And it still seems odd for Rand to need exactly three years to become an Ensign. She spent far more than three years in noncom duties before we first saw her (or a character played by GLW) with an officer's pin (in ST3 for a generic GLW character, in ST6 for a confirmed Rand sighting). Why single out any three years of that time, unless they are supposed to represent some sort of a "NCO-to-commission" course? And why would that course take so long when full Academy studies for a complete rookie take just a year longer?

In the USN, prospective pilots will graduate the Academy with the rank of Ensign, and go on to flight schooling, where they will rise to Lieutenant (j.g.). All this during constant schooling.

Kirk could have undergone similar training after his graduation as Ensign. He would have served aboard the Republic as part of that training, "several years" after his cadet days like he states. He'd then attend the Command School thingie seen in ST2, do the Kobayashi Maru, and also serve as an instructor for Gary Mitchell, while at Lieutenant (j.g.) rank. Only after that would he sail out with captain Garrovick and truly leave the Academy for the first time.

Note that only a select few people do Kobayashi Maru or a comparable test - the only known examples are Kirk and Saavik, while McCoy never took the test. It seems that the test is not part of the mandatory Academy curriculum, but an add-on of some sort. Of course, McCoy could be an exception just because he's a doctor - perhaps he never took SF Academy to begin with? But later-era doctors have been shown to go through the Academy. None have mentioned a no-win scenario final exam, but that isn't solid proof...

FWIW, ST2 also makes it look a bit like Spock never took a no-win scenario test, either. When dying, he speaks *conditionally* of Kirk now knowing how he *would* have done in a Kobayasi Maru scenario.

There might be several ways for an officer to gain command privileges. If one doesn't take the special course right after graduation and do the adjoining no-win scenario excercise, one might be able to accumulate command merit through regular service and do a lesser course at a later point. Or a series of lesser courses, giving partial command qualifications, as apparently was the case with Crusher and Troi. As we saw, Troi actually did a sort of Kobayashi Lite.

Whether one gets to do the big command course right away might have something to do with shirt color - perhaps only the TOS goldshirts and TNG redshirts do it sort of automatically, while Spock possibly was a blueshirt in/after the Academy? TOS Redshirts and TNG yellowshirts might suffer from limitations as well, since apparently Eddington could not get captaincy while wearing yellow.

We have several catagories of officer and while they all hold the same ranks they do have special roles and different "privileges".

Unrestricted line officers (URL) are the most like TNG red shirts. They can hold pretty much any management job on a ship - from engineering to tactical to small craft officer. In fact they are expected to learn all aspects in route to command. (Pilots are also URL but the whole aviator/surface/submarine officer thing doesn't seem to carry over to trek so we'll ignore that for now). They have no limits on what sort of command they can have (that's the "unrestricted" part.

There are also "limited duty officers" LDO's who have a particular job (i.e. engineering) that they specialize in and that's all they do. If they are the engineer on one ship they'll be an engineer on their next one. (Also they are prior enlisted, not something I'd try to apply to Trek). LDO's seem a lot like most of the career "yellow shirts" on TNG. Some folks like Worf and Geordi switch from red to yellow - perhaps they take a "LDO" like job in exchange for some unknown reward? There is a move in the US military to allow officers to specialize in a field and not be "promoted" into management (i.e. "hey I like flying, don't promote me into a desk job") - perhaps a red shirt can move into a "yellow" job that suits them and step out of the command track? Navy LDO's can hold any rank - but are not allowed command of a ship. Thus, high ranking LDO's (there aren't many due to Navy specific reasons) tend to hold highly technical jobs ashore - and may in fact be in command ashore. Trek yellow shirts seem to also be held back in regards to ship command - however there is at least some route that lets you back into red (Data, Worf).

The third (major) type of Naval officers are in the various Staff Corps. These are (like yours truly) those in the "professions" like lawyers, doctors, civil engineers(Seabees), etc. They can also hold any rank (even Admiral ranks) - cannot command ships but can command say the Legal Center or a Hospital - something specific to their "Corps". These seem to link up with TNG blue shirts. A Staff officer that wanted to become a ship Captain would have to get out of the Staff Corps and get recommisioned as a URL - in theory possible but I've never heard of it happening. If fact it is usually the other way around (a URL going to law school and switching or something).

A LT, say, from any of the groups is basically the same as a LT from another in terms of rank (there is a complicated method of determining who outranks whom if there is two with the same date of rank, but that's beside the point).

Its only a model.

So, a Medical Corps LT out ranks a Nurse Corps LT if both of their dates of rank are the same. However, a NC LT w/ DOR 1/1/01 outranks a MC LT with DOR 1/2/01. Of course a NC LCDR out ranks all LT's regardless of corps. The caveat of that being that the Staff officer can't take command of a warship so I suppose the LCDR NC would "advise" a URL junior officer (not likely to really happen).

I guess it is complicated. I have *never* seen it actually come down to figuring this out however - usually between date of rank and the authority given by your job it is sorted out. The military just sets up the rules so that someone is clearly and legally in charge regardless of the situation.

While we're at it - if all else is equal : Army rank> Navy rank > USMC rank > Air Force rank (IIRC).

quote:

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Army rank> Navy rank > USMC rank > Air Force rank (IIRC)

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The ranks are broken down into numbers like this:

Navy/Coast Guard = number rank = Army/Air Force/Marines
Ensign = O-1 = 2nd Lt.
Lt. JG = O-2 = 1st Lt.
Lt. = O-3 = Captain
Lt. Commander = 0-4 = Major
Cmdr. = O-5 = Lt. Colonel
Captain = O-6 = Colonel

Thusly, a Navy Lieutenent would salute an Army Major. An Army Captain would salute a Navy Captain, and so on. For those of the same rank it goes by date of service. Equal respect for each branch and all that. We're all on the same team after all.

Same setup for the enlisted ranks (though enlisted don't get saluted).