Today, it is no longer a specific rank within active-duty or reserve forces or in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps or NOAA Corps, but it remains in use as an honorary title within the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard for those senior captains (pay grade O-6) in command of operational organizations composed of multiple independent subordinate naval units (e.g., multiple independent ships, submarines, or aviation squadrons).

[2] Because the U.S. Congress was originally unwilling to authorize more than four officer ranks in the navy (captain, master commandant, lieutenant, and midshipman) until 1862, considerable importance was attached to the title of commodore.

Captain Isaac Hull, chafing at not being able to progress further in rank, wrote in 1814 that, if no admirals were to be authorized, something should be done to prevent, "...every midshipman that has command of a gunboat on a separate station taking upon himself the name of Commodore".

The Act to Further Promote the Efficiency of the Navy,[3] passed on December 21, 1861, gave the president the authority to appoint squadron commanders with the "rank and title" of flag officer.

Because of the acute need for officers at the beginning of the American Civil War, naval tradition was ignored and commodore became for the first time a permanent commissioned rank in the U.S. Navy.

[5][6] According to Laws Relating to the Navy, 1919, the step was taken, "…on account of international relationships, the consideration of which caused the Navy Department to regard the complications confronting it as inimical to the honor and dignity of this nation, because of the adverse effect upon its high ranking representatives in their association with foreign officers".

This was a point of inter-service controversy for many years, especially after 1916, when the U.S. Army made its brigadier generals equivalent to the rear admirals in the lower half of seniority.

However, some Navy and Coast Guard captains, although not yet selected for rear admiral, were holding commands of significantly higher responsibility than they had earlier and this needed to be recognized.

[9] As a result, the one-star officer rank for the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard was re-established in April 1943 with the title of "commodore".

After World War II, and with the rapid drawdown in size of both the Navy and the Coast Guard, very few of the wartime commodores were ever promoted to rear admiral.

According to the 1949 edition of the Official Register of Commissioned Officers of the United States Navy, updated to January 1, 1949, the last two commodores on active duty were Tully Shelley (b.

This expanding Navy saw growth in several mission areas, and the reintroduction and designation of senior captains in command of units comprising multiple ships (e.g., "flotillas"), multiple aviation squadrons (e.g., "air groups") or other similar organizations became increasingly commonplace, leading to increased use of the title of commodore for those senior captains occupying these highly responsible positions.

This was because the U.S. Navy had long assigned the title (although not the rank) of commodore to selected captains holding major operational sea-going commands.

From then on, commodore has remained a title for U.S. Navy captains in command of more than a single unit (other than captains commanding carrier air wings, who retained their traditional title of "CAG") and all U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard one-star admirals were subsequently referred to as rear admiral.

[15] The term "commodore" again reverted, and continues to this day, to that of an honorary title versus an actual rank for the limited number of captains in command of multiple units.

With the exception of the naval construction regiments and groups that are commanded by senior captains of the U.S. Navy's Civil Engineer Corps, all other commodores are senior captains who are warfare-qualified unrestricted line (URL) officers in that combat specialty (e.g., naval aviators and naval flight officers commanding "functional" or "type" air wings or air groups, surface warfare officers commanding destroyer squadrons, etc.).

PATFORSWA is headquartered at Naval Support Activity Bahrain in Manama, Bahrain and its primary area of responsibility is the Arabian Gulf / Persian Gulf, as well as other areas coinciding with that of the Commander, United States Naval Forces Central Command (COMUSNAVCENT) / United States Fifth Fleet (COMFIFTHFLT).

The Coast Guard Auxiliary also occasionally bestows the title of "Honorary Commodore" as a mark of high esteem.

Recipients of this honor include actor and Coast Guard veteran Lloyd Bridges (who was an active member of the Auxiliary and served as its national celebrity spokesman in the 1970s) and television personality Al Roker (who produced the documentary series Coast Guard Alaska).

Civilian yacht clubs, yachting associations and fellowships[23] with formal hierarchical structures, began to use the title "commodore" in countries around the world [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] for their presidents in the early twentieth century [32] along with "vice commodore" in the same manner as "vice president,"and "rear-commodore" and "port captain' or "international bridge member" in the same manner as board members.

Gulf Coast State College in Panama City, Florida, also uses the Commodore mascot for its sports teams.