenant Commander with the difference being that Major is a ground service officer and Lieutenant Commander a naval officer. Likewise, Lieutenant Colonel is the equivalent of Commander and Colonel is the equivalent of Captain. Examples of Majors in Babylon 5 are:
  • In "Survivors", Major Lianna Kemmer is clearly a junior officer who cannot possibly be old enough to outrank a Captain. Kemmer is unable to give Susan Ivanova orders in that episode as they are equivalent ranks.
  • Major Lewis Krantz in "Babylon Squared" is obviously subordinate to Commander Jeffrey Sinclair, since Krantz salutes Sinclair and takes orders from him.
  • Major Atumbe ("Eyes") is said to be next in line for command of Babylon 5 after Lieutenant Commander Ivanova. Although it is entirely possible for officers holding equivalent rank to hold positions based on seniority in that rank. It can therefore be presumed that Ivanova was promoted to Lieutenant Commander before Atumbe was promoted to Major.
  • The only scene that would contradict this is in the unaired Crusade episode "The End of the Line," in which Captain Matthew Gideon takes orders from a Major. However since this episode was never filmed or aired, its canonicity is debatable; also, Major Lee might have had extenuating circumstances which would allow him to give orders to a superior officer, since the episode takes place in a secret base where Lee is the commanding officer.

Behind the Scenes

Commander rank insignia from "The Gathering".

Prior to Babylon 5 entering full production, a very different set of EF rank insignia and significantly different uniform was used in the feature length pilot, "The Gathering". Rather than being an alternate set that fell out of use and superseded by the more familiar insignias used throughout the series, later productions that included flashbacks to events prior to 2257 showing second set of insignias and uniforms in use as early as the Earth-Minbari War, effectively retconned the originals out of continuity.

What appears to be at least one iteration of an original defunct scheme was described in the Babylon 5 Security Manual, though the descriptions do not exactly match what was seen in "The Gathering", further confusing matters. Curiously, it lists two separate insignias for Captains in what an appears to be a delineation between fleet and marine ranks, while few insignias (JCoS, Colonel & Major) appear to have been retained in the "new" scheme:

B5 Security Manual Ranks

Rank	Insignia Description
General (Joint Chiefs)	Five "stars" in a circle
General	Polygon, one bronze bar, two stylised stars
Colonel	Silver bird
Major	Three diamond shapes
Captain	Two diamond shapes
Lieutenant	One diamond shape
Chief Warrant Officer	One diamond shape with oblique black stripe areas
Admiral	Polygon and three bronze stars
Captain	Polygon and two bronze stars
Commander	Polygon and one bronze star
Lt. Commander	Polygon and one silver bar
Ensign	Bronze star

Another curiosity appears in the memos printed in the first volume of the Babylon 5 Scripts. It appears as if the stat bars were at one early stage conceived as being specific indicators of rank and also indicates some ranks that were never used: -

Over the lest breast of a uniform (pocket or otherwise) is a thin horizontal metal bar -- say, 3" to 4" inches long, about 1/4" to 1/3rd" wide -- color-coded to specific ranks. (the color would be an enamel overlay.) For some hyphenated ranks, two colors, evenly divided on the bar, would be displayed.

Major-General: Gold and Red
Commander: Gold
Lt. Commander: Gold and Silver
Captain: Silver
Corporal: Blue
Sergeant: Green
All other NCOs: Brown
– Babylon 5 Scripts: Volume 1

Gallery

Earthforce Command Stat bar and Earth Alliance insignia

Epaulette insignia of a Captain

Epaulette insignia of an Earthforce Commander

Epaulette insignia of an Earthforce Lieutenant Commander

Unidentified Rank Insignias

1 star and 1 bar (General Lefcourt prior to Earth-Minbari War "In the Beginning")

2 stars and 2 bars (General Richard Franklin in "GROPOS")

3 stars and one bar (General Fontaine during Earth-Minbari War "In the Beginning")

4 stars and no bars (General Lefcourt in "Endgame")

Major (2nd version)

Colonel (eagle and one bar)

Warrant Officer (The Gathering)

See also

• List of Earthforce Personnel by Rank
• List of Titles and Military Ranks