What's with the Uniforms?

Trek was always top heavy with officers.
In real navies the head of security is a Master at Arms, a chief petty officer or higher.
In Trek it is an officer.

 

It's the difference between Starfleet and today's navies in which officers are frequently assigned grunt work too. The majority of enlisted personnel serve mainly as technicians, IMO.

 

We've seen mercifully little of soldiers and marines in canon Star Trek.

 

^^^ "Mercifully" little? That's a curious phrase. Surely you would see the need for such a branch of the service, despite Roddenberry's anti-military leanings. There might even be some very interesting stories to tell there. The Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians and other factions excel at ground-based troop movements to board other ships and take over planets. Without a similar force to repel them, Starfleet would be woefully out-classed and need to resort to planetary bombardment. And that's not very Starfleet - even though they do have General Order 24. Hmmm...maybe that's why...

 

Yes, but are we sure that this was Kirk-Prime. Remember this guys was named James R. Kirk. Kirk-Prime was James T. Kirk

 

It's not a real time and place, so any such "need" is hypothetical unless required by a story. Since I have no interest in watching that kind of thing - I much prefer Star Trek as it is - "mercifully" is entirely appropriate.

 

O'Brien continued to wear Lieutenant's pips until TNG's sixth season, when he began wearing a single hollow rank pip, which he continued to wear on DS9 up until the fourth season when he began wearing a new rank pin with three chevrons on it.

Voyager's Maquis crew wear rank pins which contain stripes that work on the same principle as the Starfleet pips. They are very different than the rank insignia used by Starfleet cadets.

 

We know that Starfleet does indeed have ground troops. DS9 mentioned that phrase in several episodes. And we've seen them in others. We just don't know what they are actually called.

 

Re O'Brien, he was originally an extra. When he became a regular they decided to make him a chief petty officer so assigned him a single hollow pip.
In DS9 they finally designed a proper petty officer insignia, his had three stripes and two dots of a senior chief petty officer.
They then had a chief petty officer wear this same rank, messing up as usual.

 

O'Brien was never an "extra." Extras are people in the background who never have dialogue. O'Brien always had dialogue.

O'Brien wore an Ensign's rank pip in Encounter at Farpoint and Lonely Among Us. Starting in season 2 of TNG, he begins wearing a full Lieutenant's rank pips, and is even referred to as "Lieutenant O'Brien" by Riker in Where Silence Has Lease. Despite being established as a Chief Petty Officer in Family, O'Brien continues wearing Lieutenant's pips until season 6 when he switches to the single hollow pip.

 

Don't like soldiers much?

 

Hmm, I seemed to have touched a nerve.
I'm not suggesting every story have soldiers/ Marines, or MACO's. It does however, strike my bad side when they are referred to with distaste.

 

You missed M'Sharak's point completely.

 

M'Sharak missed my point.

 

'Marines' = combat roles. I'm tired of 'Battle Trek'. DS9 did the interstellar war thing so well that I feel it never needs to be revisited. I want to go back to Trek being about intrepid explorers that occasionally get into scuffles, not MACO/Section 31 tripe.

 

We don't have to see the 'marines' in every episode or film, I'll settle for the occasional mention of them. Just to know that they're there at all.

 

IIRC, My Name Is Legion real life job is/was at the Pentagon. I've a feeling he likes soldiers just fine.