Luke's rank?

What exactly was Luke Skywalker's official rank within the rebellion between ROTJ and TESB?

 

Well, during TESB Luke is the Captain of Rogue Squadron in the rebellion. But I don't really know is official rank after training to be a Jedi.

 

I believe Luke's rank is officially Commander during that time (actually post-ESB -> ROTJ).

 

He was promoted to General Skywalker during the fight with Lord Shadowspawn, but resigned his comission soon after.

 

I'm not entirely sure. Clearly immediately after ESB he's still a commander. I'm not 100% about this but I thought he resigned to pursue his Jedi studies at some stage between ESB and RotJ thus explaining why he's never addressed by a rank in RotJ. Incidentally straight after RotJ IIRC he's commissioned again to the rank of General and commands the Rebel force in 'Truce at Bakura'. Hope that helps.

P.S. If anyone wants to confirm or contradict me on that go right ahead as I'm not totally sure.

 

Essential Guide to Characters, page 71:

5-5.5 A.B.Y

Page 72:

 

its on wookiepedia too.

 

I had no idea he was still on the active roster so long before resigning his commission! That's a bit of a gap in my reading I suppose, but then there's no novels apart from Truce at Bakura in that gap after RotJ just comics and short stories really and I'm definitely not a comic fan. Cheers for that though I honestly had no idea!

 

IIRC, he's referenced as a Commander in Truce at Bakura.

 

No problem. Not sure where it's from, myself. But it's there.

General Skywalker... has a nice ring to it, actually. But I think he made the right decsision resigning.

 

Luke rises through the ranks in the non-movie material; he's presumably something like a Lieutenant at the start, and is referenced in one of the RPG guides as "Captain Skywalker" when he asks Airen Cracken how to escape from the magnetically-sealed door of a trash compactor; I think he's promoted to "Lieutenant Commander" somewhere in the Vrad Dodonna story, and by the time of ESB, he's "Commander". He holds this rank - or at least title - subsequently until his promotion to General, already referenced.

This list of ranks is confusing, yes - but it's more or less canon for a lot of Rebel forces. I think I have a couple more notes on things somewhere, too...

- The Imperial Ewok

 

He also commands Rogue Squadron in Shadows of the Empire.

 

The Empire Strikes Back (radio drama) shows his promotion to Commander from (if I remember right) Captain, after Narra bites it at Derra IV.

 

Captain before Commander?

 

IIRC, Commander is a higher rank than Xaptain in the GFFA.

 

Actualy we do know Luke and Han's ranks, but what service were they in?

Luke is supposed to be a fighter pilot, but the comics constantly send him in ground combat, boarding or secert agent type missions.

Han, I have no idea. Specail forces maybe? Leia said he's a natural leader, maybe its the officer core? Or since the MF is a freighter, I wonder if he works in the supply corp.

 

The radio drama actually does not say what rank Luke was prior to his promotion. It is actually vague as to whether he was promoted to the rank of Commander or simply made commander of Rogue Squadron.

QM: Do not think too hard about the rank system of the rebels-- you will just give yourself a headache.

Ace: Luke is definitely a member of the Starfighter Corps, which I think is a part of the navy. Han is Special Forces, which I think is part of the army but might not be, since rebels seemed to refer to all of their infantry as SpecOps. Of course, he goes on to captain capships, so go figure.

Bottom line is the rebels and even NR were pretty loose about command structure.



Incidentally, my keyboard randomly decided that apostrophes are not cool, hence the awkward phrasing.

 

Commander is definatly higher than Captain, at least when it comes to fighter pilots. Wedge was Captain Antilles in the XWRS comics, and then became Commander in the books.

 

The TESB radio drama refers to him as Lieutenant Commander just before they all hear about Commander Narra's death, after which Rieekan promotes Luke to Commander.

Incidentally, in the old newspaper strips (Classic Star Wars) Dodonna promotes Luke to Commander as they are about to evacuate Yavin IV. But that has since been retconned (officially or otherwise) into him being promoted to Lt. Commander, as to keep in step with the radio drama.

 

You mean ESB to ROTJ? He's a commander since shortly after Yavin.

A year after Endor, he was general, a grievious decision he resigned.

 

Commander in the ranks of Alliance/NR Starfighter Command seems to be the equivalent of Colonel in the Army or Captain in the Navy (which, of course, is totally screwy, but they seem to be making up titles as they go along).

 

Pardon the pudding, but if comparisons are going to be made I ought to point out as my foreigner's duty it's really American armed forces. The naval ranks are written by them, and there's no Rodian or reason why it'd be UK or Aust. What? It's true!

 

The Alliance High Command - according to the WEG Rebel Alliance Sourcebook - divides into a number of distinct "commands", each with a Supreme Commander:

• Fleet (Ackbar - capital ships)
• Intell (Cracken - all Intelligence resources)
• Starfighter Command (Dodonna - starfighters)
• SpecForces (Madine: ground troops, normally used as commandos or marines)


• Ordnance and Supply (logistics for front-line forces)
• Support (non-front-line stuff like safeworlds, freighters and medical frigates)
• Sector Command (the quasi-autonomous militaries of member states)

The Rogues obviously belong to Starfighter Command... but I think it's said somewhere that they're assigned under the disposal of the High Command itself - which makes sense inasmuch as their unit history goes back to the fighter wing of the Independence (Ackbar's ship, Mon Mothma's base, where the High Command basically works from) via the subsequent surface HQs at Yavin and Hoth...

Star Wars ranks do sometimes get totally screwy, yes... but while there's been a drive to use modern US ranks in some recent stuff, the older stuff can make some sense, sometimes...

With Rebel fighter pilots, Commander-above-Captain-above-Lieutenant goes back to the Marvel comics, at least (after ESB, Luke is a Commander, Shira Brie a Lieutenant promoted toCa[yaom under him)... but the Commander ranks are complicated:

As well as "Lieutenant-Commander" and "Commander", there are also references to "Flight Commander", and perhaps "Wing Commander", and "Commander" can also be a (generic?) form of address for Generals. We also get Majors and Colonels, at least by the time of Yavin, with some Commanders like Wedge still in amongst them: Corran remains a Commander as of the HoT2 books, if not the early NJO. The Imperial Starfighter/Stormtrooper/Army system (like that of the Napoleonic French army) goes Lieutenant - Captain, Commander, Major, Colonel - and may be used by the NR as well, and may be implied for some troops at an earlier date by the WEG/SWTJ interpretation of Rebel insignia...

In the later NJO, on the other hand, we get Lieutenant Colonels, and generally US-style ranks - although perhaps with Commadner now instead of Brigadier...

One thing I'd appreciate greatly would be people with access to rank lists from the computer games: I've heard different things about several of these...

- The Imperial Ewok

 

Is it all that important?...this was a rebellion not an army of state. He was a "commander" cause somebody who had authority gave him control of Rogue Squadron. "General" Solo and Calrissian were the same way...and in a similar vein the titles are used and not used for years, despite the resignation of commisions (to the pain of Solo in particular).

In essence what I mean is that "rank" in the rebellion was probably not formal nor was it consistent across the rebellion. I seriously doubt Luke has EVER had a "formal" military rank, despite numerous field commisions (which meant little after a specific event). I think Solo has had one, when he was sent after Zsinj.

Trust in the fact that the "Commander" or "Captain" or "General" meant nothing when compared to "Skywalker" or "Solo".

 

It's pretty clear that the Rebellion did have an organized, properly ranked military. We just aren't sure about their ranks.


Is it possible that "Commander" is a courtesy title that's independent of rank?