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Actually, there are astronauts from all 5 US armed forces, including the US Army and Coast Guard.
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Originally posted by Polanski
Ever wondered why NASA only takes Air Forces personnel?
Ever seen a Colonel or Naval officer in NASA's ranks?
Once again it comes down to realism and canon... it is your very own call how realistic your vision of Star Trek is, and based on that believe you have to make up your mind on operations and the methods used by Starfleet...
Kind Regards
Daniel
Not to mention civilians as well.
Two reasons:Quote:
Originally posted by Lt Cmdr Matt
Why do we call engineers, engineering officer?
They are a part of the operations branch, so why not call them operations officers? They do one part of the operations, maintenance and development.
(snip)
1) Operations personnel deal with resource allocation from all divisions. Engineers deal exclusively with the workings of the ship and must work with what they are given.
2) According to an ex-Navy Lt. friend of mine, on most ships, engineering personnel constitute half to two-thirds of total personnel on board ship. It would make sense from a logistical and record-keeping standpoint to make engineering separate.
Well, to bend the Star Trek universe competely out of shape, a friend of mine once ran a game with a *Klingon* Marine (Klingon Marine forces) exchange officer commanding the Federation Starship U.S.S. Schwarzkopf.Quote:
Originally posted by E W Dawson
"Ronald Regan Memorial Orbital Defense Base" :p
To me, that is pretty funny.
But seriously, what do we have to work with that is canon?
Of course, it was an alternate universe where the Collective consciousness of ALL Borg was hijacked by the computer SkyNet (from the Terminator films). Can you imagine Borg with Terminator combat chassis'?
Well, I'll guess I'll revive this thread after a long absence. The Starfleet Security personnel could be trained like Air Force Security Forces personnel. My brother does this job. They usually carry out law enforcement duties on base, but do get trained up to do patrolling in Iraq too. They went to some extra training for a month or so and then went to Iraq for 6 months. So Starfleet Security could also do this, in peace time they act as security and law enforcement. During war time they shift into a more infantry type mode. Afterward, they go back to being "regular" security. They also have their specialized units too; spec ops and SWAT teams, combat controllers, and para rescue. So Starfleet Security can do all these jobs, just during wartime their numbers would swell exponentially.
A ship usually carries enough security personnel to maintain security on ship, the larger the ship, the larger the security contingent. Maybe a platoon sized element on a Constitution-class and a company or two for a Galaxy-class.
I'd imagine an assignment to a ground-forces type position would be the same as any other collection of Starfleet types; you'd have the command/admin/nav division, the engineers, the security/defense specialists, the medical division and the science peeps. Like a combat mission in space, everyone would go in with the understanding that combat would occur–they're unlikely to assign someone who's never been in a firefight to an important ground assault.
Being a US Navy veteran myself, my Trek campaigns were always more militaristic than Canon. Starfleet is for all intents and purposes, the Federation Navy.
And I have plenty of Marines, especially deployed aboard FASA Chandley Class ships.
Well, I strongly doubt that Air Force personnel are doing anything very "infantry type". They are still doing the kind of thing they did before: providing security ro Air Force bases. It's just a different job depending on where you are: is your job mostly to check IDs at the gate and chase down the occasional moose who has somehow jumped the fence, or are you patrolling the fence with orders to shoot anyone who comes within 100 meters of it?Quote:
Originally Posted by Antonsb214
MPs in the Army are the police force on Army bases, but in a war zone they are tasked with securing and guarding prisoners-of-war, and guarding prisons both agaisnt escape and agaisnt outside attacks.
And what we've seen of Starfleet Security, their job is pretty similar to those: on a ship, they enforce order, guard prisoners, and find and neutralize boarders. On a planet, they protect crewmembers from hostile forces. Sometimes they're cops, sometimes prison guards, and sometimes bodyguards.
And logically, "Federation Ground Forces" would probably answer to Security. Unless the Ground Forces were so large as to warrant a seperate division, either equal to Security or larger than Security.
That's all so subjective as to be "season to taste". :)
But that's assuming they'd ever have a mission that was totally under the aegis of Security–and very few missions in the 23rd or 24th century will be like that.Quote:
Originally Posted by spyone
Actually, my brother did go on patrols way outside the wire. He's gone through MOUT training, NTC, and infantry school, along with law enforcement aspect of his job.