This is the rank insignia of Fleet Commander Gareth Drakcon. It is a Navy O-6 Captain Special rank. So Gareth is the same rank as a Captain, but instead of being only in charge of one ship, he has command of several hundred ships in the Drake Naval Armada.

How I came up with and made this insignia:

I used Photoshop at my college's VCP Lab and combined the navy rank insignia's of an O-5 Commander, O-6 Captain, and the E-9 enlisted rank of Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (MCPON) The reason for combining enlisted with officer is that I just really love the look of the Navy enlisted rank insignia's. So I had to keep something of it, yet add in officer ranks as Gareth is a high ranking senior officer. I also prefer the term Commander, to Captain, but needed a rank that would allow for the number of people under his command. Captain is not just a rank that allows one to lead a ship, it also shows how many are serving under you, and as Gareth commands many ships, I needed to adjust for that.

Why not just give him an Admiral rank? Well, I toyed with how the names sound and Fleet Commander Gareth sounds/rolls off the tongue better (IMO) and as I am a recent add to the Drake Forces, I didn't want that title. Also, Captains and Commander see more action then Admirals for the most part. Gareth also prefers being on the front lines on the ground or in space then in the background. He likes to direct and order his forces right from the thick of the battle instead of the safety of much large ship or office somewhere.

Anyway, I copied images into PS and then using a mask as well as the magnet tool, I outlined the Commander (the leaf) and the Captain (the bird) icon and dropped them into the MCPON insignia. I then colored over the original star and bird icons that the MCPON has by default and re-sized the Captain and Commander icons and positioned them. I used a bit of cloning to remove the tail of the petty officer bird (As I refer to that part of the insignia as) that was over lapping the gold arch.
The next thing I did for a little extra uniqueness was applied bevels on both new icon and a inverse effect to the bird which gave it a slightly different sheen then what the icon I used had just for some manner of customization. I then took a image from the web if the black and grey fatigue pattern and with some masking, applied it as a back ground.

I have to thank a couple of people who work in my college's VCP Lab for their time and suggestions as well as showing me how to do a few things and give me a small refresher on Photoshop software.

Insignia Design ©  Gareth58442
Please do not use this without asking me or be sure to credit me if it is.