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What is the proper way to address a person who is an office in the military (USA) who at the same time has a Ph.D.? Would it be Dr. General John Doe or General Dr. John Doe?

ff524
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user87952
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3 Answers3

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Everything I've seen suggests that "General John Doe" without any "Dr." is correct (you've never heard of "General Doctor David Petraeus" right?); for example, military doctors are usually addressed using their rank, not as "Doctor." In part it just sounds clunky to try to use both titles. Similarly at Virginia Military Academy (bizarrely, in my opinion) all of the faculty are officers in the Virginia state militia, and are listed on the website with military titles (http://www.vmi.edu/Content.aspx?id=4294974313), not with the title "Professor" or "Doctor." I think "General John Doe, Ph.D." is more common, though discouraged in some sources I read. I think it's hard to go wrong just addressing someone in the military by their rank.

EDIT: I should probably say that isn't to say that you never combine Doctor with another title: "Herr Professor Doktor" is standard in Germany, (though I'm not allowed to call myself that, since I have a doctorate from the US) and "Reverend Doctor" (or even "Most/Right Reverend Doctor") are established titles, though more common in Britain than the US. Just in the specific context of military titles in the US, it's not standard to mix them with other titles.

Ben Webster
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  • Your answer looks better than mine... – Pete L. Clark Feb 26 '14 at 19:08
  • Yeah, I'm not sure I agree that double titles are just over the top ("Reverend Dr." or even "Right Reverend Dr." are established forms of address, whereas "General Doctor" isn't). – Ben Webster Feb 26 '14 at 19:13
  • Thanks for the answer. I did a bit more research, and it seems that you are correct. – user87952 Feb 27 '14 at 19:58
  • This seems to be correct. If you look, for example, at the US Military Academy faculty pages, the people who are photographed in uniform are listed with their military rank and the people who are photographed in civilian clothes are listed as "Dr." – David Richerby Oct 01 '14 at 09:17
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    I'm pretty sure I've been described (though not addressed) as "Professor Doktor" even though both my doctorate and my professorship are American. Maybe it's the "Herr" that was missing. (Shortly before my first grandchild was born, there was a family discussion of how she should call her grandparents; I suggested "Herr Professor Doktor Opa" but that didn't work out.) – Andreas Blass Dec 11 '14 at 22:21
  • @AndreasBlass Well, the person who described you that way might have been liable for a year in jail for that. This article seems to suggest that things have been fixed now, though I had a recollection of hearing about this issue more recently: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/title-fight-us-academics-harassed-over-false-credentials-a-540459.html – Ben Webster Dec 14 '14 at 02:36
  • @BenWebster: No, nothing would have happened to the person. In general, you can, and could, address anyone with any title you like. The critical point (also covered in the article) is if you pretend to have a certain degree yourself that you do not have (or if you otherwise get some direct benefit from pretending someone has that degree, e.g. by promising your customers they will be attended to by "Dr. ..." in exchange for booking the costly premium service). Other than that, you are, and were, under no obligation to be correctly informed about, or correctly represent, someone else's degree. – O. R. Mapper Jun 11 '15 at 06:41
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CPT John Smith, Ph.D.; MAJ James Dean, M.D.; or LTC John Doe, J.D. are more correct when addressing doctorate officers in writing.

Although this is true that Military rank usually comes before academic in most cases, there are some exceptions.

Doctors in the Medical Corps are often addressed as "doctor." Many medical officers preferred to be called doctor as this title reflects their professional and client relationship instead of subordinate and superior. In addition, JAG officers are sometime addressed using the title of "counselor."

Ivan
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in general the only time a rank and title are used together is with Chaplains. Formally it is Chaplain (Major) John Doe, and informally it is Chaplain Doe.

Sean Johnson
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