On 31Jul2020 2222, Phil Pugliese - philpugliese at yahoo.com (via tml
list) wrote:
> There might be relation ship to the rank of the commanding officer
> aboard USN ships.
>
> During WWII, a LtCmdr would command subs & escorts, while a Cmdr would
> command destroyers & a Capt the rest.
> Hence LtCmdr was a 'commander'.
>
> Since then, I believe that the minimum ranks have been raised (Tom
> Rux?) as I believe that for attack subs it's now a Cmdr while the
> 'boomers' have a Capt.
>
That's fairly normal in peacetime, because everyone wants a sea command,
and there are only so many ships. Add in a tendency of peacetime
militaries to become top heavy, and you get a sort of 'rank inflation'
for command appointments.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Well, yes & no.
During the '20's & '30's the USN pretty much maintained the same command structure as WWII despite the much reduced force levels.
IMO, the big change came with the drastic draw-downs that have happened several times since the end of WWII.
Esp in the post-VietNam era, when all the left-over ships from WWII were finally retired &, pretty much, not replaced.
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