EXCELLENT post. That said, I think he's getting it from here: http://macross.anime.net/wiki/U.N._Spacy#Ranks That link comes with a whole bunch of questions (E.g. Who decided the English terms for the UN ranks?  Why isn't the US's navy ranks listed?  ... and, why aren't there any other English speaking countries represented?)   Sidestepping that for a mo', we can also ask Jim Breen: http://nihongo.monash.edu/cgi-bin/wwwjdic?1E  he has both versions (Commodore, Brigadier Gener