Major Davis

[RoJoHen]

Maybe General Hammond snagged him up when he left the SGC.

When Hammond passed away, Davis returned to Stargate Command.

 

[Admiral2]

Eh, Major Davis just sounds better than Colonel Davis. Roles off the tongue better. Plus, his rank might as well be his first name at this point. Same goes for General Hammond. They'll never not be those ranks.

Except for when that Alt Hammond was a Colonel in There But For The Grace Of God.

And when he was a lieutenant in 1969.

 

[Kirby]

Maybe General Hammond snagged him up when he left the SGC.

When Hammond passed away, Davis returned to Stargate Command.

Didn't Carter say that he was with Homeworld Security when she introduced Davis and Sheppard?

Maybe for some weird reason they have to be pretty low key at Homeworld Security so they don't have a lot of high ranking people. I know, I just pulled that out of my ass, but it may explain it.

 

[arch101]

Maybe "Major" is really his first name.

While I realize you're joking, I still feel the neet to point out that his first name has been established as Paul.

Major Garrett from Fox News wouldn't consider it a joke.

 

[Star Wolf]

I suppose he could have been promoted and demoted off-screen. Perhaps he has only been recently re-assigned back the the Pentagon on a probational basis (after being cast aside due to some controversy).

Officers don't get demoted and survive. With the exception of major emergencies, meaning WWII, when reserve officers are giving acting ranks and revert to their regular rank after the war is over all face up or out. Even the senior enlisted ranks in the US face it. Unlike other nations we don't have 20 year privates. Being demoted is just as deadly as up or out for a USAF officer.

You might say he was a resereve officer and actually worked for a civilian agency and wore a uniform to fit in on base. But I still don't understand how the SG universe were able to hide personnel and loses. Not even counting casualties pre global war on terror hundreds of regular airmen had to rotate through the mountain and yet the secret stayed secure?

 

[Mr. Fergy]

This poll is a real no brainer...

 

[Mr. Fergy]

This was just a gross error by the writing staff. I'm sure he'd be a full Colonel by now all things being equal.

 

[Zod]

He got demoted after that scandal. We don't want to go into the details here but there was a girl, and alcohol and she lied about her age......

 

[The Wormhole]

He got demoted after that scandal. We don't want to go into the details here but there was a girl, and alcohol and she lied about her age......

But that happened on P3X-475. I can't believe the Air Force is still holding that against him.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

He got demoted after that scandal. We don't want to go into the details here but there was a girl, and alcohol and she lied about her age......

But that happened on P3X-475. I can't believe the Air Force is still holding that against him.

Not to mention Alien mind manipulation was probablt involved.

 

[Caretaker]

By the last episode of Atlantis Davis is still a Major which would mean he would've been that for the last 11 or 12 years plus more depending on when he got his promotion. Why do you suppose he never got promoted beyond Major when there was other recurring characters to get promoted more than once, namely Walter and Marks?

Is this a normal thing to happen in the military?

No, it's not normal. If he got stuck like that, in reality, he would have just retired.

As for writer Paul Mullie's answer regarding this can be found at the link I posted.

 

[Star Wolf]

^ Kiss ass? Just goes to show you that the writer brought his prejudice to the issue. You can't kiss ass a promotion board whose members disqualify themselves if they know you. If Major Davis in the real world were not good enough to move up he would have been forced out so a Captain who wasn't found deficient would get a shot at his Major's assignment and higher level jobs in the future.

Perhaps the US Armed Forces will reorganize and be like the 1870s-1941 when a career Major/Captain, etc was possible. But today it is an error in the StargAte universe

 

[DWF]

^ Kiss ass? Just goes to show you that the writer brought his prejudice to the issue. You can't kiss ass a promotion board whose members disqualify themselves if they know you. If Major Davis in the real world were not good enough to move up he would have been forced out so a Captain who wasn't found deficient would get a shot at his Major's assignment and higher level jobs in the future.

Perhaps the US Armed Forces will reorganize and be like the 1870s-1941 when a career Major/Captain, etc was possible. But today it is an error in the StargAte universe

You need to read that again, it's Harriman he calls a "kiss ass" not Major Davies.

Anne-Marie Sloan writes: “WHY has Paul Davis never been promoted past Major in the last 12 years, while many other people including Walter Harriman has received promotions??? This has become a lively debate over there and has now reached 3+ pages!!!”
Paul: Hmm. Good question. My guess it’s because he won’t play the game, y’know? Sucking up to the brass, making sure he gets noticed, that sort of thing. Also, he’s not afraid to say what he thinks, even if he knows it’ll piss off the wrong people. As for Harriman, everyone knows he’s a kiss-ass.

 

[darkwing_duck1]

IIRC, the USAF operates with an "Up or Out" policy. You just don't refuse promotions, nor do you refuse transfers. You go where they tell you to. If you don't continue an anticipated career plan with promotions, they politely show you the door.

With Davis, he may well be at the cusp of his career path, and the position he fills is operated by someone at a Major's rank. Promoting him to Colonel would therefore be useless, if he's the man for the job and he does it well.

Though I agree, it's simply an omission by the writers. If they still had a USAF advisor on the show (whom I believe they sent home before SG-1 ended), the guy would have reviewed the script and noticed that Davis was STILL a major after twelve years. He, like most of SG-1, should have been promoted and/or transferred ages ago.

Mark

AFAIK, the Army and Navy are the same way.

It's a trope of military media that "our characters" spend a significant amount of time not only in the same unit, but at the same ranks. That's just not the way it works in real life, esp ship/unit commands. There are only so many of them, and they HAVE to keep those positions open to accomodate all the up and coming jr officers.

 

[darkwing_duck1]

But I still don't understand how the SG universe were able to hide personnel and loses. Not even counting casualties pre global war on terror hundreds of regular airmen had to rotate through the mountain and yet the secret stayed secure?

Why do you think it so far fetched that soldiers would honor the oaths they've sworn, including secrecy oaths?

"Hiding" the deaths is pretty easy too. What are the chances that the relatives of the deceased are going to run into each other and compare notes? Not very high, considering we're talking what <100 deaths maybe among 300+ million people?

 

[Star Wolf]

But I still don't understand how the SG universe were able to hide personnel and loses. Not even counting casualties pre global war on terror hundreds of regular airmen had to rotate through the mountain and yet the secret stayed secure?

Why do you think it so far fetched that soldiers would honor the oaths they've sworn, including secrecy oaths?

Because people are people. Not everybody is a special forces super soldier screened to mop the floors at the SGC. After Airman Jones one of the kitchen police got his bad conduct discharge and been out of the USAF for 5 years I say the chances are high that the story is leaked. Or perhaps vets are sent to the alpha site in a StargAte universe version of Prisoner Island . BTW who is Number One anyway?

 

[darkwing_duck1]

Because people are people. Not everybody is a special forces super soldier screened to mop the floors at the SGC. After Airman Jones one of the kitchen police got his bad conduct discharge and been out of the USAF for 5 years I say the chances are high that the story is leaked. Or perhaps vets are sent to the alpha site in a StargAte universe version of Prisoner Island . BTW who is Number One anyway?

So now we know the esteem you hold the professionalism of our military forces in (namely none).

I personally know people that have been out of the service 20 years that to this day will not talk about some of the things they did.

60 Minutes did a report on a "care and comfort" operation for American POWs in WWII that also smuggled into the German prison camps radios, escape maps etc. That war was over 60 years ago and those involved in the project would not talk until they were told they could (and even then only about WHAT they were told they could).

 

[Star Wolf]

WWII was like that. The Nam generation decided on their own whether something affected national security and talked. In a Stargate case with no Soviet Union around to protect the secrett from people will talk. US soldiers are not robots, they are people.