Non-commissioned officers in ST world

[Shamrock Holmes]

@Shamrock Holmes --- It seems to me that you're suggesting a simplified enlisted corps with only three (four) ranks. You have Recruits who are in Boot Camp / Tech School and don't really count, and then you have Crewmen (75%), Petty Officers (20%) and Chief Petty Officers (5%). Gone are all the ranks/titles of Able Crewman, Crewman First Class, PO Third/Second/First Class, as well as Senior/Master Chief.

Four Titles/Three Ranks below Chief. Because E7 to E9 were all introduced at the same time in the US they tend to be fairly equivalent unlike the lower ranks. The only ranks that are being 'dropped' (but rather depreciated as non-NCOs) are Petty Officer Second Class (which could slot in between CFC and PO) and Petty Officer Third Class (which has never been supported by a rank insignia and was only implied once in canon, for an individual at least a year or two younger than CFC Tarses with less responsibility so unlikely to be senior to him):

Recruit = E1 ("don't count") > Trainee = E2 - E3 undesignated ("Limited Rank")--> (Able) Crewman, (Rating) = E3 rated ("first full rank") --> Crewman First Class, (Rating) = E4/E5 non-NCO (US Army SPC or USAF SrA) --> Petty Officer or (Rating) = E6 (NCO) --> Chief Petty Officer or Chief (Rating) = E7 (SNCO) --> Senior Chief Petty Officer or Senior Chief (Rating) = E8 (SNCO) --> Master Chief Petty Officer or Master Chief (Rating) = E9 (SNCO).

The single stripe would be awarded at Able Crewman/Crewman, (Rating) level to designate "first full rank") up to three stripes & two pips for Master Chief.

Are you sure O'Brien went to Starfleet Academy and not Senior Enlisted Academy, a 6-8 week class for leadership development?

Technically, any references to O'Brien going to the Academy, could be a reference to the Starfleet Technical Services Academy (attended by Data Systems Specialist Pacalleli from Eye of the Beholder)?

 

[J.T.B.]

Because E7 to E9 were all introduced at the same time in the US they tend to be fairly equivalent unlike the lower ranks.

Seven grades were standard in the Navy and Marines from 1893, and in the Army from 1920, but they were numbered the other way, with 7th and the bottom and 1st (master sergeant/chief petty officer) at the top. The grades were numbered the other way, from E-1 on the bottom to E-7, in 1949. E-8 and E-9 were created in 1958.

 

[The Wormhole]

Are you sure O'Brien went to Starfleet Academy and not Senior Enlisted Academy, a 6-8 week class for leadership development?

The line was just "The Academy" which Ron Moore talks about as if it were Starfleet Academy. For what it's worth, we know Starfleet Academy does have an enlisted training program, as per The Drumhead and Simon Tarses.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

Seven grades were standard in the Navy and Marines from 1893, and in the Army from 1920, but they were numbered the other way, with 7th and the bottom and 1st (master sergeant/chief petty officer) at the top. The grades were numbered the other way, from E-1 on the bottom to E-7, in 1949. E-8 and E-9 were created in 1958.

Fair enough. Doesn't really alter my point. So a Grade 4 would have been a Petty Officer Third Class?

 

[J.T.B.]

Fair enough. Doesn't really alter my point. So a Grade 4 would have been a Petty Officer Third Class?

Yep, in WW2 Grade 4 was petty officer third or buck sergeant. The USAF stuck with that old pattern, that's why their staff sergeants and master sergeants (and buck sergeants, when they had them) are a grade lower than in the Army and Marines.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

Interestingly, some sources treat the British Lance Corporal (insignia of US PV2/PFC but classed as an NCO) as equivalent to a US Army Sergeant, due to their mutual role as Fire Team Leader.