last question for the night(honest)

the1st · Lieutenant, Junior Grade Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 83

last question for the night(honest)...why does mr o brien not hold a rank...wasnt he an ensign at the start of TNG

Republican_Man · **Tue Apr 04, 2006 6:54 pm**

lol, you should just create a topic for all the questions you're asking

Um, in the start of TNG he wasn't an ensign, actually. He was a Chief Petty Officer.
However, I don't even know what rank he has in DS9. Even Memory-Alpha has nothing on it, from what I'm seeing. All he was there was "Chief of Operations."
Oh, and btw? Memory-Alpha might be able to answer many of the questions you're asking

the1st · Lieutenant, Junior Grade Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 83

thanks

Lord Borg · **Tue Apr 04, 2006 7:07 pm**

He is an enlisted officer, which means he did not go to starfleet academy, and thus has a differnt rank. He's something near chief petty officer. As said before, look in Memory Alpha, you should be able to find something. I will also agree that if you have many questions, you should make a single topic. Asking questions is fine, but if you have several you can save time by asking them in one topic.

Voyager2004 · **Wed Apr 05, 2006 8:58 pm**

I believe, according to the pips that I bought at Star Trek: The Experience, that his rank is Chief Warrant Officer. So he is a commissioned officer, but is an officer with a "degree," if you will b/c that what it is in today's Navy, has a degree in "Engineering" or "Mechanics" probably.

So, he's an officer, but below that of an Ensign, but above that of a Master Chief Petty Officer...

Hope my insight on the Naval/Star Trek ranks has helped, b/c they're on in the same...LOL...

Lord Borg · **Wed Apr 05, 2006 9:15 pm**

LtCmd.Dave · **Fri Apr 07, 2006 9:31 am**

Hello all, this is my first post, but I have been lurking here for a while.

You all are right about Miles being an enlisted man, he has pointed out that fact on a few occasions. I�m not sure what episode, but I remember him making the comment to Julian that he preferred being an �Enlisted man� as opposed to being an officer. But he is a chief, not a warrant officer�

Taken from startrek.com: �Rank: Chief petty officer, senior chief specialist�

As far as him not being able to boss people around. I see him giving orders to Nog and Rom and other crewmembers every so often. I know Rom is only a maintenance/repair diagnostician, junior grade (what ever that is), but Nog is an ensign. Why would a chief be giving orders and clearances to an ensign?? Seniority maybe? Same thing happened on the Enterprise�The only people I have ever seen him take an order from would be Sisko or Kira, maybe Odo. Not only that, why would a chief be head of operation on a space station??? Look at Geordi La Forge, he was only chief engineer on a ship and he was a Lt. Commander. I think that if anyone other than Colm Meaney played that part, the characters rank would have been at least lieutenant. I think they wanted to keep Meaney, but also wanted to be consistent with his rank. To make matters more confusing, he wore either Lt. or Lt. JG rank insignia when he was on the Enterprise?!?! (probably because during the TNG days they didn�t have insignia for enlisted guys)

Anyway, a quick search of yahoo for Star Trek Ranks gave me this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfleet_ranks_and_insignia
I know its wikipedia, but the sources look credible. It takes a few seconds to load, but its really cool!!!

As the new guy in the group, hope I wasn�t to mush of a smart @$$

Voyager2004 · **Fri Apr 07, 2006 5:14 pm**

He gives orders to Nog b/c Not is JUST an ensign...yes he's higher up on the "rank" and "formal respect" part of it, but Chief's in today's Navy are often used to shape "Midshipmen" into the Officers there are training to become. Therefore Nog is probably placed under O'brian's care to help mold him into a "better" officer.

Now, granted, Nog is already commissioned by this point, yes, and is a full blown officer, not a Midshipman, (yes Midshipm"A"n b/c midshipm"E"n is plural...just didn't want anybody to catch it as a potential mistake and try to correct me...)anyway, he's commissioned and not a Midshipman but he still is inexperienced as an officer and needs the care of that of Chief O'brian...