Naval officer never found at the front? (4,7)
I believe the answer is:
rear admiral
'naval officer' is the definition.
(I know that rear-admiral is a type of rear admiral)
I cannot understand how the rest of the clue works.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for rear admiral that I've seen before include "Top brass" , "navy bigwig" , "Naval officer" , "Naval rank above commodore" .)