line officer

American  

noun

1. a military or naval officer serving with combatant units or warships, as distinguished from a staff officer, supply officer, etc.

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Etymology

Origin of line officer

An Americanism dating back to 1840–50

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

line officer

The Navy ultimately allowed Greitens to become a general unrestricted line officer at a support center in St. Louis at his current rank, lieutenant commander.

From Washington Post ● May 31, 2019

I’ve been a line officer and a field officer, and those would not be easy decisions to make.

From Washington Times ● Sep. 21, 2015

Polis countered, “She may have been a fine line officer and cop on the beat, but she’s a terrible agency head.”

From Washington Post

Crewmen talk to him about things they wouldn't think of discussing with a line officer.

From Time Magazine Archive

How indignant a line officer at the front was one day to hear a visitor from the American G. H. Q. say that he had forgotten to bring the mail bags down on his train.

From The History of the American Expedition Fighting the Bolsheviki Campaigning in North Russia 1918-1919 by Jahns, Lewis E.