Enough.
Is Starfleet a military organization?
- Thread starter Commander Troi
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Enough.
"Military" as a noun is pretty recent, around the WW2 period, and by then, in the mass-conscription era, was widely applied to naval forces. As an adjective, it was historically applied to land forces primarily, but was also used for navies in specific contexts. It was a distinction left over from the days when the line between the merchant and naval services was blurred, when navies were quickly dismantled after a war and naval officers were all effectively "reserves;" most had to find another job if there wasn't a war on. But both the British and US navies used the term "military" for themselves, internally, in some contexts in the 1800s, often in reference to officers. As opposed to enlisted men, who were considered basically interchangeable with merchant seamen until the late 1800s.
I'd define it as a permanently established organization that employs fighting force on behalf of a state or government. Which Starfleet clearly is.
It was once fairly common. Commodore Perry's "opening" of Japan is a pretty well-known event in US history. You can read details of many such missions in Diplomatic Negotiations of American Naval Officers 1778-1783, Charles O. Paulin, 1912. From the preface:
The diplomatic negotiations of American naval officers fall within the period 1778-1883 and relate to several countries, the most important of which are France, Denmark, the Barbary Powers, Turkey, China, Japan, Korea, Hawaii and Samoa.
Sure. A snapshot view of any force at different historical points can reveal massive differences in organization and tasking, depending on national priorities and the international situation. The duties and deployment of the British Royal Navy from, say, 1860 to 1905 would be very comparable to what we've seen of Starfleet.
The actual mission assignments which are shown, BTW, are often fairly routine Federation business, despite all the talk of exploration.
hä? we used the word militär (german for military (nown) as an adjective it is militärisch) a lot ... and besides having some coast we are usually considered a country that fights it's wars on land
As an adjective it's very old in English: "military force," "military discipline," "military officer," "military science," "military academy" and so on. "The military" or "a military" on its own is more recent.
got a source that says used at least since 1757 - would you call the united states a 'more recent county'?
What's the reference?
gotz a source for yours?
Hundreds, knock yourself out:
https://books.google.com/ngrams/gra...tart=1700&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3
Yes and no. The USCG is kind of an odd entity, partly from being the oldest extant armed force in the US, and also from being a conglomerate of a lot of components, i.e. the Revenue Cutter Service, the LifeBoat Service, and whatever the Light house keeping service was called I am too whatever to look it up.
Law Enforcement and military duties are performed by the regular Coast Guard and the Coast Guard Reserve. During times of war or when otherwise authorized to do so, the CG falls under the Navy command structure. However unlike the Navy, guardsmen may also be involved in law enforcement. All regular and reserve members of the USCG due fall under the uniform code of military justice.. i.e. they can be court martialled. They are also able to get military benefits, and are considered veterans after their honorable discharge.
But there is also the Coast Guard Auxiliary (cgaux). They can be differentiated in dress uniform by the fact they have silver buttons and not gold. They do not have a military rank structure. Their organization unit is the Flotilla. They perform volunteer work relating to safety (such as at boating events), public affairs, checking aids to navigation, voluntary vessel safety check, etc. They are unpaid, except for meal stipends during boat crew duty. They can work alongside the regular coasties, and do on occasion. They don't normally salute, but may return salutes while in uniform. They are neither military nor law enforcement and cannot be involved in any of those operations. they are not subject to the UCMJ. CGAUX vessels have placards identifying them as such. CGaux boats fly a different ensign, as well.
So they are military, and law enforcement and also at the same time not always.
So, Starfleet? Or this thread in a nutshell?
Well, Regulars and Reserve are always law enforcement because they have authorization to use those powers at any time, an example of this is that -- like most LEOs -- they have the authority to carry personal firearms off-base and off-duty per Powers v. Booth, although for resource management issues this is rarely done for service-issued firearms.
Their military status is a little more complicated as they are covered under UCMJ at all times and are entitled to all military pay and privileges of their rank. However, technically not being under the Department of Defense means that their authorization to take part in military operations is limited short of a specific secondment or transfer.
I'm here to discuss money in the UFP...
Because in the Trek future Earth leases the planet to the UFP
And yet, I have never read of any navy where the purpose of the fleet is X first, war-fighting second.
That's an interesting part of Britannia history, isn't it? An extremely long period where Britain was not at war with any European power, and the Royal Navy is used mostly for intimidation and the occasional shore bombardment. The ideas of the "two-power policy"* and the policy that "the British Army was merely a projectile to be fired by the British Navy"** still express the martial nature of the service though.
You do know that those search parameters include adjective uses, right? Like "a military man"
*(the Royal Navy would always be as strong as its next two rivals combined)
**(The Late Victorian Navy by Roger Parkinson, page 12)
I've heard of Federation Credits, Quatloos, Latinum and Gold Pressed Latinum, take your pick.
Indeed, I think it's only something like 20% of TNG episodes are actually about exploration. I don't know the figure for TOS offhand, though I think it's comparable.
They did a lot of health checks and ferrying.
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