Starfleet is the U.S. Coast Guard

Discussion in 'General Trek Discussion' started by The Green Mushroom, Dec 18, 2012.

  1. The Green Mushroom

    The Green Mushroom Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Mar 19, 2001
    Location:
    United States
    As the thread title suggests, the more I think about it the more it seems to me that Starfleet isn't the U.S. or Royal Navy in space. It is the U.S. Coast Guard in space.

    In the U.S. Coast Guard, there are many small boat stations and small cutters where there are no commissioned officers and the station/cutter is commanded by a Chief or a warrant officer. There even, I believe, some larger cutters where the chief engineer isn't a commissioned officer but a lifelong enlisted man who has spent his career fixing engines.

    When (most) people join the Coast Guard, they are sent to a cutter or station right after basic training and work for as long as two years before heading to school to be trained for a specific job. Some are called Seamen and work on the boat deck. Some are called Firemen and work with engines. The rest become Airmen and work at air stations. But on a cutter or at a small boat station, seamen and firemen can all go on boarding parties, and apply for or even serve an apprenticeship for any available job. Those that end up as Boatswain's Mates (BM) continue to work on the deck, lead boarding parties, navigate the boats, etc. At some point, a BM who makes chief may become eligible for command.

    Starfleet has shades of much of that, at least to me.

    • If nothing else, Stafleet's mission of law enforcement, defense, search and rescue, humanitarian aid, science, etc. is not all that different from the Coast Guard where a ship can arrest smugglers one day, escort a missile submarine the next day, and protect fisheries on a third.
    • Junior Officers (including Worf, Wesley, LaForge, Chekov) are given command uniforms and then allowed to work in several departments until making a decision. They are not all that different from first and second year Coast Guardsmen working under a BM before choosing/being assigned a rate.
    • People stay in the career field and move up the ranks that way. A Coast Guard enlisted engineer never has to move into another job to be promoted. Scot and LaForge can stay as career engineers because they are not expected to move up into command despite their ranks. Though I understand that there are a few navies that have engineering officers who don't ever take command of the boat.
    • Though I admit it makes no sense on a ship with a crew in the hundreds to send their command cadres on every single away mission, Coast Guard leaders will often lead boarding parties to keep in practice. I also remember a few years ago that the commander of the local Coast Guard station was fired in part because it turned out that he could not drive all of the boats at his station. Apparently, at least in some part of the USCG if you cannot perform a mission you cannot lead that mission.
    If you can get past the fact that there are seemingly few enlisted men (which I can by thinking police officer when someone calls himself a Starlfeet officer) and the fact that mid-career changes in specialty happen, Starfleet seems more like the Coast Guard than the Navy.
     
    nightwind1 likes this.
  2. Use of Time

    Use of Time Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Jul 25, 2012
    Location:
    Va. Beach, VA
    Except that the Coast Guard doesn't fight full scale wars like the Dominion War for example.
     
  3. MacLeod

    MacLeod Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 8, 2001
    Location:
    Great Britain
    Royal Navy vessels intercept drug smuggling

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11553229

    Royal Navy protects ships

    Drifting Cargo

    http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/News-an...hips-protect-drifting-tanker-in-pirate-waters

    Royal Navy protects Fishery vessels

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishery_Protection_Squadron

    And of course the Royal Navy fights in battles/wars when called upon

    Perhaps the US Navy leaves that sort of thing to the US Coast Guard, but as the Royal Navy does that it would appear that Starfleet operates in a similar fashion to the Royal Navy.
     
  4. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Premium Member

    Joined:
    Jan 30, 2001
    Location:
    America, Fuck Yeah!!!
    Yeah. Starfleet is every branch of the service rolled into one, except they aren't the military. :lol:
     
  5. C.E. Evans

    C.E. Evans Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Nov 22, 2001
    Location:
    Ferguson, Missouri, USA
    Starfleet has a lot of similarities with various Earth navies, but some differences too. It doesn't do everything the same way that they did.
     
  6. MacLeod

    MacLeod Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 8, 2001
    Location:
    Great Britain
    No matter how they want to dress it up, Starfleet performs military functions.

    Sure it's primary mission might be seek out new life and new civilisations etc.. but it's secondary mission is the protection of the Federation.
     
  7. The Wormhole

    The Wormhole Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 23, 2001
    Location:
    The Wormhole
    Not to get too nitpicky or anything, but everything we've seen Starfleet do can be and has been done by most navies or other military branches today. The only notable difference is that Starfleet has a larger science division than navies/militaries of today. But this is a necessity of operating in space, not proof that they any less of a military.

    This example means nothing given that three of the junior officers you cited were helm/navigation, which is a command officer's post.
     
  8. Nerys Myk

    Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

    Joined:
    Nov 4, 2001
    Location:
    AI Generated Madness
    Including NOAA and the PHS.
     
  9. Star Wolf

    Star Wolf Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 14, 2003
    Location:
    ciudad de Los Angeles
    But then they do fight in full scale wars like the First and Second World Wars. Now the Navy might not assign a cutter to the line of battleships about to face the Yamato but they did perform missions from convoy escort to being part of the Marine and Army landing fleets.
     
    nightwind1 likes this.
  10. Spike730

    Spike730 Captain Captain

    Joined:
    May 31, 2002
    Location:
    Austria
    Which, I think, is also true for the US Navy.
     
  11. nightwind1

    nightwind1 Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Dec 28, 2010
    Location:
    Des Moines, IA
    Wrong.

    During wartime, the USCG is attached to the Department of the Navy. At least it was in '88-'93, when I was a Petty Officer. Nowadays, it's under Homeland Security, so I'm not 100% sure it would still be attached to Navy.

    When I was a Coastie, I actually wrote an article for potential submission to a Trek fanzine doing a comparison of Starfleet/USCG.

    Unfortunately, I don't think I can find the 5.25" floppy the article was stored on.
     
  12. nightwind1

    nightwind1 Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Dec 28, 2010
    Location:
    Des Moines, IA
    [​IMG]
    Semper Paratus
     
  13. KamenRiderBlade

    KamenRiderBlade Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2012
    As far as I'm concerned.

    Starfleet is a multi-discipline arm of the UFP.

    It's one part Coast Guard
    One part military
    One part exploration
    One part Diplomacy Corp.
    One part research group
    One part Engineering force.
    Etc.
     
  14. R. Star

    R. Star Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Jun 15, 2012
    Location:
    Shangri-La
    One of Starfleet's purposes is national defense. No matter how much Roddenberry is in denial about it, that means it's a military.
     
  15. The Wormhole

    The Wormhole Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 23, 2001
    Location:
    The Wormhole
    The US Coast Guard is a branch of the military, and everything else on that list can be done by the military and has. Even diplomacy, as there are times when foreign VIPs are ferried by military aircraft or navy boats. Constantly splitting hairs about "Starfleet is more than a military, Starfleet is multi-disciplined," and so on are unnecessary. Starfleet is the military, period. I don't care what Roddenberry said.
     
  16. Star Wolf

    Star Wolf Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 14, 2003
    Location:
    ciudad de Los Angeles
    Well he came from an era when politics called for renaming military's of the word, thus the "People's Armies" when the people had no choice, the japanese Self Defense Forces.

    But then we have our prejudices also. "Security" is not good enough for Ground Self Defense forces :rommie:, they must be Starfleet Marines. And because Enterprise and Voyager's primary mission is not to seek out and destroy it is not a "Navy" but a Coast Guard with the finest weapons the Federation economy can supply
     
  17. KamenRiderBlade

    KamenRiderBlade Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2012
    More like the US military is Multi-Disciplined.
     
  18. The Wormhole

    The Wormhole Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 23, 2001
    Location:
    The Wormhole
    Militaries of other countries are essentially the same. If this makes them "multi-disciplined," than I guess that is typical of what a military is, and Starfleet is no different.
     
  19. lurok

    lurok Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2011
    Location:
    Lost in the EU expanse with a nice cup of tea
    Maybe I've grown up in a different era/culture but I've never considered Starfleet anything other than military. As someone mentioned upthread, akin to our RN. That's why Reed joined after all. Next best thing :)
     
  20. jayrath

    jayrath Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2001
    Location:
    West Hollywood, Calif., USA
    Please tell me what branch of any country's military today has a science division?