Command Major at the Academy?

[Shawnster]

Picard pursuing the science division in Tapestry may have happened only after his encounter with the Naussicans. We know it's possible for officers to change fields and uniform colors.

 

[Timo]

IIRC, Colm Meaney was listed in the credits of that episode as "Security Guard."

Thankfully, credits aren't part of the canon universe...

As Captain Maxwell described O'Brien as his "tactical officer" he likely did wear gold while serving on the Rutledge.

Do tactical officers wear gold? Worf and Tuvok wore gold but were also Security Chiefs. Before Worf took on the double duty, he wore red and still got to fire the ship's big guns (Yar, who was never called Tactical Officer, got to do that as well, but then again, everybody got a stab at communications and helm during the "shakedown year"!). Kirk's tactical officers never wore red, which was the gold of the day. And Reed wore red, FWIW, sharing the color with engineer Tucker.

It's intriguing enough that O'Brien was in Starfleet and fighting as a soldier but did not wear gold during his first Setlik III altercation.

Of course, being described as a tactical officer is problematic enough given O'Brien isn't an officer, which has been established prior to The Wounded.

Perhaps he was an MP and Maxwell's personal bodyguard? In certain contexts, you get to be a police officer without actually needing a commission (and Odo apparently was one).

Timo Saloniemi

 

[The Wormhole]

Yar, who was never called Tactical Officer,

Given she was always posted at the tactical station, I'll assume she was the tactical officer.

It's intriguing enough that O'Brien was in Starfleet and fighting as a soldier but did not wear gold during his first Setlik III altercation.

I've assumed O'Brien was one of the Starfleet Infantrymen we see on DS9 in Nor the Battle for the Strong (or however that title goes) and The Siege of AR-558, who did have the standard department colours done up in stripes on their black jumpsuits.

 

[Kor]

The Command major is the "general/interdisciplinary studies" degree of Starfleet Academy. Everyone thinks it will get them a good job as a jack of all trades, but they find that they are unemployable when they graduate.

Kor

 

[Timo]

Given she was always posted at the tactical station, I'll assume she was the tactical officer.

We don't even know if that was the tactical station - console identity was flexible in TNG.

I've assumed O'Brien was one of the Starfleet Infantrymen we see on DS9 in Nor the Battle for the Strong (or however that title goes) and The Siege of AR-558, who did have the standard department colours done up in stripes on their black jumpsuits.

Curiously, the troopers there seemed to wear mostly gold, a color O'Brien explicitly did not yet wear when beaming down to Setlik III in 2347.

Then again, O'Brien was never stated to be a "soldier" or anything like that during the 2347 incident. He was just one out of 13-14 people in a landing party responding to a raid by Cardassian militia, "sent with a squad". He didn't appear to have much combat experience, either.

Later on, in the 2362 battle where O'Brien was triumphant at Setlik III and routed regimentfuls of regular Cardassian forces, he apparently was a "soldier" specifically, as he responds to Garak's goading with "I'm not a soldier any more". We have no idea what colors he wore at that time. Might very well be gold (to go with the idea that he got the gold shirt after First Setlik, implying he never gave it up again).

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Shawnster]

Next Generation stations and job assignments were a little confusing for those of us used to TOS

TOS had:
Kirk - Command - Center Seat
Spock - First Officer AND Science Officer- dedicate Science Station
Uhura - Communications Officer - dedicated Communications Station
Scotty - Engineering Officer - dedicated Engineering Station AND Engineering dept.
Sulu/Others - Security, Tactical AND Helmsman - dedicated Helm Station
Chekov/Others - Back up Science AND Navigator - dedicated Navigation Station
McCoy - Just an ole country doctor.

You'll notice that the dedicated stations matched the job assignments. Sure, some of them had additional functions but part of their job assignment matched the specific station they sat at.

TNG mixed things up:
Picard - Command - Center Seat
Riker - First Officer - Right Seat
Troi - Counselor - Left Seat
Yar/Worf - Tactical, sometimes science or sensors, sometimes communications - Tactical Station
Data - Science Officer, sometimes communications, Operations - Ops Station
Wesley/Ro/Various - Flight Controller (Helm and Navigation in one), Conn
LaForge - Engineering Officer - Occasional Engineering Station AND Engineering Dept.
Crusher - Doctor - loitered on the Bridge and Sickbay

Everything Spock did was divided between Ops and Tactical. Tactical also handled weapons and security. Communications, which was specific to Uhura, was split between Tactical and Ops.

VOY followed the TNG pattern with Tuvok at Tactical and Kim at Ops sharing sensor duties and communications. Tactical was also security and weapons.

By the 24th Century Starfleet cadets needed training in multiple fields. As you rise through the ranks you may be called upon for a variety of job skills. You need to be able to read sensors, answer the phone, manage starship operations and be able to take over another station in case of emergency. Picard, Riker, LaForge, Data, Worf, Janeway, Chakotay, Paris, Kim, Tuvok, Sisko, Bashir, O'Brien, Jadzia and Ezri all piloted ships or shuttles at one point.

 

[trr]

I really preferred the TOS positions because it was so much easier to figure out who was doing what. I really disliked TNG and VOY being exploration ships and not having a prominent Science officer. Having said that it seems like Hoshi's Communications officer was sort of also doing some Ops jobs so ENT had a decent example of bridge positions with clear separations of duties.

 

[The Wormhole]

We don't even know if that was the tactical station - console identity was flexible in TNG.

It is if you accept this conversation in season 4's Legacy:

DATA: What is this structure?
ISHARA: A main fusion source. There's one next to each of the Alliance headquarters. It powers all of their defensive systems. This chamber is accessed from the level below. Entry points are evenly spaced along this wall every twenty five metres. Data, where was Tasha's post?
DATA: Tactical station. Where Lieutenant Worf is now.

That's good enough for me to assume she was in fact the tactical officer.

 

[trr]

I wonder if (as is often reported) Data had remained in Blue as the Science officer instead of having the Ops position created for him if we might have had a more sensible or delineated set of bridge positions in the modern era? I can see a split between helm/sci/tactical as making a lot of sense.

 

[Jedi Marso]

I've always seen Starfleet Academy working along the lines presented in the old FASA RPG, which gave varying timelines and curriculums resulting in varying career paths.

Cadets attending Starfleet Academy get some 'general' training specific to all Starfleet personnel. For example, regardless of whether you are a helm/navigation officer, science officer, security, engineering, or medical, all cadets need a grounding in subjects like wearing pressure suits, operating in zero-G environments, Federation Law, Starfleet Regulations, and baseline training in starship sysems, hand to hand combat, weapons, and so on. Then there are the 'core curriculum' subjects having to do with one's chosen specialization. Engineers learn engineering, Helm/Navigation officers learn piloting, astrogation, and such, and so on. In the TNG era, helm/navigation becomes the 'ops' position, with a more junior ops officer handling piloting/astrogation duties while someone a little more experienced handles 'the other stuff.' After a 4 year (for typical humans) course, cadets are graduated to midshipmen and go on cadet cruises, after which they graduate and are promoted to the rank of ensign, entering the fleet as working officers.

As a lieutenant or lieutenant commander, Starfleet officers who desire to move on to the 'command track' return to Starfleet Academy for the Command School course. This is a graduate level program (which we saw Saavik nearing the end of in TWOK) in which additional courses in Federation Law, Starfleet Regulations, Starship Combat Tactics, Leadership, and so on are taken in concert with the rather intense program we saw in the simulator, to include the Kobayahi Maru scenario. In the Command School, not only do the candidates train for command, but Starfleet gets the chance to observe their temperament for it as 'fleet experienced' officers, and make a final determination whether their candidate is a potential Kirk or a Janet Lester.

In rare circumstances, I think it's possible for officers to rise to command having not ever attended Command School or having officially transferred to the command track. Spock would qualify as one of these. His rise to command was far more gradual than it would have been had he moved himself onto the command track, and came about as the result of sheer competence, experience, and more than 30 years of service by the time he took command of the Enterprise as a training ship. That is why he tells Kirk at the end of TWOK: "I never took the Kobayashi Maru test. What do you think of my solution?"

Anyway. My .02.

 

[diankra]

The TOS (/TNG) colours could suggest that helm and navigation are the direct routes to command, whereas engineering, security and science aren't, though they can still lead there. One track might involve command school at the academy, while on the others it's taken later (during promotion to LtCdr? Though this might be skipped by a field promotion aboard a ship that's 'out there', e.g. in Spock's case).