Command division

The command division was the corps of officers and crewmen within Starfleet who specialized in command and control functions on starbases, aboard starships, and numerous Starfleet Command positions. 
==Duties==
Those in the command division were considered to be among Starfleet's supervisory personnel. ()
Members of the command division were trained in leadership and had tactical training allowing them to decisively take action in organizing and mobilizing Starfleet crews to perform missions. Command officers included most all of the admiralty, captains, executive officers, adjutants, and pilots (flight control officers, navigators, and helmsmen). (; , , et al.) 
Command division personnel also filled the posts of communications officer (), records officer (), phaser specialist (), gunnery officer (), radiation specialist (), TAC officer (), and strategic operations officer. ()
==History==
In the Earth's Starfleet of the 2140s and 2150s, line officers of command division wore gold division stripes on their uniforms. () By 2233, command division personnel wore . ()
Gold was again the color of the command division throughout the 2250s and 2260s, worn by line officers and flag officers of this division. Officers in the command division wore a five-pointed star with a lengthened upper point as an insignia on their assignment patch. (; ; ; ) 
By the 2270s, new uniforms showed different division colors, the command division was signified by a white backing on their Starfleet badge, and also on uniform bands and epaulets. () This continued onto the 2280s uniforms, and the insignia used gave the officer the option of wearing command division white uniform insignia, with another department color banded across, or the opposite, with department color insignia with command white banded across. ( – )
By the uniforms used from 2350s onward, red had become the command division color, and this continued through several uniform styles. (, et al.)
Individuals from several possible futures, and some that have been proven to be alternate timelines, continued to wear red when in the command division. (; ; ) By the 29th century, several timelines had switched the command color to blue. ()
==Gallery==
File:Hernandez.jpg|Hernandez of the in commandgold, 2154
File:Richard Robau.jpg|Richard Robau of the in commandblue, 2233
File:Christopher Pike, 2253.png|Christopher Pike in command gold, 2253
File:Una Chin-Riley, 2253.jpg|Una Chin-Riley in command gold, 2253
File:Philippa Georgiou.jpg|Philippa Georgiou of the in command gold, 2256
File:Christopher Pike, 2258.jpg| of the alternate reality in command gold, 2258
File:James T. Kirk, alternate reality.jpg| of the alternate reality in command gold, 2263
File:Phaser room crew 2266.jpg|A phaser room crew incommand gold, 2266
File:Starfleet dress uniforms, late 2260s.jpg|Command dress uniform in command green, 2268
File:Kirk in command, 2270s.jpg|James T. Kirk with white command patch, 2270s
File:Captain rank pin.jpg|A captain's rank insignia on acommand white uniformshoulder strap, 2280s
File:Jean-Luc Picard, 2366.jpg|Jean-Luc Picard wearingcommand red, 2366
File:Kathryn Janeway, 2371.jpg|Kathryn Janeway wearingcommand red, 2371
File:Benjamin Sisko, 2375.jpg|Benjamin Sisko wearingcommand red, 2375
File:Jack Ransom.png|Jack Ransom wearing command red, 2380
File:Picard in uniform, 2385.png|Jean-Luc Picard wearingcommand red, 2385
File:Beverly Picard.jpg|In an alternate future, Captain Beverly Picard wears command red
File:William Riker, 2399.jpg|William T. Riker wearingcommand red, 2399
File:Cristóbal Rios, 2401.png|Cristóbal Rios wearingcommand red, 2401
File:Braxton 3.jpg|Captain Braxton of the timeship in commandblue, 29th century
==Command division officers ==
==Background information==
===The Original Series===
Once fully established during The Original Series, command gold was regularly worn by those in positions of higher authority, such as ship captains, commodores and admirals; however, evidence suggests that this was not a requirement for holding a command position. In the first case, starbase commodores and Stocker both wore operations division uniforms, yet this exception seems to exclude commodore Mendez. The second case was that of Captain Krasnovsky, a starship captain who wore a sciences division uniform. 
The helm and navigation officers typically belonged to the command division, as was the case in , however, in , the positions were held by operations officers, before returning primarily back to the command division once again. 
Number One in "The Cage" and Spock in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" both served in the command division as first officer, before he switched back to the sciences division for the duration of the series (the same color he wore in the first pilot).
The work coveralls worn by technicians were originally muted variations on the division colors with the command division being represented by olive green, then later matching the duty uniforms. This coincides with the actual color of TOS which was lime green and only appeared gold under the lights.
The purpose of the colors was only obvious through inference, but in , gold was established in dialogue as the "old" style command color (and red as the "new" command color). The decision to switch the meaning of the colors between the TOS and TNG uniform styles was made in pre-production of .
===The film era ===
The schemes and insignia of the era uniforms were designed by Robert Fletcher. For , he replaced the colorful Starfleet uniforms with a series of gray and brown uniforms, with department indicated by a colored circle behind the Starfleet logo. Command was indicated by white.
Many of the roles previously held by command officers were distributed to other departments. Helm and navigation, for example, became part of Operations and were marked by yellow.
Fletcher redesigned the uniforms again for , putting all officers in maroon tunics and black slacks. Division was marked by a colored undershirt and trim on the jacket, with white remaining the command color. Command officers in training, such as Lt. Saavik. would wear white slashes on the red (cadet) armbands of their uniforms.
Command officers who were assigned to other departments had the personal choice to wear slashes of that department color on their command-white armbands and/or shoulder straps. Department heads had the option of wearing white slashes on their department bands, if they so chose, or alternatively command white undershirts with slashes of their department color. Many department heads, such as Dr. McCoy, forwent this option entirely. Montgomery Scott occasionally wore a white undershirt after receiving his promotion to captain, but only with the more casual bomber jacket and engineering vest, never with his maroon tunic. 
Following her command training as seen in , Saavik wore command white in and , with a science division gray slash indicating her posting to sciences.
According to his personal notes from around the period of The Search for Spock (p. 1-2), Fletcher laid out the command division this way:
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Officers in command division uniforms were seen in Spacedock, Starfleet Headquarters, and on starships. 
===Later eras===
During the course of The Next Generation, command level officers regularly wore red uniforms, however, again another exceptional case would appear in , where Admiral Toddman wore an operations uniform, the only such command level officer to do so until Commodore Oh in the first season of Picard.
Captain Braxton wore blue in and , but an alternate version of him in "" wore red – indicating that Starfleet never changed the command color in that version.
== Appendices==
===Apocrypha===
In the game Star Trek Online which takes place between 2409 and 2411, Starfleet began occasionally called the Command division the "tactical division". One of the reasons for this was that the departments had been changed in the command division, which now included the tactical and security departments, in addition to the regular helm, navigation and command departments.
fr:Division de Commandement
ja:司令部門
Category:Starfleet
Category:Groups