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

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

Black-browed Annapolisman "Min" Miller is a line officer and a naval aviator.

From Time Magazine Archive

He was then Ordnance Officer of the Washington Navy Yard and lived in the quaint old house later assigned to the second line officer of that station.

From As I Remember Recollections of American Society during the Nineteenth Century by Gouverneur, Marian