I know! Can you imagine some General leading space forces? Even the Hero of the Battle of Taanab would think that was ridiculous.
Happened all the time on Babylon 5. Stormtrooper officers (when they're not in armor) wear black uniforms, not the gray/green that Veers had.
Han Solo's deleted scence from the Solo movie featuring him as a young and brash Imperial pilot cadet.
So, the Marines that landed at beaches in Europe were just following General Eisenhower's suggestions?
Thanks for posting that. Among the few operational things described there that Marines actually did do on D-Day, I did not know this one: Offshore, Marines were positioned high in the superstructures of American warships in the English Channel. From their lofty perches, the riflemen fired at and detonated floating mines as the ships moved in close to “bombardment stations” along the French coastline.
TESB clearly showed Admirals like Piett commanding ships and Generals like Veers commanding ground troops. The Prequels mix this all up with Generals on both sides controlling both ships AND troops. This is continued with Hux in TFA. It's just sloppy writing that nobody really knows what the formal organization of SW militaries are comprised of. It's all made up to serve plot.
It always struck me as an honorific as much as a military rank. Much like a ship commander is always a "captain" regardless of actual rank. The closest I ever felt that Star Wars had to thinking through the organization of the military was clone troopers, and even then.
The only General commanding naval forces in the Prequels was Grievous. I suspect the Jedi being "Generals" was more an honorific title, as fireproof78 suggests. At the very least, Clone Wars establishes there were naval Admirals commanding Republic fleets for the Jedi. Granted, General Hux commanding naval forces is odd and as you say, sloppy. Though, I get the impression he's meant to be someone very important in the First Order's military. After all, he apparently has no superiors other than the Supreme Leader.
IIRC, Ahsoka corrected people when using rank to address her as "commander." If "general" was an honorific for Jedi during the Clone Wars, then it seems like there was a codified hierarchy of honorifics. Maybe it was based on the Jedi rank of Padawan, Knight, Master? But in that case it doesn't strike me as just an honorific but rather as an actual rank with the authority to give orders to subordinates in the Republic forces.
Not saying that the honorific doesn't carry with it the authority, just that is a catch all term for someone who commands a large cadre of troops, since they still use Captain, Commander, Lieutenant, etc. Also, Jedi Masters were typically addressed as 'General" while Padawans as "Commander" from what I recall.
General Calrissian was clearly commanding the Air Force part of the Rebels while Admiral Ackbar commanded the Navy.
Yeah, as far as I know he's pretty much the second person in the entire hierarchy of First Order, directly below Snoke and then Kylo Ren. As for the General part, do we know for sure that the FO military is seperated into branches the way modern militaries are. They all seem to be together.
Well, the novels do indicate an army and naval rank structure in the First Order, for whatever that's worth. As far as the movies go, the dreadnaught in TLJ was commanded by a Captain, though I guess he could easily be a Colonel and is only addressed as Captain because he commands a ship.
So why would the Empire phase out clones (genetically engineered to be very obedient) from its army and increase the presence of non-clones, drafted or not? It may have done so to reduce the likelihood of rebellion, with the idea people wouldn't want to fight against people drafted from their own planet.
Clones take ten years to raise, educate and train on the Imperial dime. Recruits are raised by parents/guardians, educated in their homeworld's schooling system, thus meaning they only need to spend much briefer period of time undergoing military training.
One of the advantages of the Clone Army was that it could be massed produced to spec in secret. If the army had been composed of recruits, secrecy would have been less likely. Another advantage was that it was obedient in killing the Jedi. Finding enough recruits up to battle spec who were willing to commit treason would have only compounded the difficulty in assembling the army, as well as the risks, since secrecy would have been even less likely and the consequences of discovery even more severe. The use of clones thus satisfied special conditions that no longer existed once the Republic had been overthrown.