A Starfleet draft during the Dominion War

[Kemaiku]

201 billion eligible recruits, for an organisation which operates in terms of a few million active personnel at the best of times. and could easily streamline the roles required to function in wartime, not to mention the usual surge in interest that we tend to see under such circumstances.

There's no need to draft is my point, just the opposite, regardless of the ethical questions.

Of course the OP's point is that stories revolving around those ethical questions would make for good trek, which I completely agree with, but it would be difficult to work them into the setting without it creating yet another "How big is SF?" "is there money in the 24th century?" style circular fan debate....

I know, I just don't see them either having to or being willing to ever make that decision. They wouldn't force people to serve even if they didn't have such a large pool to draw from.

In the novels, there was no draft during the Earth Romulan War. When they did have a lot less people to call on and faced the destruction of Earth. If it was unthinkable then, they won't do it in the 2370's.

 

[UssGlenn]

Is Starfleet even military to be able to draft people?

Closest thing we have in canon is the "little-known, seldom-used" reserve activation clause. "In simpler language, captain, they drafted me!"

 

[XCV330]

modern armies don't do as well with conscription forces as there is too much training involved to make it very worthwhile. Calling up people to train them how to perform complicated starship duties doesn't sound like something you're going to get ready in a few months.

but I could see some sort of unmentioned Starfleet Reserve callup.

 

[The Wormhole]

Wouldn't a draft be difficult since everyone's an officer and attends the Academy? Really, all a draft would do is increase how many cadets are now moving to San Francisco.

 

[Spot261]

They bypass training and integrate them directly into the ship, forming a collective consciousness which exists to serve the whole.

 

[Timo]

For some reason, ships in the TNG era have bigger crews than in the preceding eras, relative to their size. Huge crews are quoted especially in DS9 during the Dominion War. Does this in fact suggest that war is manpower-intensive after all?

Cases in point: Archer flies a ship with a saucer bigger than Kirk's, but only needs 80 people to save Earth, this including extra troopers with fries. Kirk's ship with 430 people is considered "packed" by Dax in the DS9 nostalgia episode, and no wonder, when DSC shows the norm for the day to be more like hundred-plus for ships of that size or larger (and "The Cage" already referred to 200 people being fitting for Kirk's eventual ship).

Yet in "Field of Fire", an Excelsior goes down with all but six of 1250 crew...

Are these ships perhaps hauling ground action troops? Could those be useful with minimal training (even when the average infantryman carries more firepower than today's infantry division)? Or do starships at war require more people for combat repairs (and can that be done with unskilled labor?)? If so, why aren't ships upcrewed for war in DSC...?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Grendelsbayne]

If they were going to try a draft story, I would think it would best be done hand in hand with an experimental technology story. Like, for instance, technological learning techniques which might be able to reduce Academy training to a few weeks instead of years. Does 'superlearning' take its toll? Does it prove reliable long-term? Might not trainees perhaps lose something in the speed of it? Etc.

Or one could look at Starfleet trying their own cloning program - beat the Dominion at its own game. Maybe there are other ideas, as well.

In the end, though, I think I'd rather just have the technology stories by themselves. The draft aspect really isn't necessary.

 

[Timo]

Alternately, that is, conversely, Starfleet might suddenly find a need for manpower through the adoption of game-changing supertech. Alien stuff, perhaps, or a desperate UFP invention.

People might volunteer to defend their homes the way grandma did, with a phaser and a photon torpedo. They might not line up to be plugged into this telekinetic combat chamber that uses humanoid brains as a key component, though, even if the propaganda kept stressing how the new tech would be decisive in the war.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Closest thing we have in canon is the "little-known, seldom-used" reserve activation clause. "In simpler language, captain, they drafted me!"

Which was Kirk's idea all along.

 

[thribs]

Thanks! Now you've spoiled it for me

I never said which novel.
It's obvious right away.

 

[Nyotarules]

Closest thing we have in canon is the "little-known, seldom-used" reserve activation clause. "In simpler language, captain, they drafted me!"

I bet Prime Admiral Marcus put that clause in lol

 

[tomalak301]

Reading this thread, I was thinking about Nor the Battle To the Strong? Were they starfleet? If I recall they were ground soldiers but they were not wearing starfleet uniforms. Was that the closest thing to a draft during the Dominion war that we saw or am I just mis-remembering the episode.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

Reading this thread, I was thinking about Nor the Battle To the Strong? Were they starfleet? If I recall they were ground soldiers but they were not wearing starfleet uniforms. Was that the closest thing to a draft during the Dominion war that we saw or am I just mis-remembering the episode.

I don't think any part of the episode implied they were drafted. They were just ground troops, which is something we don't see much in the franchise, so we don't know exactly how they work/who they take orders from/whether they always exist or not.

The Siege of AR 558 was explicitly all uniformed starfleet officers, right? Were there any other episodes that showed extensive ground battles and the people who fought them? I know it also at least implied that O'Brien was involved in some at Setlik III, so maybe the non-starfleet ground troops are just an emergency thing, like the national guard.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

In areas that are off the beaten path (would take the nearest Starfleet ship two weeks to get to), I'd imagine they might have their own colony defense brigade with maybe a small Starfleet liaison contingent for training and organizational purposes.

 

[kkt]

It wasn't clearly established, but I suspect the ground troops in "Nor the Battle to the Strong" were some local police department enlarged by volunteers, and were just fighting because they were the only organized force around.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ No, they were Starfleet.

 

[kkt]

^ No, they were Starfleet.

Okay, I will rewatch. (no, no, don't make watch DS9 again

 

[XCV330]

Wouldn't a draft be difficult since everyone's an officer and attends the Academy? Really, all a draft would do is increase how many cadets are now moving to San Francisco.

everyone but O'Brien
maybe he got drafted in the Cardassian war
because every bad shitty thing that can possibly happen in the Trek universe must have happened at some point to Miles

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

everyone but O'Brien
maybe he got drafted in the Cardassian war

No, in one DS9 episode O'Brien mentions that he voluntarily enlisted in Starfleet.

 

[The Wormhole]

The Siege of AR 558 was explicitly all uniformed starfleet officers, right?

No, The Siege of AR-558 has ground troops wearing the same uniforms from Nor the Battle to the Strong

It wasn't clearly established, but I suspect the ground troops in "Nor the Battle to the Strong" were some local police department enlarged by volunteers, and were just fighting because they were the only organized force around.

One of them was ranked Chief Petty Officer (at least in the script) which I'd say is sufficient to make clear they weren't police.