Colonel (United States) Colonel (United States) In the United States Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force, colonel () is the most senior field grade military officer rank, immediately above the rank of lieutenant colonel and immediately below the rank of brigadier general. It is equivalent to the naval rank of captain in the other uniformed services. The pay grade for colonel is O-6. The insignia of the rank of colonel, as seen on the right, is worn on the officer's left side (a mirror-image version is worn on the right side, such that the eagle always faces forward to the wearer's front; the
Colonel general translated as "lieutenant general") and junior to that of "daejang" (usually translated as "general"). This rank is typically held by the commanding officer of units along the Korean DMZ and the North Korean security zone at Panmunjom. It is also the rank held by the KPA Pyongyang Defense Command's commanding general. The rank of colonel general () did not exist in Imperial Russia and was first established in the Red Army on 7 May 1940, as a replacement for the previously existing (, "army commander of the second rank"). During World War II, about 199 officers were promoted to colonel