Enlisted in Star Trek?

Hasler · Post by **Hasler** » 2003-07-15 05:15pm

Are there any enlisted ranks because all you ever see is officers. The only way to become an officer is by going to the acadamy. If this holds true than even if Star Fleet had a measly 2,000,000 people the acadamy would have to put out at least 100,000 new officers every year to cover the losses from just retirement. Im giving the avg service time as 20 years, and useing a very low end estimate of size. I am estimateing about 4000 total ships and instilations with an avg crew of 500. I know this is a small estimate of size considering the US armed forces out number this but i havent been able to see any hard figures on the size of Star fleet.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2003-07-15 05:38pm

Well, there was Chief O'Brien, who was an NCO before they promoted him in DS9, and occasionally you'll see the odd "Crewman" running around, but it seems like everyone is an Ensign or up.

Ted C · Post by **Ted C** » 2003-07-15 05:51pm

Perhaps the politically correct TNG Federation felt that everyone deserved some kind of officer title. Wouldn't want the "ratings" feeling somehow inferior to the officers, now, would we? Consequently, they may have dropped all of the enlisted ranks.

O'Brien's title of "Chief" might be more of a job description than a rank. He's the "transporter chief", which describes his role on the ship rather than is position in the rank structure.

Hasler · Post by **Hasler** » 2003-07-15 07:23pm

Its still brings up the question how can star fleet acadamy produce so many officers given the dificulties getting in and the length of training. It needs to produce 100000 yearly just to deal with retirements not to mention the amount who will get out after serving their comitment or any combat losses. Star Fleet acadamy just didnt seem that big and when wesly crusher they were only takeing one applicant from that planet. The federation only has like 400 planets so were they takeing thousands from some and just one from others.

paladin · Post by **paladin** » 2003-07-15 07:43pm

They do have enlisted in SF. Startrek.com lists O'Brien's rank as Chief Petty Officer.

TNG episode"The Drumhead," an medtech admits in enlisted in SF instead of applying to the Academy because of his Romulan grandfather. Crewman Tarses enlisting was his only chance to join SF.

TNG episode"Family" Worf's adapted father insists Geordi call him chief because he was an enlisted man and worked for a living.

The reason why we don't hear more about the enlisted personnel of SF is simply bad writing. The writers are straight jacketed Roddenberry's idea that all SF members are officers.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2003-07-15 07:45pm

EDIT: Seems I took too long to write my post.

I remember reading a non-canon source stating that Starfleet Academy was not the only means for people to get into Starfleet... that doesn't count, but was it ever mentioned that Starfleet Academy was the only path into Starfleet service?

not to mention the amount who will get out after serving their comitment

Everything I've seen leads me to believe that almost everyone who gets into Starfleet sees it as a career.

I also doubt that the SFA campus we've seen at San Francisco is the *only* campus on Earth, let alone the entire Federation.

Maybe the San Francisco campus is for the "command" officers? I remember one TNG episode having a stupid little side-plot (god, you could tell they were bringing in the soap opera writers then) about Troi taking some test before being a bridge officer or something.

Hasler · Post by **Hasler** » 2003-07-15 08:52pm

I always wondered because the porpotion of officers was increadibly high and officers were doing enlisted duties. The Helm has traditionally been manned by enlisted. I see lots of ensigns in security details, fixing things, etc. All thes jobs should be handled by enlisted. An ensign should command the equivalent of a platoon 32 men a LTJG shoul have a company 2-3 platoons and so on. A ship with a thousand man crew should have no more than 100 officers max.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-07-17 11:55am

It does seem to be a paradox. Does is not seem like every officer in star fleet of the same age went to the academy together. Now, I went to a "largish" high school. There where around 800 seniors and I didnt know half of them by name. Imagine Star Fleet Academy which is more like a university where there would be thousands of Seniors, assuming its not as big as the original poster stated.

One thing Ive notice about the Star Trek universe in general is the writers simply pull numbers out of the air without any thought.