Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
Dave Schmidt's "Starfleet Dynamics" has a nice possible breakdown for the 2290s. It's basically based on RL naval departmental ops.
SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION ALERT! I did a little work myself by modifying the standard extant United States Uniform Code Of Military Justice for content & creating the Starfleet UCMJ for the JAG Corps. Most of it was find & replace searches for various service branches as well as names of leadership & dating problems. The real fun was in modifying the punitive articles, which lay out specific charges. I had to make them genderless & remove any mention of monetary remunerations, as well as remove a couple charges & add a few new ones in.
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posted
I think the reason Shelby did wear the red uniform was because she was going to be in command of a starship. She may have before wore yellow before given the assignment to the Enterprise-D and decided to give Riker a run for the captain's chair. As for the Chief of Security and Chief Tactical Officer debate... wasn't there a Voyager episode where Janeway introduced Tuvok as Chief of Security? Anyway, I would think that being Cheif of Security makes you also Cheif Tactical Officer since you have to protect the personel and the starship. As for the Science Officer part...wasn't Jadzia Dax the Chief Science Officer on DS9 before she was fried?
Registered: May 1999
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Member # 709
posted
Well, we should also assume that the senior officers of a starship go beyond those seen as the main characters.
In 'Arena' when the Commodore on Cestus III asked Kirk to bring his tactical officers with him, he beamed down with three guys, in red, blue and gold. Perhaps one was in command of troops (gold), one was in charge of weapons (services red) and one was games/theory or tactical science.. and dealt with theoreticals only and therefore was not a line military officer (blue). Shelby was tactical division, but was a member of the chain of command in the Borg project so was allowed to, or chose to, or was required to wear red. Also, it could be possibel that, anyone who graduated from 'command school' or the like, Starfleet Academy might have special training that allows you to be a command officer, so you can choose to wear red to distinguish you from the more specialized graduates & grunts. The problem with this is explaining command-wearing non-coms like O'Brien, but he obviously was a distinguished chief and possibly the command color also symbolized his tactical specialization.
On the subject of flag officers, i could see officers that did not have military or command experience as being barred from wearing command colors (a senior engineer, or Admiral McCoy mightn't be considered command personnel, and probably shouldnt flaunt red-shirts) but a medical officer who was an able starship commander (say if Beverly Crusher from the AGT future became an admiral) then she would have the privilege of wearing either)
[ October 15, 2001: Message edited by: CaptainMike ]
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Registered: Sep 2001
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posted
Timo's idea on the two different meanings of "tactical" made me realize something. There really are two different meanings. A ship's "tactical" officer is, in effect, just the weapons officer. They don't really use "tactics", as such. They just shoot what the captain tells them to shoot. This would certainly seem to me to be something that would take a gold uniform (or red in the old days, like Reed).
The other sort of tactical officer really is "tactical". They plan out battle strategies and such. This would be more of a command position. These people (Shelby, Worf on DS9) wouldn't be the ones firing the phasers and torpedoes. They'd be the ones telling other people when and where to do these things.
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