As with most national uniformed service organisations, the ultimate "commander-in-chief" is the head of the civilian government, in this case the President of the United Federation of Planets, although never seen in canon, it's not unlikely that they devolve power to a councillor, cabinet secretary or cabinet minister (most likely holding a composite role like the US SecHS/SecState rather than SecDef). Standing operation leadership is vested in a senior admiral who has a variety of titles in dialogue over the decades, the most popular of which appears to be "Commander, Starfleet" (mostly in dialogue in TSFS/TVH, but it and the similar "Commanding Officer, Starfleet Command" appeared occassionally on props or displays), although Starfleet Chief of Staff was used once (by Weyoun) and "CinC" (presumably short for Commander in Chief) was used in TUC.
Starfleet Command
- Thread starter Arpy
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As with most national uniformed service organisations, the ultimate "commander-in-chief" is the head of the civilian government, in this case the President of the United Federation of Planets, although never seen in canon, it's not unlikely that they devolve power to a councillor, cabinet secretary or cabinet minister (most likely holding a composite role like the US SecHS/SecState rather than SecDef). Standing operation leadership is vested in a senior admiral who has a variety of titles in dialogue over the decades, the most popular of which appears to be "Commander, Starfleet" (mostly in dialogue in TSFS/TVH, but it and the similar "Commanding Officer, Starfleet Command" appeared occassionally on props or displays), although Starfleet Chief of Staff was used once (by Weyoun) and "CinC" (presumably short for Commander in Chief) was used in TUC.
*Nods*
President Jaresh-Inyo indeed refers to himself as Leyton's "commander-in-chief" in dialogue.
While it has the least canon basis for it Starfleet Chief of Staff probably makes the most sense as the senior operational title (and at least the US Army and Airforce agree, the format for the Guard is similar (ChoNGB) and even the Navy one is more like it that any of the other options (ChoNO), the equivalent of the JCS in Britain is the "Chiefs of Staff Committee" and the [Vice-]Chief of [Service] Staff is [one of] the titles used by most of the members.
Which is probably why RotF uses "ChoS of the [Agency]" as the title for the indivual agency leads and Chief of Staff for the Federation Starfleet for the JCS equivalents during the early UFP era.
President Jaresh-Inyo indeed refers to himself as Leyton's "commander-in-chief" in dialogue.
While it has the least canon basis for it Starfleet Chief of Staff probably makes the most sense as the senior operational title (and at least the US Army and Airforce agree, the format for the Guard is similar (ChoNGB) and even the Navy one is more like it that any of the other options (ChoNO), the equivalent of the JCS in Britain is the "Chiefs of Staff Committee" and the [Vice-]Chief of [Service] Staff is [one of] the titles used by most of the members.
Which is probably why RotF uses "ChoS of the [Agency]" as the title for the indivual agency leads and Chief of Staff for the Federation Starfleet for the JCS equivalents during the early UFP era.
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All I know is When I was active duty USArmy when I saw anyone in a Navy uniform coming I'd duck into a building so I didn't salute some friggin' E3.
The Navy has the most messed up rank and rank designators ever.
Sad to think that it's still the same 450 years from now.
The Navy has the most messed up rank and rank designators ever.
Sad to think that it's still the same 450 years from now.
Not as messed up as Babylon 5 or Star Wars.
It's even worse when they are attached and start walking around in army uniformsAll I know is When I was active duty USArmy when I saw anyone in a Navy uniform coming I'd duck into a building so I didn't salute some friggin' E3.
The Navy has the most messed up rank and rank designators ever.
Sad to think that it's still the same 450 years from now.
Mainly due to the US Armed Forces insistence on having more grades than they really need.
The British Armed Forces (and most of the Commonwealth) manage quite well with only four or five ranks between recruit and senior NCO (and 1/2 to 2/3 of the SNCO ranks also double as WO/LDO equivalents):
Recruits up to Able Seaman typically wear no insignia (though the later is equivalent to Lance Corporal and the Canadians at least use that for ABs), Leading Hands are equivalent to Corporals (therefore PO3 or 2 and Corporal or Sergeants in the USA/MC), Petty Officers are equivalent to Sergeants (equivalent of US Platoon Sergeants (E6/7) and are immediately junior to Chief Petty Officers (and frequently fill what would be Chief or even Senior Chief billets in the USN).
That would have been cool.
That is far from universal among nations today. Sometimes it's the head of state, sometimes the head of government, sometimes a cabinet minister, sometimes with actual command authority, sometimes the authority is ceremonial. Until about 15 years ago, the United States had a number of four-star admirals or generals with the title of commander-in-chief, besides The Commander-in-Chief. The British Royal Navy only eliminated the title of commander-in-chief for some admirals' posts within the past decade.
The military leadership and government had quite convincing evidence that they did need the grades when they were expanded, and it does no harm to the organization.
Navy rank is easy to learn and hard to make a mistake about. As a civilian working at the Pentagon, I picked it up in a few days.
In the 2.5 or so years on the base I saw about 4 navy personnel,
Not really enough to care what rank they were.
Indeed, the people writing and watching TUC would have been quite familiar with things like CINCLANT from reading their Tom Clancy.
In that sense, the officer from the movie might well have been Starfleet's CINCGON...
Timo Saloniemi
"Commander in Chief" was also the job title for the professional head of the British Army until 1904, when it was replaced by "Chief of the General Staff". At the same time the post of "First Sea Lord"* was put in place for the professional head of the navy.
*Not the same as Lord High Admiral, which is a largely ceremonial post.
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