Miles should have been made command masterchief
- Thread starter TEH BABA
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A Command Master Chief Petty Officer (CMDCM) is one of the most senior enlisted members in a United States Navy command structure. In many ways he or she is considered a fountain of knowledge and a parent figure. Being the primary liaison between the officers and enlisted, they are a major resource for the commanding officer, and often are called upon to gauge morale and battle readiness. On smaller ships, this position may be filled by a Senior Chief Petty Officer. On submarines, these enlisted personnel are known as "Chief of the Boat", or COBs. The ranks Fleet Master Chief Petty Officer and Force Master Chief Petty Officer are used for larger commands such as U.S. Fleet Forces Command, U.S. Pacific Fleet, Submarine Force U.S. Atlantic Fleet, and Naval Air Force U.S. Pacific Fleet.
A Command Master Chief Petty Officer's insignia is two silver stars, one perched eagle, one silver star in lieu of a specialty mark, and one rocker above three chevrons.
The United States Coast Guard utilizes the title and designation of Command Master Chief (CMC). These individuals are also informally referred to as "Gold Badge" due to the insignia they wear. Command Master Chiefs can either be Commandant of the Coast Guard or Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard designated Command Master Chiefs. One Commandant designated CMC is located at each Area, each District, both Maintenance and Logistics Commands, Headquarters, the Coast Guard Academy, and the Deployable Operations Group. One Commandant designated Reserve Command Master Chief (RCMC) is located at each Area, each District, and both Maintenance and Logistics Commands. One MCPOCG designated CMC is located at each Training Center, Coast Guard Recruiting Command, and the Personnel Service Center.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_Master_Chief_Petty_Officer
A Command Master Chief Petty Officer's insignia is two silver stars, one perched eagle, one silver star in lieu of a specialty mark, and one rocker above three chevrons.
The United States Coast Guard utilizes the title and designation of Command Master Chief (CMC). These individuals are also informally referred to as "Gold Badge" due to the insignia they wear. Command Master Chiefs can either be Commandant of the Coast Guard or Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard designated Command Master Chiefs. One Commandant designated CMC is located at each Area, each District, both Maintenance and Logistics Commands, Headquarters, the Coast Guard Academy, and the Deployable Operations Group. One Commandant designated Reserve Command Master Chief (RCMC) is located at each Area, each District, and both Maintenance and Logistics Commands. One MCPOCG designated CMC is located at each Training Center, Coast Guard Recruiting Command, and the Personnel Service Center.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_Master_Chief_Petty_Officer
I never heard of this rank in Starfleet. But then I might not have been paying attention close enough.... 
The only problem with that title is: too many bad jokes about what the "master chief" is up to! 
But seriously, it would've made sense for O'Brien to have a higher rank than Chief Petty Officer, given his responsibilities on the station. I always thought he should've gotten a field promotion to officer, myself. Think they call that a "mustang," an enlisted man who gets promoted from the enlisted ranks to commissioned officer status. At any rate, thanks Capt. Adama for the thorough set of links to the various titles and ranks in your post. -- RR
But seriously, it would've made sense for O'Brien to have a higher rank than Chief Petty Officer, given his responsibilities on the station. I always thought he should've gotten a field promotion to officer, myself. Think they call that a "mustang," an enlisted man who gets promoted from the enlisted ranks to commissioned officer status. At any rate, thanks Capt. Adama for the thorough set of links to the various titles and ranks in your post. -- RR
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Just paint the armor so it looks like a uniform.
Had O'Brien been wearing that armor all the time, there would have been fewer "let's torture the chief" episodes.
In "Shadowplay", O'Brien tells Jake Sisko that Daddy O'Brien proudly speaks of Junior as
In the USN, the symbols are a bit different. The lowest three Petty Officers (E-4 though 6) get one, two and three chevrons, respectively ( > and >> and >>> ). But the Chief Petty Officer (E-7) gets those chevrons plus the rocker beneath, or (>>> . Starfleet apparently doesn't believe in rockers, so their CPO would be >>>. with one pip/star, and thus their SCPO would be >>>: which is what O'Brien is wearing.
In "A Man Alone", O'Brien says he received a promotion when transferring from the E-D. So we could assume he was a CPO on the E-D and then became SCPO.
Hell, we could even work his TNG collar pips into the scheme: he originally wore one bright pip, then two, then one dark. Perhaps the one bright pip denoted Petty Officer 3rd Class (or whatever Starfleet calls its E-4 rate), and was similar to the USN chevron (and there was some subtle difference in the pip to tell it apart from the officer pips, one of which would indicate Ensign). Perhaps O'Brien then was promoted to PO 2nd Class for his two pips, and at some point would have received the third pip of PO 1st Class - but, due to exceptional heroics, got directly bumped to CPO which was denoted by one black pip.
The shortcoming of that theory is that he should then probably have worn two black pips for the SCPO rate, at least on the second and third seasons of DS9...
Timo Saloniemi
We might thus surmise that by the time of DS9 Season 2 at least, O'Brien's exact rating is indeed SCPO (specialist), or the equivalent of E-8. That would nicely match his collar plate, too: he has three chevrons and two pips there, which would suggest the fifth Petty Officer rate from the bottom.
In the USN, the symbols are a bit different. The lowest three Petty Officers (E-4 though 6) get one, two and three chevrons, respectively ( > and >> and >>> ). But the Chief Petty Officer (E-7) gets those chevrons plus the rocker beneath, or (>>> . Starfleet apparently doesn't believe in rockers, so their CPO would be >>>. with one pip/star, and thus their SCPO would be >>>: which is what O'Brien is wearing.
In "A Man Alone", O'Brien says he received a promotion when transferring from the E-D. So we could assume he was a CPO on the E-D and then became SCPO.
Hell, we could even work his TNG collar pips into the scheme: he originally wore one bright pip, then two, then one dark. Perhaps the one bright pip denoted Petty Officer 3rd Class (or whatever Starfleet calls its E-4 rate), and was similar to the USN chevron (and there was some subtle difference in the pip to tell it apart from the officer pips, one of which would indicate Ensign). Perhaps O'Brien then was promoted to PO 2nd Class for his two pips, and at some point would have received the third pip of PO 1st Class - but, due to exceptional heroics, got directly bumped to CPO which was denoted by one black pip.
The shortcoming of that theory is that he should then probably have worn two black pips for the SCPO rate, at least on the second and third seasons of DS9...
Timo Saloniemi
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Really, regardless of whether they used the title or not (since there's no indication it existed in Starfleet) - that WAS O'Brien's role, wasn't it? He was the only enlistee who got near Sisko on a regular basis, and was referred to as part of the "senior staff" on DS9/Defiant.
And, on top of that, wasn't he officially the Defiant's Chief Engineer, which is usually given to a commissioned officer with the rank of Lt. Cmdr. or higher.
I don't think we ever heard him called the Chief Engineer of the Defiant as such, but he obviously was that in practice. On small boats, Chief Engineer (and the top crew-officer liaison) can easily be a SCPO, as the article readily acknowledges - and the Defiant, with a crew of just forty, certainly qualifies as "small".
Aboard the E-D, O'Brien probably wasn't the top enlisted man or even anywhere close to the top. The E-D may very well have had a CMDCM aboard, a paper-pusher with whom Picard seldom discussed anything, but who might have been in a close working relationship with Riker or Troi.
On DS9, O'Brien would no doubt be the king of the enlisteds, though. SCPO sounds perfectly fitting for an installation that had only some 300 personnel originally, most of whom were Bajoran rather than Starfleet. An E-9 level rank would seem exaggerated for such a posting.
Timo Saloniemi
Aboard the E-D, O'Brien probably wasn't the top enlisted man or even anywhere close to the top. The E-D may very well have had a CMDCM aboard, a paper-pusher with whom Picard seldom discussed anything, but who might have been in a close working relationship with Riker or Troi.
On DS9, O'Brien would no doubt be the king of the enlisteds, though. SCPO sounds perfectly fitting for an installation that had only some 300 personnel originally, most of whom were Bajoran rather than Starfleet. An E-9 level rank would seem exaggerated for such a posting.
Timo Saloniemi
Am I the only one amused by the fact that the longest baba post seen around here is something he copy-pasted from Wikipedia?
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