a few more quick questions

[mythme]

Why were all these Starships manned with newly graduated cadets rather than experienced personel?

Six ships (I believe) plus the Enterprise are all assigned new grads just before undertaking a major crisis happening on Vulcan? That seems incredibly odd to me. No wonder the fleet was decimated by the time the Enterprise arrived at Vulcan - none of these ships had seasons vets commanding them.

Furthermore, in an severe suspension of belief, everyone seemed to be promoted IMMEDIATELY:
Spock to Captain after Pike's MIA
Uhura because the communication's officer wasn't fluent in Romulan
McCoy because the CMO died in a breech
Sulu because the helm officer was ill (really dumb reason)
Scotty because the CE was killed on the rig. Nobody even really knew this guy's credientials. I guess Kirk REALLY trusted Spock's prime recommendation for Scotty.
And of course Kirk kinda gets command out of sheer pomp and circumstance.

Were there no veterans other than Pike at that space dock??? And if there was, why were they all replaced almost immediately by freshmen?

(don't get me wrong. I liked the film, but this is starting to stick in my craw a bit.)

One more thing - Are Kirk, Sulu and Uhura all supposed to be the same age?

 

[Islander]

They had shore leave... on Riza...

 

[Praetor]

Well, one might conclude that most of those ships were not on active missions and thus "in port" and their crews were elsewhere on leave, and more difficult to recall than simply deploying cadets. (The Enterprise for her part, was brand new.) Also, Starfleet believed what was happening to be a natural disaster rather than a tactical one, so time and people may have been more of a concern than waiting for the actual officers to return.