Various questions...

Greetings everyone ...
(players participating in Price of Freedom campaign please stay away)

I am on the eve of staring third season of my campaign, titled the Price of Freedom. As such I have had some generic questions I would be keen to hear your opinions on.

You know how it is, even the greatest mind can miss something, and since it is my aim to make this season best it can be I am hoping that if I have missed anything the group of kind Narrators that visits this forum will point it out to me ...

On with it then,

* Assuming starfleet officers are found to be in violation of starfleet regulations and it is viable for the court martials to take place, what do you think would be the turn around in such proceedings?

* Am I correct in assumption that each fleet in Starfleet (all 20 something of them) has a fleet admiral in charge of it?

* How much freedom would the flag officer in charge of the fleet have in decision makings considering his/hers fleet? To whom would he be responsible to report such decisions and in what matter?


I am sure I will have more questions as the phaser fire starts and troops begin to "beam and scream"...

As always, thank you for your input.
Kind Regards
Daniel

No, not every fleet admiral is actually a Fleet Admiral. See Adm. Necheyev in TNG/ DS9, although she is head of the ( think its ) 16th fleet, with Enterprise as her flagship, she still has the rank of Vice Admiral. In fact I would not assume that maybe besides the CO of the 1st Fleet ( defending Sol Sector ), there is any chief of the fleet with that rank. Its probably reserved for the highest members of Starfleet Command, remember it is the highest rank available and it would not make sense to give it to many others besides the Chief-in-Command. In fact I assume he and maybe his two deputies are the only ones with that rank.


The CO of the fleet's head is the Chief of Operations, a member of Starfleet Command who reports directly to the CiC and the President. However depending on the mission of the fleet their can be other temporal superiors, e.g. some of the science branch or a medical one, e.g. when leading a rescue mission. But besides that the CO is pretty much the same as a Captain just at a higher level. If you want regard the Captains as Department Heads and the Admiral as CO. There is of course an XO as well, not neccesarily an Admiral himself ( in fact in WWII there were occassions where a Captain, in sense of army title not navy one, which would be Full Lieutenant, commanded a whole regiment because the General was killed. Nevertheless he gave orders to Colonels and the like, because he was the third deputy of the General and all others were dead ), depending on the rank of the actual CO it can range from Commander to Admiral of course not exceeding the CO in rank however ( but its probably not uncommon he has the same rank ).

Hope that helps a bit :)

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* Assuming starfleet officers are found to be in violation of starfleet regulations and it is viable for the court martials to take place, what do you think would be the turn around in such proceedings?

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Turn around, as in, to find the PCs innocent? Well, like the current US Armed Forces & Civilian judicial system, for court martial offenses (those that are to herendous for lower levels of punishment (such as UCMJ's Artilce 5)) it is not whether one committed the crime, it is whether you can convince the jury (made up of officers) that the accused committed the crime "beyond a reasonable doubt". Thus, as seen in the DS9 episode where the Klingon Empire charged LTCMDR Wolf with homicide. Therefore, it is a much more adverserial system. Watch episodes of JAG or Law & Order to get an idea of what I am talking about.

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* Am I correct in assumption that each fleet in Starfleet (all 20 something of them) has a fleet admiral in charge of it?

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OK . . . part of what E.V.E. has said is correct, but also there is fault in his summery. Normally, in real life, Fleet Admiral (O-11) is reserved for Wartime only. Normally, the Chief of Naval Operations (I presume the name in Starfleet would be Chief of Starfleet Operations (CSO)) is a ADM (O-10). Underneath the CSO there would be the several commands. Each of these normally headed by a VAdm (O-9), regardless of whether they are Corps Specific (i.e. (r/l examples) MEDCOM, TRADOC, etc. (US Army examples), or whether they be Force specified (i.e CO 3rd FLT). However, more important commands may also be ADM (O-10) positions, (i.e. r/l Commander, Naval Surface Forces).

As for the Command Staff, known as General's Staff in the Army, they are those who help the Admiral (regardless of the specific rank of that admiral, you still adress the person as Sir/Ma'am/ or Admiral) in his or her duties. However, Unless there is a Deputy Commander, command, if the Commanding Officer is unable to carryout his duty, falls to the next in command, usually the CO of the Headquarters Staff (usually designated HHC in the US Army) or the next person stated in the Commands SOP.

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* How much freedom would the flag officer in charge of the fleet have in decision makings considering his/hers fleet? To whom would he be responsible to report such decisions and in what matter?

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For the most part, within his or her command, as long as it is with in regulations, and their general mission statement, they are free to do what they want. However, this is limited to the general approval and or direction from that regions CinC. For instance, in r/l, regardless of Branch of Service, of Rank, of level, in a given region the CinC is in total control. For instance . . . US Army Pacific, 8th Army, 1st Corps, 7th FLT, COMSUBPAC, COMSUFPAC, 3rd FLT, etc. etc. all fall under CinCPAC (Commander in Chief, Pacific) However the ultimate top of the Armed Forces command is still the President.

I don't think that the wartime only is correct for Starfleet. I do not believe that Starfleet would introduce a rank just for wartime, it would not match the overall idea of the more exploration style.

However I just remembered, if you want a detailed structure description of the fleets, you might want to look at the Dominion War Sourcebook found here in the computer core.

According to the Starfleet Operations Manual, Fleet Admiral is a rank and a position. The fleets are commanded by a "Fleet Admiral" who ranges in rank from Commodore or Rear Admiral (depending on era of play) to Fleet Admiral. The chain of command then goes down to subordinate Admirals and Captains of the Fleet. Fleets are usually divided into "wings", a Rear Adimral usually commands a wing.
In Kirk's time, Starfleet only had about 350 capital ships, by the 2340s, Starfleet had over 1000, divided into 27 fleets. Before the Dominion War, Starfleet had about 6,100 starships. After it, only about 2,500 in operating condition.
Fleet Admirals can do practically anything they want, within regulations to carry out their duty. Rarely do Admirals break the "regs" such as Admiral Leyton's attempted coup on Terra.
As far as charges go, small offenses are handled "in-house" which usually take the form of a verbal dressing-down, a reprimand, loss of privileges, or brig time.
Bigger offenses usually result in a Board of Inquiry, usually a panel of field officers will sit in judgement of serious, but non-criminal, offenses. There is also a BOI in the case of a Captain losing his command, such as when Picard lost the STARGAZER.
Criminal offenses, murder and mutiny, etc... will result in a Court Martial. Usually the worst that can happen is being sent to a penal colony, only General Order Seven (Capt. Pike's order to never visit Talos) carries the death penalty. Court Martials of senior officers are exceedingly rare; the first court martial of a serving captain occured in 2267, when Captain James T. Kirk was tried for causing the death of Lt. Cmdr. Ben Finney.