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Why is it there are more officers than NCO's?

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    Why is it there are more officers than NCO's?

    Why is it in Star Trek there always seems to be more commisioned officers, from Admiral to Ensign, Than Non-Commisioned officers like Chief O'Brien?
    Please do me a huge favour and help me be with the love of my life.

    #2
    I suspect because the writers never really thought about it much and just called all the random passing characters "Ensign" or "Lieutenant" or whatever. As far as the main characters go, it sort of makes sense since we're usually focused on the "senior staff" and that would probably be made up mostly of officers.

    I guess you could fanwank it, though, that The Federation is supposed to be Utopian and with no poverty and an excellent education system and nearly unlimited resources, it makes sense that Starfleet would focus on giving as many people as much education as possible. Maybe? I don't know. Honestly, I never thought about it before. It's a good question.

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      #3
      Originally posted by sixbeforelunch View Post
      I suspect because the writers never really thought about it much and just called all the random passing characters "Ensign" or "Lieutenant" or whatever. As far as the main characters go, it sort of makes sense since we're usually focused on the "senior staff" and that would probably be made up mostly of officers.

      I guess you could fanwank it, though, that The Federation is supposed to be Utopian and with no poverty and an excellent education system and nearly unlimited resources, it makes sense that Starfleet would focus on giving as many people as much education as possible. Maybe? I don't know. Honestly, I never thought about it before. It's a good question.
      well obviously the main characters are mostly going to be officers since as you said they are the senior staff....but then again so is O'Brien. In voyager many of the crew are called 'crewman'. I'm pretty sure that means they are NCO's since if they are an officer, they are called by their rank. Actually in voyager there seems to be a fairly large number, but then going back to The next generation there is not a single NCO mentioned other than O'Brien and as far as i remeber it's the same in DS9.
      Please do me a huge favour and help me be with the love of my life.

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        #4
        It's because most NCO's die on stupid away missions before they can be put in any position of authority.
        All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing-Edmund Burke

        The question which once haunted my being has been answered. The future is not fixed, and my choices are my own... and yet, how ironic! For I now find, I have no choice at all! I am warrior... let the battle be joined.-Dinobot-Code of Hero

        Don't blame me, I voted Cthulhu

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          #5
          Originally posted by jds1982 View Post
          It's because most NCO's die on stupid away missions before they can be put in any position of authority.
          I thought that was ensigns in red shirts?
          Please do me a huge favour and help me be with the love of my life.

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            #6
            Originally posted by P-90_177 View Post
            I thought that was ensigns in red shirts?
            oh you mean those poor little guys/gals who are sitting in front of ECOD (exploding consoles of doom)

            you know the ST universe is supposed to be peaceful (let's forget about the Dominion war for now) but if you think about it in almost every ep there's one person that get's killed
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            The Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Thunk thread The Sam/RepliCarter Ship Thread

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              #7
              Originally posted by P-90_177 View Post
              I thought that was ensigns in red shirts?
              NCO's are so unimportant that they don't even qualify for red shirts.
              All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing-Edmund Burke

              The question which once haunted my being has been answered. The future is not fixed, and my choices are my own... and yet, how ironic! For I now find, I have no choice at all! I am warrior... let the battle be joined.-Dinobot-Code of Hero

              Don't blame me, I voted Cthulhu

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                #8
                One of the reasons that there are a great many NCOs on Voyager is that at least half of the crew was made up of Maquis members, many of whom either never went through the Academy or washed out (therefore never making an officer).

                Miles O'Brien was "Senior Chief Petty Officer". He never went through the Academy so I assume he just randomly joined and received only basic training

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                  #9
                  Remember that episode of TNG where that former admiral (some old woman) is investigating the Enterprise crew and she ends up investigating Picard? Well the Half-Romulan guy that she digs up isn't an officer. He specifically states that he was too impatient to go through the academy. Also, in the episode that was about the junior officers (where one of them, a Bajoran, gets set off with a Cardiassian officer and ends up being killed), I think the Doctor guy who plays poker with them isn't an officer.

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                    #10
                    TNG's "Eye of the Beholder" mentions the Starfleet Technical Services Academy, a training course for enlisted crewmen.

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                      #11
                      There should be way more "enlisted" and NCOs in starfleet. Where are the janitor's in starfleet? Someone needs to mop the deck. Where are the marines? If I were fighting the Borg I'd rather have a hardass marine with a big gun than some panzy starfleet officer with a hand phasor.

                      If you compare starfleet to the modern US Navy, there would be enlisted crew members doing most of the basic jobs, like sitting at those consoles on the bridge, engineering, computer techs, communications, etc.. Another thing to remember is that to some extent in the Navy, officers are generalists while the enlisted are specialists, being certified in one area and doing that for most, if not all, of their career.

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                        #12
                        Originally posted by ATrain View Post
                        There should be way more "enlisted" and NCOs in starfleet. Where are the janitor's in starfleet? Someone needs to mop the deck. Where are the marines? If I were fighting the Borg I'd rather have a hardass marine with a big gun than some panzy starfleet officer with a hand phasor.

                        If you compare starfleet to the modern US Navy, there would be enlisted crew members doing most of the basic jobs, like sitting at those consoles on the bridge, engineering, computer techs, communications, etc.. Another thing to remember is that to some extent in the Navy, officers are generalists while the enlisted are specialists, being certified in one area and doing that for most, if not all, of their career.
                        ah well there's the answer then. Everyone in star trek seems to be able to do EVERYTHING.
                        Please do me a huge favour and help me be with the love of my life.

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                          #13
                          At least ENT envisioned this problem, Crewmen were abundent, shacked up in crampt crew bunks that I would not even call Quaters but that's the Naval term I know.

                          MACOS where Marines, specialy trained in many types of combat, also I loved how Reed hated being in second place to them, of course he was not a Marine and didn't have the training, he was a security weapons officer or something like that, I loved the clashing and the reconciliance in the end.
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                          In brightest day, in darkest night,

                          No evil shall escape my sight

                          Let those who worship evil's might,

                          Beware my power...Green Rep-Points light!

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                            #14
                            Originally posted by Darkstar 2.0 View Post
                            At least ENT envisioned this problem, Crewmen were abundent, shacked up in crampt crew bunks that I would not even call Quaters but that's the Naval term I know.

                            MACOS where Marines, specialy trained in many types of combat, also I loved how Reed hated being in second place to them, of course he was not a Marine and didn't have the training, he was a security weapons officer or something like that, I loved the clashing and the reconciliance in the end.
                            Yeah Enterprise did get it right in that regard. The macos even had enlisted ranks like Corporal and seargent.
                            Please do me a huge favour and help me be with the love of my life.

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