SOCL

Yeah! And JediIgor's a cool guy, he needs to let me have my own insignia!

It's not just an Irish holiday (or so it seems), but it's much more: It's a day when Americans who have never been to Ireland, much less Europe or any other nation celebrate their "Irish heritage" (most of which is 10 or 20 generations back and survives in maybe 5% of their blood) by drinking too much, getting into drunken car accidents, getting into bar brawls, and then turn around and blame the Irish. Happy early birthday, kaja! Well, according to Rome: Total War, once I have an empire the size of Caesasr's I can roll over any faction..err.. nation.. in under 10 years . Heh, heh, heh. Yes, and every time I play Axis & Allies as the Axis, I somehow win at this world domination business. Yeah, let's not talk about that...it seems that days are confused inside that piece of misfiring organ I call my brain. Apparently I thought yesterday (16 March) was the 15th and, thus, the Ides of March, and--for some other strange reason--I also thought it was St. Patrick's Day... As it turns out, I was incorrect on both counts and got the skin pinched off me today for wearing nothing green.

WOOt! I like it! It is not crap, Jahled no worries!* *Note: Others may not agree and may want changes made.

I didn't mean to say that there aren't any deviations from what I wrote, but the etiquet in the USA's Navy is pretty strict, traditional, and conservative. All-in-all, I can tell you for a fact, a royal pain in the ass! As a matter of fact, so is just about any other branch in the USA's Armed Forces (except, for the most part, the Coast Guard). It normally seems that many officers in the USA believe they are going to have their toes stepped on by a lower ranking officer or a higher ranking officer, so they keep their ranks, positions, and verbal address VERY guarded! Actually, it can get so bad that some officers press charges through the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) when a lower ranking person addresses them incorrectly (pretty bad, huh?). I think the best example, of course, is the fact that the Navy whined and whined when the Army created the rank of Brigaider General because they wanted another admiral rank (hence the halves of a Rear Admiral...and even that has some officers ticked!)! Not all persons are like this, but many are. I think it would be, 1)Useful and 2)More up-to-date than the commentaries by Dr. Saxton. It would also be open to more debate, something that is difficult for Dr. Saxton due to his personal responsibilties and the difficulty of contacting him. Also, I think with such an active community as this site, it would be easier to keep it present and full of fresh, new ideas (for instance, you tier idea!). By the way, when Scathane gets back, we'll talk about your rank/position within the BEAK Imperium.

Positions for Lieutenants and Lieutenants, Junior Grade in the USA's Navy alone are far too many to account for! I'm not kidding! I can assure you, if there aren't enough Lieutenants and Lieutenants, Junior Grade in an Earth-based Navy, there can never be enough Lieutenants and Sub-Lieutenants in the Imperial Navy! Trust me, I know this (the USA Navy point) for a fact! Yes, this is generally accepted. Of course, though, when in the presence officers of higher rank of other ships captains (of higher rank), this does not apply. For instance, if a Lieutenant Commander commanding a vessel has an officer of higher rank on board, that particular Lieutenant Commander would not be addressed as "captain" but as "commander". If a Lieutenant Commander and a Commander are together, they are referred to by their exact rank (this happens all the time during Changes of Command in both the Army and the Navy of the USA's Armed Forces...you'll have a Lieutenant Colonel taking command of a battalion from another Lieutenant Colonel with the brigade commander, a Colonel, watching over-watching: the Lieutenant Colonels are addressed by "lieutenant colonel" and the Colonel is addressed by "colonel"); this also happens all the time. Additionally, when officers of the admiralty (I hesitate to use the term 'flag officer' even if it is correct simply because a 'flag officer' can be either a person of admiral/general status or an officer in command of a group of warships...hence, a Line Captain is the 'flag officer' of a line of warships and commands from his 'flagship' despite not being an officer of admiralty) are together and are of varying levels, all are referred to and addressed by their exact rank ("vice admiral", "fleet admiral", "rear admiral", etc.). Actually, as soon as I get Scathane back here, I'm going to try and team with him to see if this site will host a Technical Commentary page similiar to Dr. Saxton's (hosted like how Antilliles has his '60 Standard Minutes').

It's always interesting to learn new things, since I'm not too aquainted with the history of the British Isles. His record would have either been grander or destroyed had he lived past the Ides since he had been planning a campaign against the proven Parthian military. Actually, it would be interesting to know how such a protracted campaign commanded by a many Caesar would have turned out...

That's also my take. Though it would be interesting to see more movies and despite all the joking I've done about waiting until Lucas dies to see VII-IX, I am sad to say doubt it will actually happen.

_Thrawn, you might want to talk to some of the GIF masters like Trej, LaForge, Jahled, and Scath. And thanks for taking it down! I'm sure the less-than-quick-Internet community appreciates it!

I see; adding to that, it should also be made clear that many of the ranks may not have an Earth equal as the ranks for the Galactic Empire are for a galaxy-wide military and, therefore, one is required to have many different levels of command and bureaucracy (sp?) to keep control (hence Tarkin's talk about regional governors keeping control of the galaxy without the Senate). I'm not too well aquainted with this particular system, but I can see how it would be useful in the Galactic Empire. Also, given the fact that the Imperial rank insignia presented in Aesthetic 1 are not all used, yet this is the most standardized system, it's quite possible some ranks have tiers. It doesn't seem it would be as organized as the British system, but similar in idea (similar in idea, different in function). Consider the Aesthetics Table (specifically Aesthetic 1) and the Rank Table (as well as the paragraph above it). Now please note (using coordinates for the Rank Table), rank [2,3] and [2,4] are lower levels of Sub-Lieutenant, [3,4] is a lower level of Lieutenant Commander, [4,3] is a lower level of Commodore, [5,4] is a lower level of Vice Admiral, [5,2] is a lower level of Admiral, [6,4] is a lower level of Fleet Admiral, and [6,2] is a lower level of High Admiral. I have chosen to exclude the ranks of branches other than the Imperial Navy for this dicussion's purposes (though the basics of this discussion apply to those ranks of Army and Fighter), as well as excluded [1,4] and [1,3], dismissing those as cadet/training ranks, and [7,3], dismissing that as too high a rank for practical military purposes (since its amdist ranks that the Emperor must appoint and not achievable simply based on record and merits like those ranks from Ensign to High Admiral). Given the above information (and I'll refer back to it), notice that ranks with "extra levels" are very commonly used ranks in the military, officers who could function in a variety of different positions and jobs. The situation is that not all these ranks are used at once, hence why this page only shows certain insignia. Using _Thrawn's idea of the tier system, one can explain why there exists intermediate ranks (not used in Earth forces) such as Line Captain. Odds are that as the military expanded, so did the demand for intermediate-ranking officers for intermediate positions. Again, I fall back on the rank of Line Captain, a rank that was probably spawned as it became evident that a specific ranking officer was needed in order to fill the position of a commanding officer for a line of warships. They probably had problems where Captains were commanding (hold the flag of) lines, but the captains aboard the warships within the line might have started to protest the idea of being commanded by a person of the same rank. A Commodore, though, would not be the solution since it would have been a type of insult to make a Commodore the commanding officer of a position lower than the rank diserves. Therefore, a lower tier of Commodore [4,4] was filled with the rank of Line Captain. Make sense? Basically, what I'm trying to say is that there was a basic ranking structure to start with (probably similiar to Earth's militaries), but as the military grew and grew to become a galaxy-wide force, the need for more officers became apparent. Therefore ranks are created to fill these rolls that begin to arise, giving rise to a tier system similiar to that of the British Navy (only that all the tiers are not at all times filled, nor do they need to be, and, if and when they are filled by a rank, the tier/level is assigned a new rank (i.e. Line Captain), with insignia ready to be thrown in. To explain why the levels exist, imagine that each level is a successive major military position for a given rank. For instance, [4,4] was the level for an officer commanding a line [4,3] is a higher position, and [4,2] is the position of a squadron commander (i.e. a Commodore). It's also quite possible that the rank of Commodore didn't exist until it became apparent that there was a need for a rank between Rear Admiral and Captain (which may explain some of the confusion behind whether to call someone a "commodore" or an "admiral"; the same for calling a Line Captain "line captain" or simply "captain"). Does that make sense? My thoughts might be a little scattered, but I very much like _Thrawn's proposal about a tiered system, I just felt it needed a little modifying to fit in with Star Wars. Hey, _Thrawn, maybe we should write an SWR.Com version of the Technical Commentaries? The BEAK Commentaries, perhaps? By the way, pending approval by Founder and CEO of the BEAK Imperium (i.e. Scathane), I today induct Grand_Admiral_Thrawn into the ranks of the BEAK Imperium.

Right, what I mean is the Jedi describes anyone who is intune with the Force, Sith is simply a little more specific of a lifestyle (i.e. one who is intune with the Dark Side of the Force).

Dude, _Thrawn, I like the animated GIF in your signature and all, but it's driving my machine nuts, making any page you have posted in (much less posted numerous times) nearly impossible to load! Is there any chance you could down-size it or something for those of us who lack a good Internet connection?

I like it, though!

Huh? I must have missed what you're talking about. You, jeez, I'm an idiot! I posted this today and meant to do it yesterday! And, in reality, I did confuse the fact that today is not Ides of March by St. Patrick's Day...though it was intentional for me to have the joke about people where green and pinching those who don't....

I saw the macaw! Disturbing...

Pink Floyd - Time

So, can we say that being a Jedi is simply equated to being able to use the Force, whereas being Sith is a certain lifestlye concerning the use of the Force?

As you should! Right, right, I forgot to mention that, but yes, all Moff positions are appointed by the Emperor himself, yet their powers are still rivaled by that of the military's Grand Admirals. It actually is pretty valid speculation considering the size of the fleet at the Battle of Endor. Addtionally, just because he is aboard the commandship does not mean he his necessarily the fleet's flag officer. Another, equal or higher-ranking officer could have easily been called to the battle and decided to remain aboard a regular Star Destroyer (this seems likely since people like Pellaeon and other officers in the post-Endor Empire despised huge superweapons and huge superships, and preferred the idea of many small warships). If another Fleet Admiral came to the engagment, for instance, Piett could either be told he is the fleet's flag or he could be made a High Admiral. If a High Admiral came to the participate in the engagement, Piett--if the Emperor wanted him to remain in command--would have had to have been made High Admiral and designated flag at least for the duration of the battle. Again, though, it was merely speculation about Piett possibly being a High Admiral at Endor...speculation made before Star Wars Insider Magazine decided that Grand Admirals should have been present at the battle (and aboard the Death Star II of all places!). Actually, I don't like thinking of that particular point since it really makes the Grand Admirals look bad, being unable to control a the Imperial fleet against a band of Rebels and all (but then again, The Good Guys Must Win law applies to Endor...this has alos been discussed NUMEROUS times and it even had a thread dedicated to it some time back...no need to start that up again). But then again, the particular Grand Admiral I'm thinking of was more loyal to the Emperor (because of his Force-sensitivity) than to the Fleet, so it seems to make sense for him to not help the fleet fighting while his master is being chucked down a canyon. Wait, wha'? Could you say it again, only slower(?), you confused me.

I know they use it in local high schools to make sure kids don't think independantly of what the Pentagon and the White House tells them.

Quite true. That's already been happening since the NJO became popular in the early part of this decade. Still, though, the shelves at my local Borders Books and the not-so-local Barnes and Nobels are always full of ye olde Bantam novels (especially the Thrawn trilogy). I hadn't stopped to realize that.... Yes, that's if I would ever consider selling them...which I wouldn't.

I hadn't considered it that way before, but very well said! I may have a found a BEAKy protege....

He's very elusive... See what I mean!!!

By what I read, it sounds as though as your civilization/creatures evolve, so does the game's graphics...correct?

Today, a little over two thousand years ago, in the year 44 Before Common Era (BCE), a man by the name of Gaius Julius Caesar (also spelled: Caius Iulius Caesar) died while addressing the imperial Senate of Rome. He was stabbed to death by conspirators led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Marcus Licinius Crassus, both senators and men who claimed to be Caesar's freinds, who felt that what they were doing was the only way to prevent despots like Marius (Gaius Marius) and Sulla (Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix) from rising-up and taking the dictatorship as an office for life--they believed that by killing Caesar, they would end rule by what was basically a king. In the end, though, this assassination would result in a civil war that would find the conspirators--or Liberators, as they called themselves--dead and Caesar's adopted son, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, as victor, eventually coming to be known as "Imperator Caesar" and "Augustus", the first emperor of the Roman Empire. Today, my friends, is the Ides of March. In commemoration of that day so many years ago, I declare that today everyone wear green and pinch anyone who is not!

Holy shit! Dude, how long ago was this? Back in the 90's at some dark point. As I think Teukros tried to convey, words brake down into meaninglessness when you try and express that moment of devestation when you realize your records are gone.... What hurt most was the time, effort, and energy it took me to get those records, and the realization there was no way I was going to be able to replace them in anything short of the other side of five years. CD has enabled me to get most of what I lost back, though in most cases on Japanese import, which costs muchos money. One thing I will say about vinal though, is that my experiances of trying to DJ with CDs has been an absolute nightmere. oh... Rush-Bastille day Well no worries, my friend, remember those tapes you sent me? They're still blasting away with all the greatness with which they arrived! You DJing days aren't quite over! Guns 'N Roses - Mr. Brownstone

I seem to similiarly be lacking enough alcohol my system to understand Jahled...actually, I think the only time I understood him was way back in during traffic cone incident ("What's that officer?! I can't hear you!").