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                     Starfleet Rank Structure Explained
                           by William Stone, III

                           FidoNet:  1:115/439.4
                          America OnLine:  WRStone

A chart comparing Starfleet ranks with their appropriate US Army equivalents
might look like this:

 Starfleet                   Star Trek Example           US Army
============================================================================
 Ensign                      Chekov (TOS)                Second Lieutenant
 Lieutenant (Junior Grade)   Geordi (TNG - Season 1)     First Lieutenant
 Lieutenant                  Yar (TNG)                   Captain
 Lieutenant Commander        Data (TNG)                  Major
 Commander                   Riker (TNG)                 Lieutenant Colonel
 Captain                     Picard (TNG)                Colonel
 Fleet Captain               Garth, Pike (TOS)             no equivalent
 Commodore                   Stone, Mendez (TOS)         Brigadier General
 Rear Admiral                Kirk (TMP)                  Major General
 Vice Admiral                Kirk (ST2-4) *              Lieutenant General
 Admiral                     Komack (TOS)                General
 Fleet Admiral               Cartwright (ST4, ST6)       General of the Army

(* Kirk wasn't necessarily a Vice Admiral in ST2-4, but one would hope he got
some kind of promotion during the period from TMP to ST2. )

A Starfleet Commodore is *not* the same thing as a US Navy Commodore.  In
today's US Navy, Commodore is a nonexistent rank, changed years ago to "Rear
Admiral, Lower Half" (of the promotion list).  ( There was some kind of petty
congressional squabble over whether Commodore was a Flag rank and therefore
deserving of a Flag rank salary.  To solve the problem, they eliminated the
rank. )

Today, the US Navy rank of Commodore can be applied to a Captain either
visiting or temporarily aboard a vessel other than his own.  Traditionally -
in C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower novels, for example - a Commodore is a
Captain in charge of a number of vessels.  This rank appears to correspond
more closely to the Starfleet rank of Fleet Captain.

Starfleet Commodores have generally been seen in charge of Starbases.
Apparently, when you get promoted from Captain, you go on to Fleet Captain
and command a small fleet or task force.  If you're promoted to Commodore,
you command a Starbase.  If you go farther than that, you reach Starfleet
Command.

                          Starfleet Rank Insignia
                        (crudely rendered in ASCII)

                              Circa "The Cage"
                   |        |              |        |
                   |        |              |        |
                   |========|              |        |
                   |________|              |________|
                    Officers             Everybody Else

                    Circa "Where No Man Has Gone Before"
         |        |             |        |             |        |
         |========|             |        |             |        |
         |========|             |========|             |        |
         |________|             |________|             |________|
          Captain                Officers            Everybody Else


                        The Original Series / ST-TMP
   |        |    |        |    |        |    |        |    |        |
   |        |    |        |    |        |    |== == ==|    |========|
   |        |    |== == ==|    |========|    |========|    |========|
   |________|    |________|    |________|    |________|    |________|
     Ensign       LT (J.G)     Lieutenant    LT Commander   Commander

   |        |    |        |    |        |    |        |    |========|
   |        |    |        |    |        |    |========|    |========|
   |========|    |========|    |--------|    |--------|    |--------|
   |== == ==|    |========|    |        |    |        |    |        |
   |========|    |========|    |--------|    |--------|    |--------|
   |________|    |________|    |________|    |________|    |________|
    Captain     Fleet Captain   Commodore   Rear Admiral  Vice Admiral

   |        |
   |--------|
   |        |
   |        |
   |--------|
   |________|
     Admiral

We never actually saw a Vice Admiral in TOS, but the addition of another line
of braid seems a logical extension of the pattern.  Also, though the Fleet
Captain braid was never show, the three full stripes is a pretty logical
guess.

The Movie Series insignia pins, unfortunately, cannot be rendered in ASCII -
even crudely.


                            The Next Generation
    O       O 0          O O           O O 0          O O O      O O O O
 Ensign   LT (J.G)    Lieutenant    LT Commander    Commander    Captain

  .---.          .---.      .-----.       .-----.     .-------.   .-------.
  | 0 |          | O |      | O 0 |       | O O |     | O O 0 |   | O O O |
  `---'          `---'      `-----'       `-----'     `-------'   `-------'
Fleet Captain  Commodore  Rear Admiral  Vice Admiral   Admiral  Fleet Admiral

( O refers to the "filled" gold circular pip worn on the collar.  "0" is the
"hollow" gold circular pip. )

We've never seen Fleet Captain or Commodore on TNG.  My insignia design is
simply a logical extension of the pattern and might be contradicted by next
week's episode.

The insignia for the various flag ranks conflict depending on which season
you're watching.  In the first season, the Admiral grades were denoted by
varying numbers of circular pips surrounded by a triangle.  The pips appeared
to reduce in size as they approached the point of the triangle.  The insignia
was worn on the collar by Admiral Jameson in "Too Short a Season" and the
admirals in "Conspiracy".  It was worn as shoulderboards by "The Admiral"
(McCoy) in "Encounter at Farpoint".

The current flag rank pattern was adopted in the second season circa "The
Measure of a Man".

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Copyright (C) 1991 William Stone, III.  Permission to freely distribute the
full text of this article is hereby granted, provided the author's name and
this copyright notice are retained.