Commanding officer in the context of "Military intelligence"

Command and control (abbr. C2) is a "set of organizational and technical attributes and processes ... [that] employs human, physical, and information resources to solve problems and accomplish missions" to achieve the goals of an organization or enterprise, according to a 2015 definition by military scientists Marius Vassiliou, David S. Alberts, and Jonathan R. Agre. The term often refers to a military system.

Versions of the United States Army Field Manual 3-0 circulated circa 1999 define C2 in a military organization as the exercise of authority and direction by a properly designated commanding officer over assigned and attached forces in the accomplishment of a mission.

Matthew Bunker Ridgway (3 March 1895 – 26 July 1993) was a senior officer in the United States Army, who served as Supreme Allied Commander Europe (1952–1953) and the 19th Chief of Staff of the United States Army (1953–1955). Although he saw no combat service in World War I, he was intensively involved in World War II, where he was the first Commanding General (CG) of the 82nd Airborne Division, leading it in action in Sicily, Italy and Normandy, before taking command of the newly formed XVIII Airborne Corps in August 1944. He held the latter post until the end of the war in mid-1945, commanding the corps in the Battle of the Bulge, Operation Varsity and the Western Allied invasion of Germany.

Ridgway held several major commands after World War II and is most well-known for resurrecting the United Nations (UN) war effort during the Korean War. Several historians have credited Ridgway for turning the war around in favor of the UN side. He also persuaded President Dwight D. Eisenhower to refrain from direct military intervention in the First Indochina War to support French colonial forces, thereby essentially delaying the United States' Vietnam War by over a decade. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on 12 May 1986. Ridgway died in 1993 at the age of 98.

In the United States Navy, United States Coast Guard, United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (USPHS Corps), and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps (NOAA Corps), captain is the senior-most commissioned officer rank below that of flag officer (i.e., admirals). The equivalent rank is colonel in the United States Army, Air Force, Space Force, and Marine Corps.

Reflecting its nautical heritage, the term captain is used as a military title by officers of more junior rank who command a commissioned vessel of the Navy, Coast Guard, or National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of patrol boat size or greater. Officers below O-6 who command aviation squadrons (typically O-5 commanders) usually use the less formal title "skipper".

The praefectus castrorum ("camp prefect") was, in the Roman army of the early Empire, the third most senior staff officer of the Roman legion after the legate (legatus; the commanding officer) and the senior military tribune (tribunus laticlavius; the executive officer), both of whom were from the senatorial class.

The camp prefect was the senior enlisted advisor at a command and quartermaster; responsible for military logistics and requisition (training, equipment procurement and maintenance, and construction of the camp, etc.), acting liaison between the legate and the centurions, but could command the legion whenever the senior commanders were absent. The post was usually held by a soldier promoted from the centurionate, having already served as a chief centurion (primus pilus) of a legion, and was therefore open to ordinary, plebeian citizens. Prefects of this rank, for example Sextus Vibius Gallus, were awarded prizes (dona) to mark their achievements.

A command in military terminology is an organisational unit for which a military commander is responsible. Commands, sometimes called units or formations, form the building blocks of a military. A commander is normally specifically appointed to the role in order to provide a legal framework for the authority bestowed. Naval and military officers have legal authority by virtue of their officer's commission, but the specific responsibilities and privileges of command are derived from the publication of appointment.

The relevant definition of 'command' according to the United States Department of Defense (US DOD) is as follows:

A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the first, largest, fastest, most heavily armed, or best known.

Over the years, the term "flagship" has become a metaphor used in industries such as broadcasting, automobiles, education, technology, airlines, and retail to refer to their highest quality, best known, or most expensive products and locations.