Gregory Quinn wearing one star admiral braid.
One star admiral (or rear admiral lower half) is a rank of flag officer in naval services and space forces, such as Starfleet. (ST reference: The Star Trek Encyclopedia, STO video game: Star Trek Online)
Specifics[]
Admiral James T. Kirk in 2270.
One star admiral is the most basic flag officer rank, a grade higher than a captain and a grade below rear admiral and other admiral grades in most rank structures, although some organizations will use the approximately equivalent rank of commodore, which is also used as a title for lower ranking commanders who are nominally in charge of others of the same rank. The one star rank is roughly equivalent with the authority of a brigadier of military forces. The Romulan Star Empire has two ranks, senior centurion (enarrain in the Romulan language) and commander general (khre'riov), that are analogous to a one star admiral's standing. In the Cardassian language, jagul is a Cardassian flag officer rank title which, in translation to Federation Standard, is approximately equivalent to a one star admiral.
In military parlance, it is acceptable and normal to refer to a one star admiral simply as "admiral" in most forms of address.
Starfleet one star admirals[]
In the Starfleet uniform insignia used in the mid-23rd century, a one star admiral wore the same service uniform rank insignia as a commodore, a thick sleeve stripe of gold with two gold braids on the edges. Admirals Kirk and Balzay wore this insignia in the year 2270. (TOS - Star-Crossed comic: "A Bright Particular Star")
- It is likely that in other uniform designs a rear admiral lower half would also wear an insignia similar or identical to a commodore's, just as the 2260s uniforms were shown to do.
In the uniform insignia introduced in the mid-24th century, a one star admiral wore a triangular rank braid (with no additional pips) as their service rank insignia. (TNG episodes: "Too Short a Season", "Coming of Age", "Conspiracy")
- The correlation between this lowest admiral rank and the uniform insignia that first appeared in "Too Short a Season" is because other admirals in "Conspiracy" were shown wearing higher rank insignia, and the single braid insignia was the most basic one shown.
Another 2350s jacket insignia had a rectangular gold border around a single pip. (VOY episode: "Coda")
- The appearance of Edward Janeway's vice admiral insignia in "Coda" gives us the inference that the rectangular border insignia was used as early as the 2350s, although this information could be illusory in nature—Janeway's appearance was shown from the point-of-view of Kathryn Janeway's hallucination, and showed a uniform that could have been interpreted as being a few years too modern for the 2350s.
A style of uniform worn around 2365 had admiral insignia placed vertically on a division color collar. This style of uniform fell out of use, but was known to be used concurrently with other types introduced with the uniform changes of the next few years. (TNG episodes: "The Measure of a Man", "The Emissary", "The Noise of Justice")
- The admiral uniform introduced in "The Measure of a Man" had only two canon appearances, but was used into 2366 in a series of comics stories, that took place after canon episodes introduced the newer style in TNG season 3.
In a redesign of the admiral's service uniforms of 2365 and 2366, the insignia of one gold pip enclosed in a square or rectangular gold border was used as the insignia for one star admirals, showing the origin of the "one star" name. This insignia continued into later uniform designs of the 2370s. (ST reference: The Star Trek Encyclopedia, NF comic: "Turnaround, Part I")
- The Star Trek Encyclopedia shows the insignia in a square-shaped pin, while the New Frontier comic appearances depicts a rectangular pin. It is possible the insignia changed over the years between the 2360s and the 2370s when those references took place, respectively.
One star admiral insignia[]
| Starfleet one star admiral insignia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| era | general wear | command division | operations division | sciences division | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| command | tactical/military | flight-engineering (admin, pilot, engineer) |
security | special services | sci-ops (ops, sci & tac ops) |
medical | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Federation Starfleet ranks (2160s) (insignia for all flag grades) |
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| Federation Starfleet ranks (2250s) (insignia for all flag grades) |
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| Federation Starfleet ranks (2270s-2350s) |  |
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| Federation Starfleet ranks (2373-2386) |  |
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| Federation Starfleet ranks (2386-2410) |  |
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Alternate one star admiral insignia[]
| Starfleet alternate one star admiral insignia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| era | command division | operations division | sciences division | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Federation Starfleet ranks (2250s) alt | 
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| Federation Starfleet ranks (2386-2410) alt |  |
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Positions and lists[]
Federation Starfleet[]
- Mark Jameson (prior to 2364)
- Edward Jellico (2370)
- Balzay (c. 2270)
- James T. Kirk (2270)
- Gregory Quinn (prior to 2364)
- Elizabeth Shelby (2379)
Appendices[]
Connections[]
| Enlisted ranks | Commissioned ranks | Flag ranks | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Earth SF | CREW | PO2
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CPO
|
ENS | LT | CMDR | CAPT
|
CDORE | RADM / 2ADM | VADM / 3ADM | 4ADM | FADM / 5ADM
| ||||
| Starfleet & SFMC | ENS JG
|
LT JG | LT | LT CMDR | CDR | CDORE
1ADM | ||||||||||
| PVT | CPL | SGT
|
SUBLT
2ND LT |
1ST LT | CAPT | MAJOR | LT COL | COL | BRIG | GEN | ||||||
Background[]
US insignia.
The United States rank scheme that Starfleet was adapted from is also the origination of the insignia, background information, and alternate name for this rank. In the United States armed forces, rear admirals lower half of the US Navy wear a pin insignia of one star on their uniforms and hold an officer grade equivalent to a brigadier or commodore of other services. This rank was never referred to as "rear admiral lower half" in any Star Trek publications until Star Trek Online used the 'lower half' terminology. In fact, the only other time it was named was in The Star Trek Encyclopedia, where the "one star" reference originates. The rank equivalency discussed here is also related to the US rank, as the one star admiral rank was enacted when the US Navy discontinued use of commodore as a rank, but has this title as equivalent to commodores of other countries that still use the rank.