Female Command Officers & the Uniform Code

[Wingsley]

I don't think it was ever established that Starfleet had a warrant officer program. Hell, you have to do more than a few twists to pick out enlisted personnel.

I know. But I figured that if they're going to parallel Earth's Cold War naval organizations in so many ways, why not have warrant officers as well? It would go a little ways toward explaining the liberal use of the word "chief" throughout the franchise.

I think it would also be an interesting exercise to come up with a Starlfeet-style sleeve marking for warrant officers anyway...

 

[Wingsley]

She was a dancer before being on Trek and was very proud of her legs. She actually can be seen in some episodes hiking up the skirt. (There's one infamous shot, though I sadly forget the episode, where you pretty much get to see most of her ass as she sits down because the skirt's hiked ridiculously high )

You wouldn't happen to be referring to this shot from "Balance of Terror", would you?

 

[J.T.B.]

Well, presumably there were female humanoid enlisteds and NCO's aboard TOS-era Federation starships, including the Enterprise. So if there were no other appearances of women wearing jumpsuits outside of Chapel's surgical garb, I would find that to be a far greater omission than whatever the dress code would be for female command-grade officers.

There are enlisted women, Rand and the other yeomen most prominently, most specifically ID'd with Yeoman 3rd Class Lawton in "Charlie X." Angela in "Balance of Terror" is often cited as enlisted as well, but I don't think that's screen canon.

Enlisted personnel apparently wear the standard uniform with no grade insignia, the same as ensigns. Not very satisfactory, but there it is.

I have never seen any meditation, even in fan circles, on what warrant officer rank insignia would be.

An old fan publication from the '80s, Shane Johnson's "Uniform Recognition Manual," used straight-edged silver braid, narrower than the wavy officer braid, for warrants. Two stripes for CWO and one for WO, IIRC.

I don't think it was ever established that Starfleet had a warrant officer program. Hell, you have to do more than a few twists to pick out enlisted personnel.

I know. But I figured that if they're going to parallel Earth's Cold War naval organizations in so many ways, why not have warrant officers as well? It would go a little ways toward explaining the liberal use of the word "chief" throughout the franchise.

Well, by the mid-1960's the Air Force had already abandoned creating new warrant officers, and the Navy was in the process of phasing them out as well, to be replaced with Limited Duty commissioned officers. This never came to pass, of course, but maybe WOs were thought of more as a thing of the past than the future at the time. More likely they were just not considered at all.

Most nations today do without the in-between class of warrant officers that the US uses, so I don't think it implausible that Starfleet would not use them, either.

"Chief" in the US Navy refers to a chief petty officer, not a warrant officer.

I think it would also be an interesting exercise to come up with a Starlfeet-style sleeve marking for warrant officers anyway...

Or even more so, enlisted insignia. A FASA game manual from the '80s had some upper-sleeve enlisted insignia, combining the "arrowhead" and chevrons. It would be nice to have something like that "remastered!"

--Justin

 

[Pauln6]

TMP definitely had shoulder insignia for petty officers and chief petty officers (see Rand left) but it isn't clear how they differentiate crewmen from ensigns with uniforms that have no braids on their sleeves and no shoulder insignia.

 

[J.T.B.]

TMP definitely had shoulder insignia for petty officers and chief petty officers (see Rand left) but it isn't clear how they differentiate crewmen from ensigns with uniforms that have no braids on their sleeves and no shoulder insignia.

Right, didn't Chief DiFalco have a uniform with no shoulder tabs or other grade insignia? But supposedly in TMP the grade of LTJG had been temporarily abolished, so ensigns used one broken braid. So in that case it would be a question of differentiating from CPOs, POs and non-rated.

--Justin

 

[TIN_MAN]

Didn't the unedentified "alien" on the bridge in TMP sport LTJG broken stripes?

 

[Wingsley]

^ Or, there's another possibilty: Chief DiFalco may have been Warrant Chief DiFalco.

 

[Pauln6]

Didn't the unedentified "alien" on the bridge in TMP sport LTJG broken stripes?

I think he has traditionally been portrayed as an ensign - I can't remember if Uhura refers to him as such when she assesses the odds of them returning alive from the mission. I always thought Lt jg only came in officially with TNG, although I personally always assumed that Ilia was a Lt jg.

I think the braids work fine in conjunction with the epaulets but some uniforms have only one or the other and some have neither (which would be fine for crewmen but even crewmen have rates don't they?) I suppose the costumes were a bit rushed.

 

[J.T.B.]

Didn't the unedentified "alien" on the bridge in TMP sport LTJG broken stripes?

Yes, but in TMP that is supposed to represent ensign, and there are no JG's, according to "The Making of Star Trek the Motion Picture." I don't find a compelling reason to temporarily abadon an established rank myself, but two officers with that insignia were called "ensign" in the movie.

^ Or, there's another possibilty: Chief DiFalco may have been Warrant Chief DiFalco.

Maybe, but CPO is more of a known quantity in Trek than CWO. Either way, she's some kind of a other-than-commissioned officer without specific insignia.

--Justin

 

[Captain Robert April]

I always thought Lt jg only came in officially with TNG, although I personally always assumed that Ilia was a Lt jg.

Take a closer look at Joe Tormolen's cuffs in "The Naked Time". He's got the hash marks of a Lieutenant (j.g.).

 

[Gary7]

LOL, but seriously, the quote stuck in my head because it was one of the actresses who was proud of her legs and wanted to show them off. Fits in with the whole women's lib thing of the time, seems to me.

I remember Yeoman Rand saying this, to Captain Kirk: "I used to try to get you to look at my legs. Look at my legs!"


Those skirt uniforms for the women in TOS were seriously short as they were, so I can't imagine any of the actresses needing to hike them up. Heck, they needed a bikini bottom attached to prevent accidental exposure of their unmentionables.

 

[Lethe]

What about the uniform worn by Lt. Areel Shaw in Court Martial? Its longer than a miniskirt....

 

[Captain Robert April]

That was the female dress uniform. Note the gold trim on the collar.

 

[Timo]

One wonders if these female skirt variants of the uniform shouldn't have been accompanied by a male tank top in the "Trek reality". If the idea was to show attractive body parts if the wearer so opted, surely the men would have wanted to expose their biceps without having to rip their uniform sleeves?

Belly button / ab exposure would be a further step, but probably should be reserved for the Horribly Evil Mirror Universe. Yet bare biceps should be innocent enough by 1960s/2260s standards, in the same category with legs, right?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[WillsBabe]

. . . One thing still nags at me: was Nurse Chapel the only female crewmember seen wearing a worker-jumpsuit in the entire series?

I don’t recall if we ever saw another woman wearing that outfit. In Nurse Chapel’s case, it’s apparently meant to be a surgical scrub uniform.

Uhura wears one when she's mending her console in Who Mourns for Adonis.

http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/2x02/WhoMournsForAdonais0282.jpg

 

[Joel_Kirk]

. . . One thing still nags at me: was Nurse Chapel the only female crewmember seen wearing a worker-jumpsuit in the entire series?

I don’t recall if we ever saw another woman wearing that outfit. In Nurse Chapel’s case, it’s apparently meant to be a surgical scrub uniform.

Uhura wears one when she's mending her console in Who Mourns for Adonis.

http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/2x02/WhoMournsForAdonais0282.jpg

^^

She looks cute there...

 

[Captain Robert April]

How she got that big ol' head of hair in that opening is the big mystery.

Would've been a hoot if they had her leave the wig on her chair and she was under there doing the work with her natural hair on display.

 

[Orcus]

I don’t recall if we ever saw another woman wearing that outfit. In Nurse Chapel’s case, it’s apparently meant to be a surgical scrub uniform.

Uhura wears one when she's mending her console in Who Mourns for Adonis.

http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/2x02/WhoMournsForAdonais0282.jpg

^^

She looks cute there...

Weird I had expected it to be red. Oh well, she's performing surgery on her 'baby', I guess...

 

[Captain Robert April]

They probably didn't have a red one in her size.

 

[Wingsley]

Funny if that turned out to be the same jumpsuit worn by Dr. Boyce in "The Cage".