A question about the ST rank system

[Toban Kal]

It's something that's always bugged me but I've never been able to find an answer to. Maybe if I had more information on military rankings and so forth I might have a better idea, but since I don't I'll just ask here.

What's the difference between an enlisted officer and a commissioned officer?

Chief O'Brien say's he never went to starfleet academy; and that's why he only has the rank of Senior Chief Petty Officer and not LT Commander or something. He also say's that he stayed an enlisted man so he has an excuse to not appear at formal functions in full dress.
In one DS9 episode he commented that two people who worked in enginering on the Defiant hadn't gone to starfleet acadamy.

The we have Nog, who was a cadet, Ensign then then Jr Grade Lieutenant. all after going to the acadamey.

I always thought that to serve in starfleet and on a starship you had to go to starfleet acadamy. Unless a situation like Voyager comes up, where the maquis crews were absorbed into Voyager's crew and given provisional ranks equel to thier experience.

All I am sure about is that it's nothing to do with engineering. I've heard pleanty of engineers be referred to as Lieutenant and so on, and Geordi and B'lana Torres both attended the academy (before she dropped out of course). Geordi worked his way up through the ranks to become cheif engineer.

I just wonder how somone goes about becoming a petty officer working on a starship and why they wouldn't go to the academy and become an ensign.

 

[Idoliside]

Originally getting into Starfleet Academy required quite a bit of intelligence, as people could fail the entrance exam. (Lil ol Wesley)

I believe the Navy has a similar scheme.

 

[Sci]

Wikipedia is your friend.

Officer

NCOs

 

[JNG]

An enlisted man isn't an officer. He's an enlisted man.

There are lots of reasons why someone wouldn't want to be an officer. Beyond not necessarily wanting to be, few can cut it.

It's roughly like the difference between getting a job which requires some training and going to a full university program to get a degree before you can assume a position.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I love this thing that a lot of enlisted types will say (and which O'Brien also once said): "Don't call me Sir. I work for a living."

 

[Timo]

Indeed, one might say that being enlisted is a job: you train for it briefly, and during the course of the job you might train a bit more every now and then. You collect a pay, and then when you thin you have had enough, you leave.

Being commissioned is a bit different: basically, you sell your soul to the military, and they retain the right to drag you back to action till your advanced years, or even till your grave if you are an important enough an officer.

I'd think Starfleet would like to operate on such a basis, too: it would want some very dedicated people who'd think of Starfleet as a lifelong career, and then lots of workers who would give some years of their life (perhaps those when they are in their physical prime, but in the 24th century that's not a very limiting definition!) to the organization but wouldn't care for it beyond that. Naturally, the first-category folks would be trained for jobs of leadership and multifaceted competence, while "followers" and narrow-field specialists wouldn't go for the commitment nor need the sort of prolonged multifield training.

Whether there is any hint of the old divisions between these two categories is debatable. In the mists of history, only people who were born to a leadership position (that is, to a noble family) could become officers; even when competence began to matter more, it remained customary that you needed to buy the higher ranks, usually for a considerable amount of money. Also, enlisted people usually got and get paid less, as their expertise is considered lesser. But if most of Starfleet's enlisteds are narrow-field specialists, they can be more valuable to that organization than its officers are...

It also remains debatable whether there are any salary differences between the various ranks and rates - or indeed any salaries, period. Thus, there wouldn't be any particular incentive to abandon the division to enlisteds and commissioneds, even in a hyperegalitarian future society...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[CoveTom]

This discussion is also made difficult by the fact that, like so many things in Trek, the idea behind the composition of Starfleet changed from time to time. At one point, it was Gene Roddenberry's stated intention that there were no enlisted personnel in Starfleet -- everyone was a Starfleet officer who had graduated from Starfleet Academy. And at some times, the on-screen dialogue seemed to support this. At other times, however -- most prominently with Chief O'Brien -- it was made clear that Starfleet did have enlisted personnel.

 

[Toban Kal]

SO basically you're saying that O'Brian just wandered up to a starship one day and said "Are you hiring?" instead of going to the academy and spending a couple of years working as a cadet?

 

[cultcross]

SO basically you're saying that O'Brian just wandered up to a starship one day and said "Are you hiring?" instead of going to the academy and spending a couple of years working as a cadet?

Sort of. The equivalent today would be going to your nearest naval recruiting station and enlisting as a seaman. You get training - basic 'boot camp' followed usually by some kind of specialist training, but you don't attend an 'academy' or go through the pomp and circumstance of being an officer.
O'Brien will have enlisted, probably having already obtained an engineering qualification of some sort, and risen through the enlisted gradings (or 'ratings'. Technically they're not 'ranks') to Chief Petty Officer and above - hence being addressed as 'Chief'. This type of rating is called a 'non-commissioned officer', and merely denotes a senior enlisted man with supervisory responsibilities over more junior ones. In reality, a senior, experienced NCO would be one of a military's most valuable assets and afforded great respect, but at least on paper, Nog, an officer fresh out of the Academy, outranks him.

The issue is often confused on Star Trek by endless referring to the cast as "Starfleet Officers" including O'Brien. It seems that Starfleet simply refers to its personnel as 'Starfleet Officers' regardless of whether they're actually an officer, in terms of comparison with today's military.

 

[Timo]

Actually, we know some details of O'Brien's early career. In "Playing God", he reveals that he essentially fled from his parents to Starfleet when they wanted him to become a famous cellist. In "Armageddon Game", "Paradise" and "Empok Nor", we in turn learn that he first enlisted as an infantryman of some sort, and participated in many ground battles in the Cardassian War. At one point, he was forced to field-repair a transporter to save himself and his pals from approaching Cardassians, and that eventually got him interested in an engineering career in Starfleet. He had had related hobbies as a kid, but he only engaged in serious studies while well into his Starfleet career - typical of enlisted careers, perhaps.

Timo Saloniemi