Starfleet Rank Structure Explained
                           by William Stone, III

                           FidoNet:  1:115/634.2
                          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                  Worf (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               Morrow (ST3)                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 -
and in the Canadian Navy, for example - a Commodore is a Captain in charge of
a number of vessels.  This rank corresponds more closely to a Starfleet 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.


                       The Next Generation Rank Pips
                        (Crudely Rendered in ASCII)


    O       O o          O O           O O o          O O O      O O O O
 Ensign   LT (J.G)    Lieutenant    LT Commander    Commander    Captain

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

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 Admiral grade conflict depending on which season
you're watching.  They seem to have settled on the current pattern in the
second season circa "The Measure of a Man".

-----
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.

 * Origin: Stone Point Salutes Gene Roddenberry (1921-1991) (1:115/439.4)