I am amazed that no-one knows the rules!
I am NOT ex forces so there is no reason for me to know this but my understanding is that at a certain level you "Carry your rank" into civvy street.
For Royal Navy that rank is Captain, but because Commanders are often promoted on retirement to Captains I think they get it.
I do not know the equivalents for Army and Airforce but if anyone is using the title Captain, then it is navy or its bull5hit (and that goes for ATPL too)
Based on tables of equivalence of Ranks, it looks like
Captain (RN) = Colonel (Army) = Group Captain (RAF) so perhaps these are the ranks that "Carry"?
Last edited by paull; 19th Apr 2012 at 11:00.