The Star Trek novelverse uses the term astrogator as well as navigator
Why is there resistance to the idea of Starfleet being military?
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Where the navigator is usually seen as junior to the helmsman, while in naval usage the navigator would be a senior officer and a helmsman enlisted. "The conn" on the other hand is the authority to give helm orders.
In DS9 IIRC they also started giving a couple of Starfleet officers the very non-naval title of "adjutant." Which makes enough sense for a "combined service."
The British and Commonwealth navies generally use cadet for student officers in classroom training, while a midshipman is a probationary or entry-level junior officer actually serving in operational units. The USN also used "naval cadet" instead of midshipman from 1882 to 1902.
Robert Heinlein used "astrogator" in a lot of his books.
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Britain has Air, Sea and Army Cadets. It's basically the Boy Scouts with occasional fire arms training and a potential career. Usually full of working class kids who have the time of their lives flying planes etc, but have to go and do basic military training and learn to polish their boots and make their beds as part of the deal. Starfleet Cadets seem to fulfill a similar youth position.
They don't seem to be standard Starfleet weapons, is my point. Some of the things Sakonna asked quark for certainly weren't.
It's an example of some of the ways Starfleet is different from a conventional military, by way of defining what Starfleet IS, rather than attempting to define it as something it is not. To be sure, there is a distinct non-military operational focus on display in the spinoff series, which is consistent with the fact that Starfleet describes itself as a non-military organization.
Starfleet used "midshipman" in TOS and TWOK years too.
Especially in Texas.
I've been doing a little research on what a "national security organisation" established from the 'ground up' would actually do since the term came up up-thread in reference to the FBI. Contrary to the implication of the name, the US National Security Agency isn't this (it should properly be called the National Intelligence Agency or the National Surveilance Agency if you wish to preserve the initials). However, I think it is a good model for Starfleet's legal identity, if not necessarily a full explanation of it's practical identity.
A true National Security Organisation, would be a multi-displinary organisation with a wide remit into a number of areas:
1) Military Security: "the capability of a nation to defend itself, and/or deter military aggression" Not Starfleet's main focus, but most of it's starships are equipped to fill this function.
2) Economic Security/Security of Energy and Natural Resources: "In the context of politics and international relations, is the ability of a nation-state to follow its choice of policies to develop the national economy in the manner desired." Starfleet is very much involved in seeking out and developing new resources (and protecting existing sources) to insure the "post-scarcity" level of UFP prosperity is maintained.
3) Environmental Security: Starfleet is the 'go to' agency for ensuring safe travel throughout UFP territories and dealing with environmental issues (including but not limited to rogue asteriods and malfunctioning weather control systems).
4) Cyber-Security: Starfleet can be pretty lousy at this when the plot demands, but I think it's obvious that they would be the 'lead agency' in these cases, potentially with assistance from the Daystrom Institute, Memory Alpha or Federation Security (a plain-clothes agency apparently analogous to the Secret Service but with elements of the FBI and NSA.)
5) Other measures include civil defense/emergency preparedness (check), insuring the resilence and redundancy of critical infrastructure (primarly illustrated by reaction to loss of same), using intelligence/counter-intelligence and police to detect/defeat threats, espionage, loss of classified information and internal security threats (competence is sometimes debatable, but definately within their roles).
For political and ideological reasons, Starfleet mainly focuses on 2 & 3 when they have choice (science, research and diplomacy) but they definately work all five categories.
A true National Security Organisation, would be a multi-displinary organisation with a wide remit into a number of areas:
1) Military Security: "the capability of a nation to defend itself, and/or deter military aggression" Not Starfleet's main focus, but most of it's starships are equipped to fill this function.
2) Economic Security/Security of Energy and Natural Resources: "In the context of politics and international relations, is the ability of a nation-state to follow its choice of policies to develop the national economy in the manner desired." Starfleet is very much involved in seeking out and developing new resources (and protecting existing sources) to insure the "post-scarcity" level of UFP prosperity is maintained.
3) Environmental Security: Starfleet is the 'go to' agency for ensuring safe travel throughout UFP territories and dealing with environmental issues (including but not limited to rogue asteriods and malfunctioning weather control systems).
4) Cyber-Security: Starfleet can be pretty lousy at this when the plot demands, but I think it's obvious that they would be the 'lead agency' in these cases, potentially with assistance from the Daystrom Institute, Memory Alpha or Federation Security (a plain-clothes agency apparently analogous to the Secret Service but with elements of the FBI and NSA.)
5) Other measures include civil defense/emergency preparedness (check), insuring the resilence and redundancy of critical infrastructure (primarly illustrated by reaction to loss of same), using intelligence/counter-intelligence and police to detect/defeat threats, espionage, loss of classified information and internal security threats (competence is sometimes debatable, but definately within their roles).
For political and ideological reasons, Starfleet mainly focuses on 2 & 3 when they have choice (science, research and diplomacy) but they definately work all five categories.
Rifle Shooting Merit Badge and Shotgun Shooting Merit Badge. Have both.
Florida too.
But not in the UK so much...hence the lighthearted comment talking about Cadets. I mean I am sure if we look hard enough there's a Build a Nuclear Reactor from Alarm Clocks badge, but it's probably not an international standard....
Well it's not a badge, but boy scouts HAVE been known to dabble nuclear physics...
That's the one xD. Man...takes me back. About seven years before that I was trying to make an electric generator from Chinese takeaway chopsticks, magnets cut off a fridges door, and some copper wire. Kids today eh. PlayStation's.
I thought Stadi was the pilot, and Paris was there as a consultant?
But they would send her in with a full complement of photon torpedoes.
Quote correct, Stadi was the ship's pilot, Tom's status was an "observer:"
Also, he wasn't reactivated for the Caretaker mission. Though he did wear a Starfleet uniform, at the time he had no rank, and indeed wore no rank insignia in the episode. Until the end, when Janeway does officially reactivate him.
Admittedly, this matter does become muddled when we see a pre-Caretaker flashback scene in season 5's Relativity in which Janeway actually does request Tom Paris to be the ship's pilot. But even that's easily retconned as Starfleet met her halfway by allowing him his observer position during the mission and time out of prison, but not as a pilot.
Not "minor details", you were simply wrong.
Of course we find ourselves back with the Hornblower allegory where starfleet is based on the Royal Navy of yesteryear, a Royal Navy which was simultaneously a tool for policy enforcement and exploration, amongst other things. Modern navies are much the same, as hardly needs explaining yet again, yet no one questions whether they are "military"
The Royal Navy analogy is fine. But the purpose of contemporary militaries is not exploration. The whole problem here is about how individuals define a military, the goal or purpose of an archetypal Military, and whether Starfleet meets those criteria to the individual asking the question.
EDIT: Maybe the question isn't "is Starfleet a military" but rather "which military is Starfleet like, if any"?
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