Ensign (O-1)
Ensign is the lowest commissioned officer rank in the US Navy, pay grade O-1. On khakis the insignia is a single gold bar.
Easily confused with
How to read it
The Department of Defense notes that Navy officers wear different rank devices on different uniforms: collar pins on khakis, stripes on shoulder boards with whites, and stripes on the lower sleeves with blues. An ensign wears one gold bar on each collar point and one 13 mm (½ in) gold stripe on the sleeve. Navy.com calls ensign the first commissioned officer rank; the next rank up is Lieutenant junior grade (O-2), whose bar is silver.
Also searched as: ENS, O-1 navy.
Ranks and insignia as the US Navy’s own uniform regulations and pages set them out. Pay grades are the Department of Defense’s.
Gold bar or silver bar
Gold is the lower rank: one gold bar is an ensign, one silver bar a lieutenant (junior grade). The same gold bar is an Army second lieutenant’s, also O-1.
Where the rank came from
The Naval History and Heritage Command says the Navy took up the rank in 1862, for Naval Academy graduates and as an equivalent of the Army second lieutenant, and that ensigns got the single gold bar in 1922.
Read next
- Next in Navy ranksLieutenant junior grade (O-2)Lieutenant (junior grade) is the second commissioned officer rank in the US Navy, pay grade O-2. On khakis the insignia is a single silver bar.
- The same shape in US state flagsFlag of MarylandMaryland’s flag is quartered with the arms of two families: the gold and black bars of the Calverts, the Lords Baltimore who founded Maryland, and the red and white cross of the Crosslands, the family of the first Lord Baltimore’s mother, the Maryland State Archives says. The law gives the colours no other meaning.
More navy ranks
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with lines.
Sources
- U.S. Military Rank Insignia, Resources: U.S. Military Rank Insignia (enlisted and officer insignia by paygrade), U.S. Department of Defense (defense.gov), Officer insignia; officer introduction
- 37 U.S.C. § 201: Pay grades, 37 U.S. Code § 201, Pay grades: assignment to; general rules, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, § 201(a)
- Navy Uniform Regulations, article 4101: Officer sleeve insignia, United States Navy Uniform Regulations (NAVPERS 15665J), art. 4101, Navy Personnel Command (MyNavy HR), art. 4101.3a
- Navy Uniform Regulations, article 4103: Shoulder insignia, United States Navy Uniform Regulations (NAVPERS 15665J), art. 4103, Navy Personnel Command (MyNavy HR), art. 4103.2c, 4103.4a
- U.S. Navy Ranks & Insignia, U.S. Navy Ranks & Insignia (navy.com), U.S. Navy Recruiting Command (navy.com), Commissioned Officer Ranks
- Naval Traditions: Names of Rank, “Ensign”, Naval Traditions: Names of Rank, Officer, “Ensign”, Naval History and Heritage Command, para. 2
- Navy Uniform Regulations, article 4104: Collar grade insignia, United States Navy Uniform Regulations (NAVPERS 15665J), art. 4104, Navy Personnel Command (MyNavy HR), art. 4104.2–3
- Naval Traditions: Names of Rank, “Lieutenant”, Naval Traditions: Names of Rank, Officer, “Lieutenant”, Naval History and Heritage Command, para. 6
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 29, 2026. How we research
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