Jedi Commander

Whereas the rank of Jedi General made both Jedi Knights and Jedi Masters the commanding officers of the clone trooper forces that composed the Grand Army of the Republic, the rank of commander established by the Jedi Military Integration Act made Jedi Padawans their second-in-command. A Jedi Commander outranked all clones except Clone Commanders. Jedi Commanders were also still subordinate to the higher-ranked Jedi General and were given authority over clone forces as large as a regiment. Clone troopers were trained to follow orders without question and would execute commands given to them by their Jedi Commanders, just as they would with their Jedi Generals.

During the First Battle of Geonosis in 22 BBY, the Grand Army of the Republic was deployed against the Separatist Droid Army of the Confederacy of Independent Systems for the first time. At the time, the Jedi Order lacked an official status in the military forces of the Galactic Republic. Nevertheless, the clone troopers followed the orders of the Jedi, who served on the battlefield as de facto generals. In the aftermath of the Battle of Geonosis, the clones began to refer to Jedi Knights and Masters as unofficial generals, while their Padawans held a lesser rank.

While Padawans already were serving within skirmishes as the war spread, Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine suggested to the Jedi High Council that Padawans be officially brought into the military fold, beginning a debate amongst the Council. Following the mission to Cato Neimoidia, the Galactic Senate passed the Jedi Military Integration Act, which officially made fully-trained Jedi into generals. Jedi who were still training as Padawans, meanwhile, were granted the official but lesser rank of commander. Many in the Republic found the footage of the teenage Jedi Commanders leading full grown clones strange. However, many had forgotten or weren't aware of the fact that, because clones had gone through growth acceleration, the Padawans were chronologically older than the clone troopers.

During the Battle of Christophsis, Ahsoka Tano was assigned to the newly-promoted Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, making her Skywalker's official Padawan despite his unwillingness to mentor the next generation of the Jedi Order. As a result, Tano also became a Jedi Commander in the Grand Army of the Republic. On Christophsis, she served alongside the soldiers of her master's unit, the 501st Legion, and would continue to serve as Skywalker's second-in-command in multiple battles across the galaxy, such as Teth, Bothawui, and Ryloth. In 21 BBY, Tano worked with Commander Barriss Offee— the Padawan of Jedi Master Luminara Unduli—to destroy the Geonosis primary droid foundry during the Second Battle of Geonosis. After securing victory for the Republic on Geonosis, commanders Tano and Offee worked together to prevent the spread of an infestation that infected the crew of the Pelta-class frigate TB-73.

In 20 BBY, Commander Knox fell in battle along with General Halsey and their clone troopers, all of whom were killed by Count Dooku's new enforcer, Dathomirian former Nightbrother Savage Opress. Yigan Lam was the Padawan to Jedi Hallan Krintu, whom she was present with during the on Kamino. Serving under her master, Leh'ahnyo Vas served as Jedi Commander in their clone unit.

As the fighting continued, Barriss Offee secretly grew disillusioned with the Clone Wars, the Republic, and the Jedi's role in the conflict. She orchestrated a terrorist attack on the Jedi Temple of Coruscant in 19 BBY, killing several Jedi, clone troopers, and civilian workers. In addition, her actions resulted in the death of her friend, Tutso Mara, and the framing of another friend, Ahsoka Tano, whom Offee had set up to take the fall for the attack. Although Offee was ultimately exposed as the true culprit and traitor by Tano's master Anakin Skywalker, the former Commander Tano declined the chance to rejoin the Jedi Order and the Grand Army of the Republic. However, when Tano unofficially rejoined the Republic Military to lead forces in the Siege of Mandalore to assist the Mandalore resistance, the clones in the unit treated her as though she still held the rank out of respect.

In the final days of the Clone Wars, the clone troopers turned against their Jedi Generals and Commanders after receiving the command from Chancellor Palpatine to execute Order 66. Having been labeled as enemies of the state by the chancellor, many Jedi were suddenly gunned down by their own soldiers, all of whom had been programmed to carry out Order 66 without question, no matter what they thought before the order. The Padawan Cal Kestis, who was a Jedi Commander in the 13th Battalion, survived Order 66 due to the sacrifice of his master, the Jedi General Jaro Tapal.

Another Jedi Commander, Caleb Dume, survived the clones' betrayal due to his master, Depa Billaba, who sacrificed her life to ensure that Dume would not perish by the blaster fire of their battalion. Under the reign of the Galactic Empire, the few surviving Jedi were forced into exile in order to survive the purge that all but destroyed their Order. Prior to the Galactic Civil War, the former Jedi Commanders Dume and Tano became members of the Alliance to Restore the Republic during its formative years as a resistance movement. Dume, who now went by the alias of "Kanan Jarrus," continued the Jedi tradition by training a Padawan of his own—the Force-sensitive Ezra Bridger of Lothal.

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