Major general

Major general was a military rank, the equivalent of which was used by the service organizations of many civilizations. As a traditional army flag officer grade, major general was a junior level general rank of a fighting organization, traditionally between the grades of brigadier and lieutenant general. In comparison to naval ranking systems, this rank was equivalent to the naval rear admiral rank.

This grade existed in some form in many cultures' rank arrangements, such as Earth's United States armed forces, and the militaries of Great Britain and Germany. The US Army, US Marine Corps, and US Air Force all signified major generals with the insignia of two five-pointed stars.

Many wonder why major general was considered inferior to lieutenant general when major was superior to lieutenant. The reason was that major general was originally derived from the army grade sergeant-major and was originally "sergeant-major general". Eventually the "sergeant" was dropped from the title.

In the World War II-era German armed forces, the equivalent of a major general, called Generalleutnant, wore an insignia of gold shoulder knots with a single metal pip. The SS equivalent of Brigadeführer wore insignia of tripled oak leaves on the uniform lapel.

Dr. Beverly Crusher once convinced Geordi La Forge to attempt to sing I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General, a song from the 19th century operetta The Pirates of Penzance. 


 * According to background material created for but not seen, Georges Picard was a major general who worked for UESPA in 2161.