O'Brien *could* be mustanged, but probably wouldn't want to. He seemed proud to be an enlisted man. You know, the "Don't call me Sir, I work for a living" attitude. 

That's the part I absolutely agree with. I doubt O'Brien would want to be an officer at this point and it wouldn't surprise me if we were to someday discover that he had been offered a commission much earlier in his career and had turned them down.
I've always suspected that he actually had a battlefield promotion when he was serving as tactical officer, then turned down a chance to make it permanent citing burnout from the Cardassian war. After that it might make sense that such a skilled engineer with natrual leadership qualities would take a low intensity job as a non commissioned transporter chief on the Enterprise.
..assuming that Starfleet has warrant officer ranks..
Those are basically a way of giving officer pay to a specialist who'd otherwise be enlisted and have few military ambitions, though. And in the futuristic economy of TNG, one wonders whether "officer pay" exists or is an incentive a skilled enlisted man would go for...assuming that Starfleet has warrant officer ranks..
Timo Saloniemi
I have, perhaps correctly and perhaps not, taken the existence of non-commissioned ranks in Starfleet to be a way for people of lesser education to participate in the "common adventure" of the Federation. Usually, these people would come from newer and/or less advanced worlds of the Federation or its allies, but presumably some also come from "core worlds" and just never took to the educational methods used by the Federation.
O'Brien seems like he could be one of the latter - a never-do-well boy growing up who lacked focus and had a penchant for getting into fights. A boy who preferred rough-and-tumble activities to book learning. He loved starships and had a little natural talent with engineering, but never put his skills to paper. Still, he enlisted with Starfleet.
But that was in his earlier years. Since then, he's held a moderately high post on the Federation flagship, practically been chief engineer for DS9, and been instrumental in defeating the Dominion. He's settled down a bit in temperament along the way, too, and worked and learned from some of the best commissioned engineers in the 'fleet.
Will O'Brien ever get "mustanged" into a commissioned rank? Obviously, this is total speculation, but thoughts on this are very welcome.
Usually, these people would come from newer and/or less advanced worlds of the Federation or its allies, but presumably some also come from "core worlds" and just never took to the educational methods used by the Federation.
Not at all. My father was a non-com as well, in sub service, and pretty much as far from dumb as you can get.Are you implying that enlisted/non-coms are dumber than those officer ranks?
And "just never took to the educational methods used by the Federation" is another way of saying that not every kid is of a temperament that makes a model student. I know I wasn't.
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