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A company commander is the commanding officer of a company, a military unit which typically consists of 100 to 350 soldiers, often organized into three or four smaller units called platoons. (The exact organization of a company varies by country, service, and unit type; some specialized companies such as maintenance units are considerably larger and may number as many as 500 personnel). In some forces, the second-in-command of a company is called the executive officer (XO).

Historically, companies were often formed and financed by individual owners rather than by the state. Sometimes these men were unable to personally exercise leadership and command over the men in their units, and would designate another individual to serve in that capacity

Austria[link]

In the Austrian Army, a company commander is called a Kompaniekommandant (abbreviated "KpKdt").

Germany[link]

In the German Army, a company commander is referred to as a Kompaniechef or Einheitsführer and is usually a captain, sometimes a lieutenant or major. In many companies of the medical corps (Sanitätsdienst), the Kompaniechef must be a medical officer (Sanitätsoffizier) and has the rank of major, titled as an Oberstabsarzt (staff doctor) or may possibly be a lieutenant colonel Oberfeldarzt (field doctor).

In the artillery and the army's anti-aircraft defense corps the company commander is called a Batteriechef. In the German Air Force and Army Aviation Corps the title is "Staffelkapitän", while in training schools "Inspektionschef".

Switzerland[link]

In the Swiss Army, a company commander is called a Kompaniekommandant (abbreviated Kp Kdt). In practical service, a Kompaniekommandant has the rank of lieutenant until graduating from Führungslehrgang or FLG (Leadership course) 1 and completing Abverdienen (practical service), at which point they are promoted to captain. A Kompaniekommandant who leads a Stabskompanie can be promoted to major.

Turkey[link]

In the Turkish Army, a company commander is called a Bölük Komutanı (abbreviated "Bl.K."). Usually a company commander is in the rank of Captain.

United Kingdom[link]

In the British Army, Royal Marines and Canadian Army, the term "Company Commander" is also commonly used for the officer (usually a major) formally titled the Officer Commanding (OC) a company.

United States[link]

In the United States Army and Marine Corps, the position of company commander is usually held by a captain with three to six years' of service as an officer. A senior first lieutenant may be selected for company command in lieu of an available captain. As commanding officer, he or she exercises full command and control over the unit and may exercise non-judicial punishment authority over unit personnel. A company command is usually considered a prestigious assignment and important in career progression if an officer hopes to attain higher rank. A typical tour of duty for this assignment is 18 to 24 months in the active duty component and 24 to 36 months in the reserve components. Usually, a company executive officer (a first lieutenant) and a company first sergeant are assigned to assist the company commander and are vital to his or her success in commanding the unit. Some specialized company-sized units, such as aviation companies using the Boeing CH-47 Chinook airframe, are assigned a major as a company commander due to the increased responsibility of such assignments; the platoons which comprise these company are typically commanded by captains rather than lieutenants, with a captain, rather than a first lieutenant, as the company's second-in-command.

In the United States Coast Guard, a Company Commander is the enlisted person in charge of a recruit company's training during boot camp. They are the Coast Guard's equivalent of a drill instructor. (The United States Navy once used the same term in its recruit training, but that title has been replaced by "Recruit Division Commander".)

John Randolph "Jack" Webb (April 2, 1920 – December 23, 1982), also known by the pseudonym John Randolph, was an American actor, television producer, director and screenwriter, who is most famous for his role as Sergeant Joe Friday in the radio and television series Dragnet. He was also the founder of his own production company, Mark VII Limited.^[1][2]

Early life[link]

Born in Santa Monica, California, Webb grew up in the Bunker Hill section of Los Angeles.^{[citation needed]} His Jewish^{[citation needed]} father left home before Webb was born, and Webb never knew him. He was raised a Roman Catholic by his Irish-Indian mother.^[3] One of the tenants in his mother's rooming house was an ex-jazzman who began Webb's lifelong interest in jazz by giving him a recording of Bix Beiderbecke's "At the Jazz Band Ball".^{[citation needed]}

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Webb lived in the parish of Our Lady of Loretto Church and attended Our Lady of Loretto Elementary School in Echo Park, where he served as an altar boy.^[4] He then attended Belmont High School, and later, the St. John's University, Minnesota, where he studied art. At high school, Webb was a student body president. He wrote to the student body in the yearbook: ".. you who showed me the magnificent warmth of friendship which I know, and you know, I will carry with me forever."^[5] During World War II, Webb enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces. After washing out of flight training, he applied for and received a hardship discharge, being the primary financial support for his mother and grandmother.^[6]

Career[link]

Acting[link]

Following his discharge, he moved to San Francisco to star in his own radio show on ABC's KGO Radio. The Jack Webb Show was a half-hour comedy that had a limited run on ABC radio in 1946. By 1949 he had abandoned comedy for drama, and starred in Pat Novak for Hire, a radio show about a man who worked as an unlicensed private detective. The program co-starred Raymond Burr. Pat Novak was notable for writing that imitated, almost to parody, the hard-boiled style of such writers as Raymond Chandler, with lines such as: "She drifted into the room like 98 pounds of warm smoke. Her voice was hot and sticky--like a furnace full of marshmallows."

Webb's radio shows included Johnny Modero, Pier 23; Jeff Regan, Investigator; Murder and Mr. Malone and One Out of Seven. Webb did all of the voices on One Out of Seven, often vigorously attacking racial prejudice.

His most famous motion picture role was as the combat-hardened Marine Corps drill instructor at Parris Island in the 1957 film The D.I., with Don Dubbins as a callow Marine private. Webb's characterization in this role (Sgt. Jim Moore) would be reflected in much of his later acting.

[edit] Dragnet and stardom

Webb had a featured role as a crime lab technician in the 1948 film He Walked by Night, based on the real-life murder of a California Highway Patrolman by Erwin Walker, a World War II army veteran and former Glendale police department employee.^[7][8] The film was done in semidocumentary style with technical assistance provided by Detective Sergeant Marty Wynn of the Los Angeles Police Department. He Walked by Night's thinly-fictionalized recounting of the 1946 Walker crime spree gave Webb the idea for Dragnet: a recurring series based on real cases from LAPD police files, featuring authentic depictions of the modern police detective, including methods, mannerisms, and technical language.^[9]

With much assistance from Sgt. Marty Wynn and legendary LAPD chief William H. Parker, Dragnet hit radio airwaves in 1949 (running until 1954). It was then picked up as a television series by NBC, which aired episodes each season from 1952 to 1959. Webb played Sgt. Joe Friday, and Barton Yarborough co-starred as Sgt. Ben Romero. After Yarborough's death, Ben Alexander joined the cast as Officer Frank Smith.

Interestingly, Webb's date of birth, April 2, 1920, fell on a Friday.

Webb was a stickler for attention to detail. He believed viewers wanted "realism" and tried to give it to them. Webb had tremendous respect for those in law enforcement. He often said in interviews that he was angry about the "ridiculous amount" of abuse to which police were subjected by the press and the public. Webb was also impressed by the long hours, low pay, and injury rate among police investigators of the day, particularly in the LAPD, which was notorious for jettisoning officers who had become ill or injured in the line of duty.^[10] In announcing his vision of Dragnet, Webb said he intended to perform a service for the police by showing them as low-key working class heroes. Dragnet moved away from earlier portrayals of the police in shows such as Jeff Regan and Pat Novak, which often showed them as brutal and even corrupt. According to one Dragnet technical advisor, when the advisor pointed out that several circumstances in an episode were extremely unlikely in real life, Webb responded, "You know that, and now I know that. But that little old lady in Kansas will never know the difference." Dragnet became a successful television show in 1952. Barton Yarborough died of a heart attack, and Barney Phillips (Sgt. Ed Jacobs) and Herbert Ellis (Officer Frank Smith) temporarily stepped in as partners. Veteran radio and film actor Ben Alexander soon took over the role of jovial, burly Officer Frank Smith. Alexander was popular and remained a cast member until the show's cancellation in 1959. In 1954, a full-length feature film adaptation of the series was released, starring Webb, Alexander, and Richard Boone.

Dragnet began with the narration "The story you are about to see is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent." At the end of each show, the trial verdict of the suspect was announced by Hal Gibney. Webb frequently re-created entire floors of buildings on sound stages, such as the police headquarters at Los Angeles City Hall and a floor of the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner.^{[citation needed]}

In Dragnet's early days, Webb continued to appear in movies, notably as the best friend of William Holden's character in the 1950 Billy Wilder film Sunset Boulevard. In 1950, Webb appeared alongside future 1960s Dragnet partner Harry Morgan in the film noir Dark City, which also featured the first screen appearance of a new young actor named Charlton Heston. In contrast to the pair's straight-arrow image in Dragnet, here Webb played a vicious card sharp in Dark City and Morgan a punch-drunk ex-fighter who tries to talk Heston back into a straight-and-narrow life.^{[citation needed]}

In 1951, Webb introduced a short-lived radio series, Pete Kelly's Blues, in an attempt to bring the music he loved to a broader audience. That show became the basis for a 1955 movie of the same name. In 1959 a television version was made. Neither were very successful.

In the early 1960s Webb (along with actor Jeffrey Hunter) formed Apollo Productions. They made the TV series Temple Houston.^{[citation needed]}

In 1963, Webb took over from William T. Orr as executive producer of the ABC detective series 77 Sunset Strip. He brought about wholesale changes in the program and retained only Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., in the role of Stuart Bailey. The outcome was a disaster. Ratings fell and the series was cancelled in its sixth season.

Beginning in early 1967, Webb produced and starred in a new color version of Dragnet for NBC, this time for Universal Television, which packaged all but one of his subsequent shows. Harry Morgan co-starred as Officer Bill Gannon. (Ben Alexander was unavailable, as he was co-starring in Felony Squad on ABC.) The show's pilot, originally produced as a made-for-TV movie in 1966, did not air until 1969. The TV movie was based on the Harvey Glatman serial killings. The TV series ran through 1970. To distinguish it from the original series, the year of production was added to the title (Dragnet 1967, Dragnet 1968, etc.). The revival emphasized crime prevention and outreach to the public. Its attempts to address the contemporary youth-drug culture (such as the Blue Boy episode voted 85th-best TV episode of all time by TV Guide and TV Land) have led certain episodes on the topic to achieve cult status due to their strained attempts to be "with-it", such as Joe Friday grilling Blue Boy by asking him, "You're pretty high and far out, aren't you? What kind of kick are you on, son?"

In 1968, in concert with Robert A. Cinader, Webb produced NBC's popular Adam-12, which focused on uniformed LAPD officers Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) and Jim Reed (Kent McCord), which ran until 1975. Webb also performed the classic "Copper Clappers" sketch during an appearance on The Tonight Show where a pokerfaced Joe Friday echoed Johnny Carson's equally-deadpan robbery report in which all the details started with "Cl" or least the k consonant sound.^{[citation needed]}

In the 1970s Webb began to expand his Mark VII Limited into other shows. The most successful of his 1970s efforts was Emergency!, which portrayed the fledgling paramedic program of the L.A. County Fire Department. The show became a huge success, running from 1972–79, with ratings occasionally even topping its time slot competitor, All in the Family. Webb cast his ex-wife, Julie London, as well as her second husband and Dragnet ensemble player Bobby Troup, as nurse Dixie McCall and Dr. Joe Early. There was even a cartoon spin-off, Emergency+4.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[link]

Webb's personal life was better defined by his love of jazz than his interest in police work. His life-long interest in the cornet and racially tolerant attitude allowed him to move easily in the jazz culture, where he met singer and actress Julie London. They married in 1947 and had two children. They later divorced, and Webb would marry three more times.

Webb's first marriage to Julie London ended in 1954. Subsequently, he married Dorothy Towne in 1955, divorcing in 1957, former Miss USA Jackie Loughery (to whom he was married from 1958 to 1964), and Opal Wright, who married him in 1980 and was widowed by his death in 1982. He had two daughters with Julie London: Stacy (1950–1996) and Lisa (born 1952). Stacy Webb authorized and collaborated on a book, Just the Facts, Ma'am; The Authorized Biography of Jack Webb, Creator of Dragnet, Adam-12, and Emergency, by Daniel Moyer and Eugene Alvarez. It was published in 1999. Stacy did not live to see the publication of the book, having been killed in a car accident three years earlier.

Death[link]

Jack Webb began working on scripts for a revival of Dragnet with Kent McCord as his partner. However, he died of a heart attack in 1982 at the age of 62.

He was interred in the Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, and was given a funeral with full police honors. On Webb's death, Chief Daryl Gates announced that badge number 714 which was used by Joe Friday in Dragnet would be retired.^{[clarification needed]} Mayor Tom Bradley of Los Angeles ordered all flags lowered to half-staff in Webb's honor for a day, and Webb was buried with a replica LAPD badge bearing the rank of Sergeant, and the number 714.

He is mentioned in the 1993 song "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow" by the group "dada" on their first album, Puzzle. The song states: So we went up to Hef's / To meet some bunnies / I saw Hugh he was actin' funny / He handed me some grass and a / Vodka & gin / That was about the time that Jack / Webb walked in / He said, "Son I'm gonna tell you / Something and it ain't pretty / There's a thousand ways to die in / This naked city".

Webb has two Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: for radio at 7040 Hollywood Boulevard, and for television at 6728 Hollywood Boulevard.

Selected filmography[link]

Discography[link]

• Songs from Pete Kelly's Blues (1955)
• You're My Girl: Romantic Reflections by Jack Webb (1958)
• Golden Throats volume 1 (1988)
• Just the Tracks, Ma'am: The Warner Brothers Recordings (2000)

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Hugh W. Binyon: Reflections in a Pig's Eye Babcock Publishing; (paperback, 2002)
• Michael J. Hayde: My Name's Friday: The Unauthorized but True Story of Dragnet and the Films of Jack Webb; Cumberland House Publishing; ISBN 1-58182-190-5 (paperback, 2001)
• Jack Webb: The Badge: The Inside Story of One of America's Great Police Departments; Prentice-Hall; (hardback, 1958)
• Maurice Zolotow: The True Story of Jack Webb The American Weekly, September 12, 19, 26, October 3, 1954.

External links[link]

• Badge 714 (Dragnet and Webb fan site)
• Jack Webb at the Internet Movie Database
• Jack Webb at AllRovi
• Pat Novak For Hire (Pat Novak For Hire fan site)
• AAFCollection.info Pictures of Jack Webb as an Air Cadet at the Rankin Aeronautical Academy at Tulare, California in 1943.
• Jack Webb at Find a Grave