How did Starfleet recruit new servicemen following the Burn and before the reopening of Starfleet ac

Probably decentralized similar to Icheb on Voyager, with training maintained by isolated Starfleet outposts.(Wunderlands by Una Mcormack describes N.C.O Sahil employing a courier mercenary Jeremiah as technician in exchange for ship repairs which probaby reveals a common practice of a core Starfleet crew and the extra manpower being mercs)

 

Training staff on individual ships.

 

Maybe a Starfleet recruitment ship slowly goes around to the remaining UFP member worlds to pick up volunteers then informally train them in holodecks before they're assigned to other ships and stations.

 

There's already a history of "Starfleet familes" going on for generations, and perhaps that might have continued further. Might also explain more multi-species hybrids. The dating pool dries up, at some point you cross the species line? There were also people like we saw in season 3 who believed in the ideal of Starfleet. At least some of them probably found their way to headquarters. On top of that, Starfleet was still performing humanitarian missions when it could, and that might have occasionally meant they had new boots on deck.

And there were still Starfleet recruiters:
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Senna_Tal

 

Everyone must've been enlisted servicepeople. Hardly any officers. Probably around the same time that giant statue of Miles O'Brien was built (as confirmed in Lower Decks).

 

Probably something similar to the 22nd century, where there is a Starfleet basic training course, but any other qualifications depend on the education and experience one gets from other sources.

 

They basically said at the start of season three it was going from father to son to grandson and so on. Now they've got some planets back they can reopen the academy.

With a first class of 12 students
I wonder if they tried that AR wall with virtual actors and it didn't work so well?

 

Yeah, it seems like Starfleet became a sort of "the family business." Especially when you factor in that, if they were afraid of activating their warp drives for any extended period (and with dilithium already strained), a lot of ships probably became generational to some degree or another, with the crew teaching their children about the care and maintenance of their ships that were basically all that was Starfleet at that point. If it would take years or decades to reach safe harbor, children would be born and raised entirely on board the ship, leading to them filling the gaps as their elders had to step down.

That in mind, this inaugural class could be the first Starfleet crew not born from the ranks of the existing crew in about a century. Which also explains that low class size, given that this is still the early days of Starfleet and the Federation rebuilding, being ABLE to rebuild, now that they know that another Burn won't happen.

 

I'd say Cadets from Federation member worlds and colonies were probably just trained onboard Starfleet ships, learning on the job with no formal education. I imagine some crews may have been generational in the sense that officers trained their children from a young age to fill future positions in Starfleet. One of the Angelou class ships may have served as training/cadet vessel.

 

I think it's possible to have a Starfleet and an officer corps without an academy.

 

That's why he became the most important person in Starfleet history! Immediate headcanon until I hear otherwise.

 

How did Starfleet recruit new servicemen...

The wizened old recruiter would pull out their Gillette razor / flip-phone communicator, draw a drop of blood, and test the child soldier's Fedichlorian count. If it was high enough, they took the initiate away from the only family and homeworld they'd ever known, left their parent(s) in slavery, and told them not to worry about it, because attachments lead to the Dark Side of the Federation (Sithction 31).

Now they have become a Cadetawan at the Academy, and must be careful not to join the arrogant and reckless Red Squad, because that's also considered the Dark Side of the Fleet. After a period of four years, or alternatively one weekend at a swamp planet retreat, they can complete their training and become a Fedi Knight.

Ten more years or a shady Presidential appointment after that, and you may become a Fedi Master Debater and sit on the Fedi Council, but Admiral Morrow Windu might deny you the rank of Master, which is outrageous, and totally won't make you go rogue and steal a ship or anything.

You may also cheat code your way to becoming a Fedi Master by fighting and defeating your father in Anbo-Jitsu, but it will come at a cost, as your injuries will never allow you to sit down in a chair normally ever again.

 

Something to bear in mind is that even if Starfleet Academy wasn't functioning anymore, the remaining Federation Member planets might have had space force academies of their own that could have provided comparable training. The Virginia Military Institute is an organ of the Commonwealth of Virginia, not the U.S. federal government, but its graduates may receive officers' commissions from any U.S. Armed Forces branch except the Coast Guard. And we know from S1 that graduates of the Vulcan Science Academy could receive Federation Starfleet officer commissions as far back as the 2250s. So there's a strong chance that Member governments' own planetary space force academies were feeding what remained of the Federation Starfleet officer corps after the Burn.

 

I think that huge arboretum ship could have served as a mobile Academy:

 

We saw a Vulcan officer on a Vulcan ship be transferred to a Starfleet vessel as recently as season 2 of Lower Decks, set in 2381.

 

I always wondered this considering Vance rose all the way through the ranks to become the grand poobah (Commander in chief) of Starfleet.

 

I think they brought back shanghaiing

 

We don't really know how old Vance is, it's possible he may have been from the last Academy class to graduate before the Burn.

 

that would make him over a hundred years old.

 

Starfleet also used the midshipman system as far back as TWOK, though in Preston's case it was hist first training cruise. he did not appear to be apprenticed. The midshipmen rank in modern times is different then what it once was in most navies.

The US Navy did not have an academy for its first 50 year (also did not have Admirals during that time), preferring to apprentice midshipmen on board naval vessels. The Merchant Marine and Revenue Cutter Services all had similar arrangements. Starfleet could have done something like that, I guess.