Senior colonel a general rank silver star). The naval equivalent for a senior colonel is the non-flag commodore or fleet captain, although it is sometimes referred to as a senior captain. Senior colonel Senior colonel is an army officer rank placed between a regular colonel and a major general. The rank typically exists in militaries that do not maintain a rank of brigadier general or brigadier. In Nazi Germany, a rank equivalent to senior colonel, "Oberführer", was used by both the SA and SS. In the branches of the "Allgemeine SS" (General SS) and "Waffen-SS" (Armed SS) the rank of "Oberführer" was
Lieutenant colonel (United States) case with George A. Custer, who was a lieutenant colonel in the regular army, but held the brevet rank of major general. The 20th century saw lieutenant colonel in its present-day status although, during the 1930s, many officers again found the rank to be terminal as the rank of colonel was reserved for only a select few officers. In the United States Army and the United States Marine Corps (USMC), a lieutenant colonel typically commands a battalion/squadron-sized unit (300 to 1,200 Soldiers/Marines), with a major as executive officer (XO) and a command sergeant major/sergeant major (USMC) as principal NCO or