Nods, exactly, that's what I thought. Odd.
If I remember well, Tom like Chakotay
was graduated from Starfleet Academy.
Both left Starfleet but circonstances were different : Chakotay choosed to resign to join the Maquis by conviction (he left on principle, to defend his home colony from the Cardassians), while Tom, who was expelled/discharged further to his involvement in covering up his own piloting error which had led to the death of three fellow officers, joined temporary the Maquis, willing to fight for anyone who would pay him. And we learnt later, how the Maquis wasn't too fussed in its recruitment (the organization needed a skilled pilot and Tom was the ideal candidate, no matter if he shared or not, their ideology).
-> I don't know if Tom was ever convinced by the fight led by the Maquis ... In any rate, if he was deep down, he never showed it to Chakotay and his friends.
Why the metal strips - and not the traditional Starfleet pins - on their uniforms, I guess that 1) it was a way for them, to distinguish themselves from the rest of the crew and to show that it wasn't because they were forced to become part of the crew and to wear the uniform that their beliefs (including the fact that they believed that Starfleet and the Federation had betrayed them), have changed. Maquis they were, Maquis they remained and 2) it was concession made by Janeway, as peace sign, as giving them some temporary ranks & important functions, even if some of them (like B'Elelan Torres) left the academy before being graduated.
-> btw, I wonder why Chakotay kept his metal strip after to have told Janeway he has given up his allegiance to the Maquis a long time ago, as Janeway affirmed it to Seven in "The Voyager Conspiracy"...
As for Tom, even if he was supposed to be a Starfleet observer during the mission in the beginning of Caretaker, he ended with an offical field commission of lieutenant jr.
-> I wonder if she hasn't discussed of the possibility to reintegrate Tom as a way to give him a second chance*, with Adm Patterson, in Relativity (5x24), whose the virtual action was supposed to take place during the final phases of Voyager's construction at Utopia Planitia and before the mission in the Badlands.
* even if she never mentionned it to the person concerned when they met in the Federation Penal Settlement.
