From: kelsey@redwing.SLAC.Stanford.EDU (Mike Kelsey)
Subject: Enlisted (was Re: Realm of Fear costuming question (no spoiler))
Organization: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 21:21:15 GMT

Well, I was the one who started this mess (even though you didn't quote me :-/)
so I guess I should finish it...

In article <51274@seismo.CSS.GOV>, willmann@seismo.CSS.GOV (Raymond Willemann) writes:
|> 
|> In article <jgasaway-300992131515@mac20-199.ncsa.uiuc.edu>, jgasaway@ncsa.uiuc.edu (James Gasaway) writes:
|> |> 
|> |> I too would like someone to explain O'Brien's rank.  I understand the
|> |> officer's rank insignia because it follows our own military rank structure.
|> |>  But O'Brien is enlisted.  I don't think he used to wear insignia, but now
|> |> he does.  How do you tell enlisted rank on ST?
|> |> 
Enlisted personnel wear no collar insignia, and wear the same uniform style we
saw during the first season (and which was reprised in the alternate universe
of "Yesterday's Enterprise").  The collars are more closed, and the uniform
appears to be a one-piece jumpsuit, rather than the separate blouse and
trousers that the officers wear.  You often see enlisted crew members walking
the corridors, or sitting in Ten Forward as extras.  I haven't noticed any way
to distinguish different enlisted ranks, but then we don't have any evidence
for anything other than "Medical Technician First Class". :-)
|> 
|> But why should there be enlisted people at all in Star Fleet?
|> 
|> On board 20th century ships enlisted people swab the deck, etc. (but
|> the Enterprise cleans itself), cook food (replicators, obviously)
|> and generally do what nobody would really want to do.

Excuse me, bubba, but I *am* enlisted.  E-6, USAR, MI branch.  I do VERY
fulfilling work, supervising people, making decisions, including (only once so
far, Thank God), life and death ones, and so on.  There are many people who
want to do the kind of work I do.  Anyway, on the StarFleet discussion...
|> 
|> Officers, in contrast, make decisions and engage in fulfilling work.
|> Isn't everybody supposed to have fulfiling work in the 24th century,
|> since all of the routine stuff is supposed to be handled by computers
|> and machines?  Why would Star Fleet want somebody who could never do
|> any of the things that officers do today?
|> 
|> Even leaving aside the ambiguous case of O'Brien, there are enlisted
|> people.  For example, the guy whose Vulcan parent was dug up by the
|> McCarthyite admiral.  But aren't they an anachronism?

No, I don't think so.  Crewman Tarses (BTW, a Romulan grandfather, not a
"Vulcan parent", although he _claimed_ the grandfather was Vulchan, which is
what got him in trouble), was a medical technician.  That means he had the job
of filling hyposprays, giving out prescriptions, and doing those other things
you see people in the background of Sickbay doing :-)  
|> 
|> In the 24th century, could "enlisted" have come to mean something 
|> different?  A junior officer?  Somebody who didn't go through Star
|> Fleet Academy?  (Just as not all naval officers today go to the U.S.
|> Naval Academy.)

Crewman Tarses attended the "Starfleet Academy Program for Enlisted Personnel."
He was at the academy, knew who Boothby was, knew about the old elm tree where
Picard used to sit, and so on.  All this was revealed in his long conversation
with Picard in "The Drumhead" (the episode you referred to above).
						-- Mike Kelsey
-- 
[  My opinions are not endorsed by SLAC, Caltech, or the US government  ]
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.  Attack ships on fire off
the shoulder  of Orion.   I've watched  C-beams glitter in  the darkness
near the Tannhauser Gate.  All these memories will be lost in time, like
tears in the rain."  -- Roy Batty