“there are more admirals then ships in the Navy”
>Sounds like you assume admirals are senior officers on ships in the Navy. Destroyers, for instance, have Lieutenant Commanders that are captains of ships, hardly admirals. An admiral may be over a squadron of destroyers, and ride a flagship, but they are still not the captain of the particular destroyer they are on.
Not sure about admirals on larger ships, like aircraft carriers. Maybe somebody from an aircraft carrier could tell us.
I assume no such thing, as an ex-navy guy I know there are battle-group, theatre and administrative Admirals. However, the ratio is way out of whack from where it was even in the 80s and ridiculous compared to the 40s/50s.
The bureaucratic Admirals I’m referring to are project/administrative in the pentagon - jobs that would have been between LT-Navy Captain level in the 40s and LTCMDR-Captain in the 80s.