According to Roddenberry's original treatment the inspiration for Star Trek/Capt. Kirk was Horatio Hornblower. That was during the great age of English exploration. The English ships that went out were, nominally, Royal Navy and representatives of the Crown but they would not have been "Military" in the sense that we use the term, today. They were whatever was needed... military, police, explorer, scientific research, cartography, search and rescue... even merchantmen and post masters after a fashion. The Capt. was largely autonomous. There were rules and regulations but Capt's ignored them regularly. If you did and it went well you were a hero... if it blew up in your face the rules allowed the Powers That Be to disavow any connection to your actions and your career was over.
Unfortunately a lot of people, today, have difficulty imagining a world that isn't neatly time, dated & stamped... documented in triplicate... etc. So, over the years, the portrayal of the world of Star Trek has been all over the map. I guess you can pretty much imagine your own.
I like the idea of a very loose organization that is much in the tradition of Horatio Hornblower but without the Crown. I imagine the "Government", as such, as a sort of advisory body made up of representatives from all the member planets. Most directives would be more of a suggestion or guideline with possible penalties (in extreme cases) for failure to follow those guidelines. In most instances there would be no penalties because the guidelines should be formulated in the best interest of all the member worlds. Why would you work against your own best interests? Actual Military issues, if any, would be handled by each planet. Anything that affected the Federation as a whole would see Starfleet acting as an organizing and spearheading entity augmented by the best of those planetary militias. I would expect that the need would not arise often. The truth is that space warfare is actually a rather absurd notion. It's more likely that the worst any Starfleet Capt would be likely to encounter would be the occasional skirmish. Actual wars between planets would, most likely, be fought, if at all, in the marketplace by traders and diplomats... not by soldiers.
If that sounds a bit chaotic... remember... I'm a friend of Chaos and Discordia and an enemy of order... historically "order" always ends up being spelled E * V * I * L
*STO*Its mission: To destroy strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations... and then kill them, to boldly annihilate what no one has annihilated before!
Is the starship U.S.S. Enterprise a military vessel?
Yes, but only semi-military in practice -- omitting features
which are heavily authoritarian. For example, we are not
aware of "officers" and "enlisted men" categories. And we
avoid saluting and other annoying medieval leftovers. On
the other hand, we do keep a flavor of Naval usage and
terminology to help encourage believability and identification
by the audience. After all, our own Navy today still
retains remnants of tradition known to Nelson and Drake.
Your pain runs deep.
Let us explore it... together. Each man hides a secret pain. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light. Share your pain. Share your pain with me... and gain strength from the sharing.
The Federation is a Communist Government that hides behind a thin veil of "Democracy".
Starfleet is to Exploration, and Diplomacy, what the U.S. Army in the 1800's was to Exploration, and Diplomacy.;)
Actual wars between planets would, most likely, be fought, if at all, in the marketplace by traders and diplomats... not by soldiers.
Heh, I think that's overly optimistic. When has that happened dirt-side? Only in situations where long term peaceful or semi-peaceful contact has been established.
It sort of depends on what you consider the military to be. Most of this is only theory as in practice things tend not to be so strict.
Usually you can make this sort of difference: military protects the state, civilian protects the people. However if it's difficult to tell apart which is which in our terms, it is even more difficult when you take a look at what the Federation is supposed to be, People and state are not exactly apart.
To me Starfleet is militaristic but not military. It has the command structure, the sense of career and service, but it's main goal is scientifical, diplomatic and exploratory. It also provides defense. A purely military organization, in my view, would only have to focus on defense.
Would like to quote from so many posts... Many great points have been made.
One that I have not seen brought up is the fact that Starfleet is composed of space ships. Stop and give that a few seconds thought. A space ship is operating in what is virtually the most hazardous environment imaginable. It is also operating at great distances from other ships or potential aid.
These few facts lead to the command structure aboard a Starfleet ship mirroring that of ships that operated under similar situations in our past. When sailing ships took months to travel the oceans and had no weather satellites to warn of hurricanes for example.
Also operating at such distance from other ships results in each ship having to pretty much be a "jack of all trades". Diplomatic, scientific, exploration, transportation, you name it. Each ship of the fleet would have to do some of each, if not all. Obviously there would be specialist ships, such as research, colony transports, terra-forming...
And military. This was made very clear at the start of TNG with the inclusion of "saucer separation" which allowed the ship to place its non-combat facilities at a distance from the military action. This was something that I was very much in favor of, but it almost vanished from the series. And when it is seen in game it is just a way to turn one ship into two.
Starfleet is a military, but inevitably tries to pretend it isn't.
Federation member worlds can keep their standing military and security forces when they join.
The invention of things like replicators and transporters means certain economic laws taken for granted on modern day earth are more or less ignored. When you can make just about anything out of anything else, what's the use of money?
Cultural stagnation isn't a human problem. When one can dedicate their lives to art, philosophy, medicine or any other "bettering ourselves" field without having to worry about putting food on the table, you can invariably get a lot done. It's kitchy, it's cliche, but who's to say that if we can cure poverty, hunger, disease, prejudice and unite for the betterment of all what we can't do?
I concur, Starfleet is a military force, despite how touchy-feeley-sensitive the Federation is at TNG era onwards. Yes, they do alot of humanitarian stuff, yes they do evacuations, yes they shuttle around diplomats and such. But they are at the forefront of the Federation's wars.
In contrast, the Starfleet of Kirk's era (TOS, TMP movie eras) was very different from Picard's time. Starfleet in TOS timeframe had absolutely no qualms with getting into conflict with the Klingon Empire if it came to it. In the episode with the Organians, Kirk was very eager into getting into a shooting war with the Klingons, led by Kor in that area. Yes, they still engaged in exploratory, diplomatic missions, but Starfleet and the Federation did NOT take any BS from anyone.
The difference between TOS/TMP Starfleet and later Starfleet is summed up like this: With the TNG era ships, "warships" were not designed. Starfleet made very capable, well rounded starships, but they were not weighted as much for war. This only changed later when serious threats began to arise (Borg, Dominion War), but it had to take a disaster to wake Starfleet up in realizing, "Hey, there's people out there that don't like us" and make purpose built warships.
I guess you can attribute this to when the shows were made. TOS and even TMP era was made at the height of the Cold War, and it reflected this.
Also, where is it in TOS onwards where Federation member worlds still retain their own standing military? I cannot recall any episodes or movies where any of the Fed members have their own military.
Don't forget that Federation vessels have civilian (non starfleet) people aboard. Military vessels could have civilians aboard but for very specific roles, such as consultants, not families.
Is the starship U.S.S. Enterprise a military vessel?
Yes, but only semi-military in practice -- omitting features
which are heavily authoritarian. For example, we are not
aware of "officers" and "enlisted men" categories.
AAahhh... gotcha. Well then could you please ask CHIEF O'Brien - as in Chief Petty Officer or Master Chief - to clarify what he meant when he said - and I quote - "Thanks but no thanks. That's why I stayed an enlisted man"?
If he's not available, please feel free to ask one of the many generic "crewmen" from a few of the series/movies o.O
Don't forget that Federation vessels have civilian (non starfleet) people aboard. Military vessels could have civilians aboard but for very specific roles, such as consultants, not families.
Yes, forgot that detail, but that stopped eventually. Most definitely by the time of the Dominion War, when Fed ships were actually being blown up everywhere, just like everyone else. Heck, Voyager when it left on its fateful mission on a 3 hour tour to disappear didn't have civilians aboard.
I always thought that Starfleet having civilians aboard was overly optimistic and naive, knowing full well that ships have been lost, even on the famed Exploratory missions. Then again, we only see civilians on the USS Enterprise-D, which was on an exploration mission, a long one also. TOS Enterprise was on a 5 year mission, which is a damn long time away from home. With the more capable ships of TNG, the Enterprise-D as a Galaxy class was being sent on a 7 or 8 year long exploration mission... that's spending a massive chunk of one's career in Starfleet on this single, huge mission. So I guess Starfleet opts to let families stay aboard, but still... lord knows what kind of stuff ships on these missions can come across, stuff that could even bring a cutting edge ship of a Galaxy class to its knees.
Yes, forgot that detail, but that stopped eventually. Most definitely by the time of the Dominion War, when Fed ships were actually being blown up everywhere, just like everyone else. Heck, Voyager when it left on its fateful mission on a 3 hour tour to disappear didn't have civilians aboard.
I always thought that Starfleet having civilians aboard was overly optimistic and naive, knowing full well that ships have been lost, even on the famed Exploratory missions. Then again, we only see civilians on the USS Enterprise-D, which was on an exploration mission, a long one also. TOS Enterprise was on a 5 year mission, which is a damn long time away from home. With the more capable ships of TNG, the Enterprise-D as a Galaxy class was being sent on a 7 or 8 year long exploration mission... that's spending a massive chunk of one's career in Starfleet on this single, huge mission. So I guess Starfleet opts to let families stay aboard, but still... lord knows what kind of stuff ships on these missions can come across, stuff that could even bring a cutting edge ship of a Galaxy class to its knees.
But that was because you enter war time. Not a very good analogy but it's like using leisure cruise ships as troop carriers. Only that in this case is taking the civilians from the vessels.
And remember it wasn't just the Enterprise. When DS9 starts, the Saratoga has families aboard. DS9 has families - ok, technically DS9 is bajoran.
EDIT: Voyager was sent on specific, military in nature, mission.
AAahhh... gotcha. Well then could you please ask CHIEF O'Brien - as in Chief Petty Officer or Master Chief - to clarify what he meant when he said - and I quote - "Thanks but no thanks. That's why I stayed an enlisted man"?
If he's not available, please feel free to ask one of the many generic "crewmen" from a few of the series/movies o.O
notice that its from The Original Series
Your pain runs deep.
Let us explore it... together. Each man hides a secret pain. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light. Share your pain. Share your pain with me... and gain strength from the sharing.
So wait a sec - are you saying that Transporter CHIEF Miles O'Brien - of the USS Enterprise 1701-D who later became DS9's Ops Chief - was from the Original Series?
Or your "source"was from the OS?
Because if the 1st point is true, then please watch a few other equally canon series episodes and movies to update your data.
And well... if you choose to say only the OS matters, PLEASE tell me you only fly Constitutions, Klingon D7s, or Rom Bird of Preys - because by your own argument, the OS is the end all and be all of Star Trek O.o
So wait a sec - are you saying that Transporter CHIEF Miles O'Brien - of the USS Enterprise 1701-D who later became DS9's Ops Chief - was from the Original Series?
Or your "source"was from the OS?
Because if the 1st point is true, then please watch a few other equally canon series episodes and movies to update your data.
And well... if you choose to say only the OS matters, PLEASE tell me you only fly Constitutions, Klingon D7s, or Rom Bird of Preys - because by your own argument, the OS is the end all and be all of Star Trek O.o
None of the above...though I do have a level 50 that flies a Constitution class ship.
The link that I posted is from the Original Series writer's bible.
The character of O'Brien is from The Next Generation. TNG is noted for making quite a few changes to Star Trek. In fact the idea behind no enlisted was abandoned in TMP...which also made changes.
I posted the link to see how the original writers thought of Starfleet.
Your pain runs deep.
Let us explore it... together. Each man hides a secret pain. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light. Share your pain. Share your pain with me... and gain strength from the sharing.
Given that Starfleet ranks typically correspond to those of the United States Navy, "yeoman" most likely refers to the job specialty, or "rating", rather than a rank of its own. A yeoman in this case is one who performs administrative and clerical duties, which fits the function of those referred to as "yeoman" in Star Trek.
Your pain runs deep.
Let us explore it... together. Each man hides a secret pain. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light. Share your pain. Share your pain with me... and gain strength from the sharing.
Starfleet is like the US Coast Guard. It is a uniformed service with duties like Law Enforcement (USCG is the only branch allowed to make arrests outside of wartime), maintaining of navigation systems, enforcement of tariffs and regulation of trade, exploration (Coast Guard operates ice breakers for arctic survey work, and meteorological aircraft), in wartime they are a military service.
My Romulan Liberated Borg character made it to Level 30 and beat the (old) Defense of New Romulus with the skill point bug.
I have always had Starfleet as two bodies working the same mission in different parts of space.
The traditional Starfleet seen in series and most movies (not alternate universe) is an Exploration and Security component. These are the ships out beyond the UFP border conducting exploration and new discovery. The security role is only to respond to threats to stability and safeguarding non-belligerent societies. The prime directive rules and there is no intervention into private affairs or actions between two belligerent (unless they target or use a third party non-belligerent)
The other is the Defense Force and Survey component that does the more traditional patrolling to protect the federation and still has an exploration role of surveying solar systems and space events for both knowledge and intelligence needs. The ships in this mission operate along the boundaries and near the neutral zones, as well as with allied forces not necessarily in the UFP.
Starfleet started with the mission of exploration, but events changed it into a dual role of exploration and protecting the Federation. The Romulan Conflict and the Klingon Disputes have made Starfleet to think beyond the simple role of explorer and take on more of a dual role to be prepared for conflicts with new societies and unstable events.
Starfleet is like the US Coast Guard. It is a uniformed service with duties like Law Enforcement (USCG is the only branch allowed to make arrests outside of wartime), maintaining of navigation systems, enforcement of tariffs and regulation of trade, exploration (Coast Guard operates ice breakers for arctic survey work, and meteorological aircraft), in wartime they are a military service.
I was in the Navy for 11 years working in the Navigation department. On top of the obvious military jobs we also were required to record meteorological data and send it to NOAA hourly, but we were mandated to investigate and record any phenomenon that occurred, to provide help to mariners and take part in search and rescue.
It was all very star trek like.
Your pain runs deep.
Let us explore it... together. Each man hides a secret pain. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light. Share your pain. Share your pain with me... and gain strength from the sharing.
Given that Starfleet ranks typically correspond to those of the United States Navy, "yeoman" most likely refers to the job specialty, or "rating", rather than a rank of its own. A yeoman in this case is one who performs administrative and clerical duties, which fits the function of those referred to as "yeoman" in Star Trek.
I did read it. :P Yeomen, in the show, were either officers so junior they had no seniority at all or enlisted. Janice Rand is an example of the second category. She's specifically mentioned to have left the Enterprise so she could train to become an officer. Obviously that means she wasn't an officer already.... The point here is that TOS had a distinction between officers and enlisted in it. The actual definition of Yeoman is irrelevent. In the show it was used for crew who were lower ranking than the command crew(officers)
I did read it. :P Yeomen, in the show, were either officers so junior they had no seniority at all or enlisted. Janice Rand is an example of the second category. She's specifically mentioned to have left the Enterprise so she could train to become an officer. Obviously that means she wasn't an officer already.... The point here is that TOS had a distinction between officers and enlisted in it. The actual definition of Yeoman is irrelevent. In the show it was used for crew who were lower ranking than the command crew(officers)
But the key point of discussion was that TOS era Starfleet DID in fact have enlisted. In fact, foreign language translations usually translate yeoman as either sargeant or corporal.
Starfleet has a very military like structure and can serve as the Federations military when it is required to do so. But while they may focus on exploration and being "peace" vessels they are very much able to engage in war when it is required of them.
For example when the Borg invaded federation space in ST:TNG they quickly formed an a fleet of ships to counter attack and serve their purpose and defend the federation. The reason they don't identify as a military maybe perhaps because they don't want cultures to think of them like a warring species or organization so they downplay that part.
Comments
Unfortunately a lot of people, today, have difficulty imagining a world that isn't neatly time, dated & stamped... documented in triplicate... etc. So, over the years, the portrayal of the world of Star Trek has been all over the map. I guess you can pretty much imagine your own.
I like the idea of a very loose organization that is much in the tradition of Horatio Hornblower but without the Crown. I imagine the "Government", as such, as a sort of advisory body made up of representatives from all the member planets. Most directives would be more of a suggestion or guideline with possible penalties (in extreme cases) for failure to follow those guidelines. In most instances there would be no penalties because the guidelines should be formulated in the best interest of all the member worlds. Why would you work against your own best interests? Actual Military issues, if any, would be handled by each planet. Anything that affected the Federation as a whole would see Starfleet acting as an organizing and spearheading entity augmented by the best of those planetary militias. I would expect that the need would not arise often. The truth is that space warfare is actually a rather absurd notion. It's more likely that the worst any Starfleet Capt would be likely to encounter would be the occasional skirmish. Actual wars between planets would, most likely, be fought, if at all, in the marketplace by traders and diplomats... not by soldiers.
If that sounds a bit chaotic... remember... I'm a friend of Chaos and Discordia and an enemy of order... historically "order" always ends up being spelled E * V * I * L
http://captainrobertapril.angelfire.com/Star_Trek_Writers_Guide.pdf
Is the starship U.S.S. Enterprise a military vessel?
Yes, but only semi-military in practice -- omitting features
which are heavily authoritarian. For example, we are not
aware of "officers" and "enlisted men" categories. And we
avoid saluting and other annoying medieval leftovers. On
the other hand, we do keep a flavor of Naval usage and
terminology to help encourage believability and identification
by the audience. After all, our own Navy today still
retains remnants of tradition known to Nelson and Drake.
Let us explore it... together. Each man hides a secret pain. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light. Share your pain. Share your pain with me... and gain strength from the sharing.
Starfleet is to Exploration, and Diplomacy, what the U.S. Army in the 1800's was to Exploration, and Diplomacy.;)
My character Tsin'xing
Usually you can make this sort of difference: military protects the state, civilian protects the people. However if it's difficult to tell apart which is which in our terms, it is even more difficult when you take a look at what the Federation is supposed to be, People and state are not exactly apart.
To me Starfleet is militaristic but not military. It has the command structure, the sense of career and service, but it's main goal is scientifical, diplomatic and exploratory. It also provides defense. A purely military organization, in my view, would only have to focus on defense.
One that I have not seen brought up is the fact that Starfleet is composed of space ships. Stop and give that a few seconds thought. A space ship is operating in what is virtually the most hazardous environment imaginable. It is also operating at great distances from other ships or potential aid.
These few facts lead to the command structure aboard a Starfleet ship mirroring that of ships that operated under similar situations in our past. When sailing ships took months to travel the oceans and had no weather satellites to warn of hurricanes for example.
Also operating at such distance from other ships results in each ship having to pretty much be a "jack of all trades". Diplomatic, scientific, exploration, transportation, you name it. Each ship of the fleet would have to do some of each, if not all. Obviously there would be specialist ships, such as research, colony transports, terra-forming...
And military. This was made very clear at the start of TNG with the inclusion of "saucer separation" which allowed the ship to place its non-combat facilities at a distance from the military action. This was something that I was very much in favor of, but it almost vanished from the series. And when it is seen in game it is just a way to turn one ship into two.
Thanks for your time and patience.
I concur, Starfleet is a military force, despite how touchy-feeley-sensitive the Federation is at TNG era onwards. Yes, they do alot of humanitarian stuff, yes they do evacuations, yes they shuttle around diplomats and such. But they are at the forefront of the Federation's wars.
In contrast, the Starfleet of Kirk's era (TOS, TMP movie eras) was very different from Picard's time. Starfleet in TOS timeframe had absolutely no qualms with getting into conflict with the Klingon Empire if it came to it. In the episode with the Organians, Kirk was very eager into getting into a shooting war with the Klingons, led by Kor in that area. Yes, they still engaged in exploratory, diplomatic missions, but Starfleet and the Federation did NOT take any BS from anyone.
The difference between TOS/TMP Starfleet and later Starfleet is summed up like this: With the TNG era ships, "warships" were not designed. Starfleet made very capable, well rounded starships, but they were not weighted as much for war. This only changed later when serious threats began to arise (Borg, Dominion War), but it had to take a disaster to wake Starfleet up in realizing, "Hey, there's people out there that don't like us" and make purpose built warships.
I guess you can attribute this to when the shows were made. TOS and even TMP era was made at the height of the Cold War, and it reflected this.
Also, where is it in TOS onwards where Federation member worlds still retain their own standing military? I cannot recall any episodes or movies where any of the Fed members have their own military.
AAahhh... gotcha. Well then could you please ask CHIEF O'Brien - as in Chief Petty Officer or Master Chief - to clarify what he meant when he said - and I quote - "Thanks but no thanks. That's why I stayed an enlisted man"?
If he's not available, please feel free to ask one of the many generic "crewmen" from a few of the series/movies o.O
Yes, forgot that detail, but that stopped eventually. Most definitely by the time of the Dominion War, when Fed ships were actually being blown up everywhere, just like everyone else. Heck, Voyager when it left on its fateful mission on a 3 hour tour to disappear didn't have civilians aboard.
I always thought that Starfleet having civilians aboard was overly optimistic and naive, knowing full well that ships have been lost, even on the famed Exploratory missions. Then again, we only see civilians on the USS Enterprise-D, which was on an exploration mission, a long one also. TOS Enterprise was on a 5 year mission, which is a damn long time away from home. With the more capable ships of TNG, the Enterprise-D as a Galaxy class was being sent on a 7 or 8 year long exploration mission... that's spending a massive chunk of one's career in Starfleet on this single, huge mission. So I guess Starfleet opts to let families stay aboard, but still... lord knows what kind of stuff ships on these missions can come across, stuff that could even bring a cutting edge ship of a Galaxy class to its knees.
But that was because you enter war time. Not a very good analogy but it's like using leisure cruise ships as troop carriers. Only that in this case is taking the civilians from the vessels.
And remember it wasn't just the Enterprise. When DS9 starts, the Saratoga has families aboard. DS9 has families - ok, technically DS9 is bajoran.
EDIT: Voyager was sent on specific, military in nature, mission.
notice that its from The Original Series
Let us explore it... together. Each man hides a secret pain. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light. Share your pain. Share your pain with me... and gain strength from the sharing.
So wait a sec - are you saying that Transporter CHIEF Miles O'Brien - of the USS Enterprise 1701-D who later became DS9's Ops Chief - was from the Original Series?
Or your "source"was from the OS?
Because if the 1st point is true, then please watch a few other equally canon series episodes and movies to update your data.
And well... if you choose to say only the OS matters, PLEASE tell me you only fly Constitutions, Klingon D7s, or Rom Bird of Preys - because by your own argument, the OS is the end all and be all of Star Trek O.o
Thank you. That was a string of laughs.
None of the above...though I do have a level 50 that flies a Constitution class ship.
The link that I posted is from the Original Series writer's bible.
The character of O'Brien is from The Next Generation. TNG is noted for making quite a few changes to Star Trek. In fact the idea behind no enlisted was abandoned in TMP...which also made changes.
I posted the link to see how the original writers thought of Starfleet.
Let us explore it... together. Each man hides a secret pain. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light. Share your pain. Share your pain with me... and gain strength from the sharing.
I'm pretty sure that counts as Enlisted.
My character Tsin'xing
keep reading that link
Given that Starfleet ranks typically correspond to those of the United States Navy, "yeoman" most likely refers to the job specialty, or "rating", rather than a rank of its own. A yeoman in this case is one who performs administrative and clerical duties, which fits the function of those referred to as "yeoman" in Star Trek.
Let us explore it... together. Each man hides a secret pain. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light. Share your pain. Share your pain with me... and gain strength from the sharing.
The traditional Starfleet seen in series and most movies (not alternate universe) is an Exploration and Security component. These are the ships out beyond the UFP border conducting exploration and new discovery. The security role is only to respond to threats to stability and safeguarding non-belligerent societies. The prime directive rules and there is no intervention into private affairs or actions between two belligerent (unless they target or use a third party non-belligerent)
The other is the Defense Force and Survey component that does the more traditional patrolling to protect the federation and still has an exploration role of surveying solar systems and space events for both knowledge and intelligence needs. The ships in this mission operate along the boundaries and near the neutral zones, as well as with allied forces not necessarily in the UFP.
Starfleet started with the mission of exploration, but events changed it into a dual role of exploration and protecting the Federation. The Romulan Conflict and the Klingon Disputes have made Starfleet to think beyond the simple role of explorer and take on more of a dual role to be prepared for conflicts with new societies and unstable events.
I was in the Navy for 11 years working in the Navigation department. On top of the obvious military jobs we also were required to record meteorological data and send it to NOAA hourly, but we were mandated to investigate and record any phenomenon that occurred, to provide help to mariners and take part in search and rescue.
It was all very star trek like.
Let us explore it... together. Each man hides a secret pain. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light. Share your pain. Share your pain with me... and gain strength from the sharing.
My character Tsin'xing
But we have seen many kinds of yeoman.
But the key point of discussion was that TOS era Starfleet DID in fact have enlisted. In fact, foreign language translations usually translate yeoman as either sargeant or corporal.
My character Tsin'xing
For example when the Borg invaded federation space in ST:TNG they quickly formed an a fleet of ships to counter attack and serve their purpose and defend the federation. The reason they don't identify as a military maybe perhaps because they don't want cultures to think of them like a warring species or organization so they downplay that part.