Help, please: Starfleet term for an officer that's promoted but hasn't quite taken their new post yet

[Just a Bill]

An officer in the TOS era has been/is being promoted in both Rank and Role. They've just received a field promotion to Lt. Commander and are awaiting transfer to a different ship to become its Second Officer. (According to Memory Beta, this is the situation with Margaret "Madge" Alexander in The Star to Every Wandering.) While they are still finishing the last few days of their current assignment, how would you indicate the new role that "isn't quite active" yet? I've brainstormed things like the following:

• Second Officer Appointee
• Second Officer Candidate
• Second Officer Selectee
• Incoming Second Officer
• Pending Second Officer
• Presumptive Second Officer

I prefer to imply that the promotion is actually confirmed/finalized rather than just anticipated/possible, and also for the term to apply from the perspective of their old crew more than their new one (if any directionality is implied). I assume there must be some Navy term for situations like this, but the only thing in the ballpark I've been able to find is "frocking" to describe the situation where one is allowed to wear their new rank before it has actually taken effect, and I'm definitely not looking for "Frocked Second Officer." Thanks in advance for any help....

 

[BK613]

Informally, you might refer to that future position but formally, you wouldn't, especially if the person is still occupying a billet on the current command.
IOW, drawing on RL, an officer with the rank of Commander who is the Supply Officer for a logistics ship (billet required a CMDR or senior LtCMDR) who makes Captain and knows he's heading off to command a Navy Supply Center will still be called Supply Officer until he is relieved.

 

[Just a Bill]

Informally, you might refer to that future position but formally, you wouldn't, especially if the person is still occupying a billet on the current command.
IOW, drawing on RL, an officer with the rank of Commander who is the Supply Officer for a logistics ship (billet required a CMDR or senior LtCMDR) who makes Captain and knows he's heading off to command a Navy Supply Center will still be called Supply Officer until he is relieved.

Understood, and thanks. I guess what I'm looking for is some kind of equivalent to, say, a senator who just got elected president but is not yet sworn in. For the next couple of months you can call them Senator Smith or President-Elect Smith, as befits the moment. I really just want a short phrase that communicates where they're going without flat-out stating that they are already there.

Informal use is fine; this is just for a description in a game. In this particular case, I don't have any information about the character's former role/position, so I can't refer to that since it's unknown; all I have is the future role, but they haven't been "sworn in" just yet. (And I can't use the rank here because this game has places for rank and role/position/description as separate things.)

 

[drt]

As @BK613 mentioned, there really isn’t a formal term, your character would just be introduced as “Lt. Commander So-and-so our ‘Current Job’ officer”, but you could add an informal, “they’ll be leaving us in a few weeks for ‘New Job’.”

 

[Just a Bill]

Yeah, if this was for dialog it would be a non-issue. What I need is a phrase that fits in a small printed space that will hold three or four words, like my bullet-point examples. Maybe there just isn't a way to solve this problem, if there's no convention in the military for this kind of thing.

 

[drt]

maybe something like “promoted and leaving soon”, I think that covers it, as I imagine knowing the new job isn’t super critical for the current campaign

 

[BK613]

Or something along the notion of "future Hall-of-Famer" because AFAIK there isn't any Navy equivalent what's being asked for—nor do you really want there to be, TBH.
Because you don't want the officer or subordinates acting like there is a 'lame-duck' portion to a posting.

 

[Guy Gardener]

gazette
/ɡəˈzɛt/
verbBritish
past tense: gazetted; past participle: gazetted

announce or publish (something) in an official gazette.
"we will need to gazette the bill if a decision cannot be reached imminently"
publish the appointment of (someone) to a military or other official post.
"he was gazetted to the Somerset Light Infantry"

 

[evilchumlee]

In Trek, I think there would be precedent for the term "Acting" or "Provisional".

Going outside of TOS but it's relevant, take Wesley Crusher, who while still in the Academy held the title of "Acting Ensign".

The Voyager Maquis crew all had "Provisional" rank.

If they have already received the rank, they would just get called by the rank.

For the role, I don't know how it might work in a real Navy but in Starfleet... I don't think they would really make a differentiation. While the officer is still acting in the old role, they would be referred to in context of the old role. Or if people on the new ship were talking about the officer prior to them arrive, they would just use the term for their role on the new ship.

You might be overcomplicating it. I think it's much more likely for Starfleet to just say "the new Second Officer" in context of people on the new ship.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

An officer in the TOS era has been/is being promoted in both Rank and Role. They've just received a field promotion to Lt. Commander and are awaiting transfer to a different ship to become its Second Officer.

Assuming that their current posting isn't "rank limited", then they would be referred to as Lieutenant Commander Surname and either LCDR or Acting LCDR in correspondence.

While they are still finishing the last few days of their current assignment, how would you indicate the new role that "isn't quite active" yet?

The only circumstance that it might come up would be if at least one of his current CO, XO or 2ndO were KIA, and therefore he might be inline to become Acting Second Officer for his current assignment on the basis of his pending promotion, even if he wasn't Third Officer (or other presumptive Senior Bridge Officer) on his current assignment.

 

[fireproof78]

Pending Second Officer

I would utilize this one if needed. As others have noted, if it isn't active it's kind of weird to refer to someone by that title in a uniformed services, were a clear cut chain of command is needed.

Pending future assignment might be another way to refer to it.

 

[PoorSailorsAirline]

I don't know anything about the military, but there's a sort-of parallel in civilian aviation.

Hypothetically, suppose you're a first officer on an airline's B757/767 fleet and are promoted to captain on the A320/321 fleet. In that case, it might be a few months before they have a seat in a pilot-in-command upgrade course for the new fleet type.

Until then, you're strictly a 757/767 FO, with only the training department and HR knowing any different unless you voluntarily tell people you'll train as a 32X Captain. You'd be 'off flying status for training/relocation' with no changes title-wise until the first day of the promotion/simulator rides & line check complete. Before then? Be the best FO you can be and nothing more! Haha

Essentially, you're a junior on a training assignment, then the title change is one of the final steps. It's not common to be known as senior-to-be. As was mentioned above, you don't want specific roles to have lame duck periods, or worse, way too many people who've all decided they're the boss for the day.

When you're a really, really, really new pilot most places refer to you as a Cadet, but I'm pretty sure you're not looking for a Cadet Commodore or a Cadet Admiral. Hopefully that's illuminating, even if not super helpful!

 

[Victoria]

What about "Second Officer- Designate"?

"Designate" in this sense is used in diplomatic circles to indicate someone appointed to a position that they haven't yet taken up.

 

[Just a Bill]

Yeah, Designate is a pretty good candidate. I was also told yesterday that in the real-world Navy they apparently use Select. I'll ponder Second Officer Designate and Second Officer Select. Thanks everyone!

 

[Phaser Two]

Select is used in the USN but not quite in the terms you specify; it would be in the context of the new (forthcoming) assignment, not the current one. But I think it sounds great for your purposes.

 

[BK613]

Select is used in the USN but not quite in the terms you specify; it would be in the context of the new (forthcoming) assignment, not the current one. But I think it sounds great for your purposes.

No, select is used only in the context of rank, i.e, an officer that has been selected for promotion but not yet promoted (because the US Navy phases in officer promotions over the course of a fiscal year based on seniority).
There is no official term that is similar for referring to someone that is moving on to another Navy job because, again, you are supposed to be focused on the job you have now.
(And of course, the Navy's promises about what you may be getting are only as good as when you have the actual orders to that promised job in your hands. )

 

[Just a Bill]

Even though it's not a perfect fit, it sounds like it may be about the best term I'm going to find for my purpose. The situation is this:

• A rank promotion to Lt. Cdr. has recently occurred, and the officer is wearing the new stripes. No issues here.
• A role/job/assignment promotion has been decided and announced, but the officer still needs to be transferred to their new ship. Current ship may in fact be underway to that rendezvous, but this officer is still serving in their old role of Records Clerk or Quartermaster or Latrine Inspector or whatever aboard the current ship; they can't very well serve as Second Officer of a ship they aren't on yet (and their current vessel would already have its own 2O).

I have no canonical or even semicanonical information on what their old role/job/position was, and it's not my intention to invent such. So all I have available to list in the "job box" is their new position, with some kind of single-word caveat that they haven't yet clocked in for their first day. If I just put Second Officer in the job box, it will read like they're the 2O aboard this ship -- which happens to be Enterprise, so it will come off looking like fanwank BS. There is no opportunity in this board-game context to attach a longer story explanation. Each piece has to make sense in its own presentation, while still not violating canon/semicanon, and all I have available to accurately capture this semicanon story are a few small areas for rank, position, and current assignment (ship).

On this ship, the one where they've been serving for the past year or so, I assume the officer would be still officially listed under their former, unknown, job. But surely as they pass others in the corridor, their shipmates will smile warmly and say "congratulations, Second Officer," so I don't have an issue putting that in their job box, as long as I can caveat it with Select or Designate or Elect or whatever most sounds right for TOS Trek. I just want to get it as "right" as I can, within the constraints I face.

 

[fireproof78]

On this ship, the one where they've been serving for the past year or so, I assume the officer would be still officially listed under their former, unknown, job. But surely as they pass others in the corridor, their shipmates will smile warmly and say "congratulations, Second Officer," so I don't have an issue putting that in their job box, as long as I can caveat it with Select or Designate or Elect or whatever most sounds right for TOS Trek. I just want to get it as "right" as I can, within the constraints I face.

That's the challenge. People can address them in a way that is congratulatory.

But, from a day to day ship management/chain of command requirements, they would still be addressed by current rank/billet/position aboard ship. Because, officially, that's what they are until they arrive at their new station and step in to it.

 

[BK613]

And if fidelity to TOS is paramount, I have to ask where in the 79 episodes Second Officer comes from?

 

[Just a Bill]

That's why I say "semicanonical." It's my own personal label for stuff that's basically either Memory Beta content (non-canonical licensed works) or what I kinda call "Memory Rho" (stuff Rod Roddenberry considers canon and has stated that he thinks his dad would have, too; namely ST Continues). This game is very canonical, but includes a little material from the margins and dips into the movies a bit more than I would like. Of course different fans will have different feelings about that kind of material. In any case, the task at hand is "what to put in this box." Something has to go there, and it needs to make as much sense as it can. If anyone has a better suggestion, I'm all ears.