At what point can you choose your post?

[GalaxyClass1701]

On nearly all the Trek series excluding VOY the starships/stations are like a revolving door with new crew members being transferred to and from constantly.

At what point do you get to say no I would rather serve on the Enterprise or turn down command opportunities like Ricker.

 

[The Wormhole]

In real life it's usually frowned upon to turn down promotions, and when you do it's very unlikely you'll get another one. Riker turning down two promotions before finally accepting the third is very rare.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Doctor Bashir was able to choose what assignment he wanted to serve on when he graduated from Starfleet Medical. Ensign Sonya Gomez wanted to serve on the Enterprise-D after graduating the Academy and apparently worked very hard at Starbase 173 to accomplish that.

Where you go may depend on how seriously urgent the need is or if it's at the request of a superior officer, etc., so it probably varies from person to person, IMO. It does seem, however, that senior officers or department heads aboard starships named Enterprise are generally in no hurry to transfer to another ship.

 

[Timo]

Doctor Bashir was able to choose what assignment he wanted to serve on when he graduated from Starfleet Medical.

...And this was said to be a reward for his good grades. Similarly, Uhura expected to be able to choose when excelling in her studies in STXI. Supposedly, one can't choose much otherwise.

However, one might try and get a "deep space" assignment early on, one of those X-year mission things where crew rotation is logistically difficult and crews get welded together. That's good networking, and probably helps somebody like Chekov in his quest for further choice assignments - he's got a good rep, several top-notch referees, and association with the heroics of said deep space mission, early on in his career.

Perhaps Starfleet promotes the welding together of crews, because that's what works best on long assignments? Nobody at any organizational level seemed eager to tear apart the TOS team, not even the heroes themselves; whatever split there was prior to TMP seemed to be mainly because the team was lacking a ship. Or more exactly, they were lacking a ship of a very specific type - so apparently, celebrities can choose not only their working environment and closest colleagues, but can "idle" themselves while waiting for their dream assignment!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Admiral Shran]

On nearly all the Trek series excluding VOY the starships/stations are like a revolving door with new crew members being transferred to and from constantly.

At what point do you get to say no I would rather serve on the Enterprise or turn down command opportunities like Ricker.

When you save the entire Federation from assimilation, you get to choose your own career path. If you want to spend more time as a Commander, so be it. If you want a direct promotion to Fleet Admiral, so be it.

 

[SpyOne]

IIRC, Harry Kim specifically chose Voyager, and could choose because he was near the top of his class. The episode where he slips into a parallel dimension where he was still in San Francisco and not on Voyager had, I think a friend of his didn't drop out Senior Year, so the friend was above Harry in the class rankings, and the friend chose Voyager.

Personal Opinion: Almost nobody gets a blanket choice. That is, they almost never say "We'd like to make you a Commander, which of the positions for a Commander would you like."
FAR more common is a limited choice: "That promotion comes with a transfer, Lieutenant. The USS Hood needs a Science Officer, USS Wiffle needs a Chief Engineer, and Admiral Volstok needs a Personal Assistant. Do any of those appeal to you?"

And of course, there are those rare individuals that get a very wide range of choices: "Jean-Luc, old friend, it's really time we got you back in command of a starship. You've seen the list of openings, is there one I could talk you into?"
"Well, I like the looks of this new Galaxy Class, and I understand one of them is to be named Enterprise."

 

[T'Girl]

A story I was told by my flight instructor when I was going for my private pilots license.

In military fight school, after everyone has graduated, the former students gather in a room, in the front of the room there's a dry erase board with all the available/open pilots positions listed. The pilot who graduated first in his class walks to the front and chooses a opening, usual a fighter base. This procedure continues until the the person who graduated last in the class has chosen from what's left, by that time it's a tanker or cargo opening. When they get to their new base they receive training in the type of aircraft they will be flying.

This sound like Doctor Bashir story.

 

[The Wormhole]

IIRC, Harry Kim specifically chose Voyager, and could choose because he was near the top of his class. The episode where he slips into a parallel dimension where he was still in San Francisco and not on Voyager had, I think a friend of his didn't drop out Senior Year, so the friend was above Harry in the class rankings, and the friend chose Voyager.

No, Harry Kim put a request in to serve on Voyager, which Janeway granted. In Non Sequitor, Janeway turned him down in favor of Daniel Byrd instead.

However, there was no mention of what happened to Daniel Byrd in the regular timeline. Obviously he didn't make it on board Voyager, but there was no indication that he dropped out of the Academy. Perhaps he got assigned to another starship of some sort?

Actually, there is a mention to Daniel Byrd in the regular timeline, in season 5 where we find out he bullied B'Elanna when they were children.

I'm serious.

 

[Colonel Midnight]

A story I was told by my flight instructor when I was going for my private pilots license.

In military fight school, after everyone has graduated, the former students gather in a room, in the front of the room there's a dry erase board with all the available/open pilots positions listed. The pilot who graduated first in his class walks to the front and chooses a opening, usual a fighter base. This procedure continues until the the person who graduated last in the class has chosen from what's left, by that time it's a tanker or cargo opening. When they get to their new base they receive training in the type of aircraft they will be flying.

This sound like Doctor Bashir story.

Ahh... Billet Night. That's at least what our version was called back at the Academy when I went. Basically true -- guy/person who was first in the class would walk up to a board, place his/her card wherever they wanted, and so on down the class rank. The "anchorman" didn't have to worry, as everyone else chose for him/her.

There were usually 3-4 "mock Billet Nights" beforehand, so that you could at least get a feel for what ships/locations everyone above you were looking at. You could always 'bump' someone lower than you in the class rank, and that typically happened on the actual Billet Night.

Worst case was when the top person would do a "cross country", and place their card in a completely different spot than where they had done so during all the "mock Billet Nights"... Pandemonium, of course, would typically ensue.

Cheers,
-CM-