line officer

The term line officer (or "officer of the line") is used in the United States Armed Forces to describe a military officer who is trained to command a warship, ground combat unit, combat aviation unit, or combat support unit. Officers who are not line officers are those whose primary duties are in non-combat specialties including chaplains, lawyers, supply officers and medical officers. Line officers may also be assigned non-combat roles. Non-line officers are often assigned to tasks normally given to line officers. Also, non-line officers at the squadron or Group level (and higher) are also issued "G-Series" orders which gives them the same relative power of 'line officers' of equivilent rank. In operational circumstances line officers may hold positional authority over non-line officers of higher rank given the circumstance but is often ignored in modern wartime symbiotic military relationships.

History

The expression "officer of the line" is possibly rooted in the 18th- and 19th-century British naval practice of employing sail-powered warships in line formations to maximize the effectiveness of side-mounted cannons. The ships were called ships of the line and their officers were termed line officers. The term also derives from 'walking the line' and in many military circles is believed to have come from a "line in the sand" in which two groups of officers once used in a political argument to gain power.

United States forces

In the United States Navy, line officers are divided into unrestricted line officers and restricted line officers. Line officers wear an inverted gold star above their rank stripes on their dress blue uniforms and on their shoulder boards in whites. When wearing khakis, winter working blues or coveralls they wear their rank insignia on both collars. The navy refers to non-line officers as Staff Corps officers. Both line and Staff Corps officers may be assigned as "staff officers" serving on the staff of a senior officer. Staff Corps officers wear their corps insignia, rather than the line officer's star, placed over their sleeve/shoulder stripes and on their left collar.

In the United States Marine Corps, all officers including warrant officers and limited duty officers (LDOs) are line officers, trained to command combat units. Unlike the Navy the Marine Corps does not have Staff Corps, consequently all Marine Engineer, Supply, and Judge Advocate Division "JAG" officers are line officers. Additionally, the Marine Corps does not have its own Chaplain, Medical, Dental, Nurse, or Medical Service Corps, instead being served by those of the Navy.

All officers of the United States Coast Guard are considered line officers and wear the Coast Guard shield in lieu of the inverted star.

Other forces

The expression "line officer" is no longer current in the Royal Navy and commonwealth affiliates, although officers holding positions in the executive chain of command are usually distinguished with the "executive curl" - a loop over the upper rank bar, which was replaced^[when?] in U.S. Navy practice with a star. In the Canadian Navy, officers in the Maritime Surface/Sub-Surface (MARS) trade hold a similar function, but are not distinguished by any identifiable badge.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Staff officer