Dumbass

LOL - when you graduate you should ask to serve on the QoB-Lakota. We have a 3 drink minimum!

Most of us (like me) who served in the "first" Iraq war view this as an extention of the same war. Technically there was only a cease fire, a temporary suspention of hostilities conditional on Iraq's disarmerment of NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) weapons. They failed to do this, so here we are.

Can anyone point me towards good (meaning something close to canon) information on Starfleet enlisted ranks? The only person ever featured was Chief O'Brien, and I'm not even sure if he was a Non-Commissioned Officer (like Sergeant or Petty Officer) or something like a Warrant Officer. Star Trek just never got detailed about it. The reason I ask is in a non-STSF sim I play a character who received a battlefield promotion to Ensign even though my character never had any intention of attending Starfleet Academy. I'm pretty sure such a promotion wouldn't be given to an ordinary "crewman" (in quotations because my character was a foot-soldier in the Dominion war and didn't serve on a ship until after the promotion) but might have been given to someone with some authority, just not a full officer. LtJG Van Roy Helmsman USS Enterprise-F

(Recorded via tricorder, scheduled for upload to QoB via Tyderium II) Ramjep and I have succeeded in locating and beaming up most of the hunting party, save for BcH and Kawalas. First aid is being administered to those suffering from cold weather exposure as possible aboard the runabout. Quv claims his boots are frozen to his feet, but should thaw out with time. After conferring with the hunting party, none of whom had seen BcH and Kawalas in some time, we decided to explore their last known location hoping this would give us some clues. Visibility remained bad so Ramjep agreed to take the sensors while I concentrated on piloting the ship. After some searching we discovered a series of underground caverns containing pockets of unusually warm weather. If the commanders were still on the surface they would surely be dead by now. We reasoned that if they were still alive they would be in those caverns. However, our scans could not penetrate the caves to confirm this. Attempting to land the runabout on the rocks, ice, or some other uneven surface would damage it's warp nacells. Our only remaining option was to beam someone down to the caves for a first-hand look. Ramjep volunteered for this task, but I thought it unwise to beam someone down who had already received cold weather exposure. Being that I have not been exposed yet I convinced her to send me instead. I grabbed a phaser, a tricorder, and filled a pack with as many medkits and emergency rations as could fit. The rations would be a necessity as biological life forms burn more calories in cold weather, and the Klingons had exerted themselves during the hunt and had not eaten since they beamed down. Upon beaming down the tricorder immediately picked up their life signs. I am heading to their position as I record this.

So? What's wrong with that?

::has eaten too damn many MREs to recount one specific event, but it doesn't matter since they all taste the same::

They have chocolate now? Since when?

This is my 193rd post and 5th slice of pizza, and I'm not wearing a shirt!

Reminds me of the peanut butter in the US Arny's MREs (Meals, Ready to Eat). We actually DID use it for engineering sealant! :dead:

Yes, that would be most interesting. By the way, "Chief Warrant Officer" implies there are Warrant Officers who are not chiefs. The US Army used to have (I say "used to" because when I got out there was discussion of simply making them Commissioned Officers as well as creating additional Warrant Officer ranks, I'm not sure where the discussion is now) these ranks for Warrant Officers: W-1 Warrant Officer W-2 Chief Warrant Officer W-3 Chief Warrant Officer W-4 Chief Warrant Officer The rank emblem was a silver bar with a brown square for each W- grade you had.

Wow, this is the only thread that is actually staying on topic! Anyway, my favorite death is by default only, as it is my ONLY death. I was CO of a mission that discovered a new type of black hole. Our remains entered Federation space a thousand years later. By the way, this is my 190th post. Ten more and I qualify for the Super Saver discount.

This is my 189th post :)

No we don't jest, and don't call me Shirley.

Well I needed something to go with my "Immune to all ACTION items" tagline, and this was better to that end than Bart Simpson.

With all the planets and away missions I always wondered why Starfleet never created some kind of land force like the Marines or the SEALs or something. Who do they send down for land-based missions? BRIGHT RED and YELLOW SHIRTS!

I disagree. I think it IS important to focus on what is required for graduation, or whatever your goal is, including the skills necessary to do so. Otherwise you risk concentrating on things that are really not that important to your goal. In an Academy it is possible to be a Chief of something, or sometimes even an XO or a CO, and have other players under you. This can help you learn how to command or supervise, but these skills are not required for graduation to Ensign because when you transfer to a ship you transfer as the lowest ranking person on that ship. It's like school in a way. Do you seek to learn everything possible about a subject you're taking? Of course not. You're on a time crunch, and even your instructor doesn't know everything. You study what you think will be on the test, learn that, pass the class, and then learn more on your own time if you want to. If your goal is simply to have fun simming then, by all means, do whatever you want. But if your goal is to graduate with a minimum of fuss then concentrate on that.

Rather than go straight to the STSF personal manager what you can also do is catch the CO or XO of a ship you are considering joining and drop them a PM letting them know you're interested. Some of them will even forward you a copy of the crew roster and you'll know specifically which positions are available. It's really easy for FredM to assign you to the specific ship and position you want if your new CO has already agreed to let you have it (provided of course that you have graduated). This is what I did to be assigned to the QoB-Lakota. I told Huff and KBear I was interested in the ship and they forwarded me a copy of the roster. Chief Engineer was available and I was able to use my real-life engineering experience to negotiate for the position. It's pretty rare in the STSF multiverse for an Ensign to be named Chief of anything but you're one step ahead if you do your homework.

Woo-hoo! Garnoopy is more desperate than I am!

Actually, NOW it's LtJG (referring to my non-STSF character). My point is we know there are "Crewmen" and "Chiefs" but not much is known other than this. O'Brien, when captured once and asked for his rank, gave it as "Chief of Operations, Starfleet" so "Chief" must be both a rank as well as a duty position (as well as "Captain"). It doesn't seem right to me that everyone, or even most everyone, is an officer. Even Ensigns don't clean toilets.

Shortly after Random relieved me from MeH command we received instructions from the surface to beam Dr. Garnoopy back to the ship. After doing so, our sensors read seismic disturbances in the vicinity of the hunting party, as well as what we thought was a dampening field preventing further beam ups. The hunting party would be in trouble if night fell while they were on the surface. After discussing our options we decided to send me down in a shuttle. I decided a standard shuttle wouldn't be big enough for the entire hunting party, and I wanted something sturdier than standard in case that dampening field had any surprises. I chose the Tyderium II, a Danube class Runabout originally assigned to the USS Lakota. After receiving launch clearance I headed for the original beamdown point. While en route I ran some spot scans of the dampening field. It turned out to not be a "field" per se, mearly a dense cloud cover from the snowstorms. However it still has a dampening effect on the ship's transporters. Communications are increasingly difficult as well. The snowstorms are making it difficult to locate the crew, which must mean their body temperatures are cooling rapidly. It has been some time since anyone has heard from BcH or Kawalas as well. Dr. Garnoopy tells me it is imperative I reach the crew before hypothermia sets in. So far I have located Ramjep and have beamed her aboard, and she is guiding me to Messner. Hopefully he has more information as to the rest of the hunting party's whereabouts.

Lily: How much did this ship cost? Picard: The economics of the 24th century are a little different. You see, money no longer exists. Lily: No money? You mean you don't get paid? Picard: The aquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force of our existance. We seek to better ourselves. Excuse me, but Adam Smith and Milton Friedman would have a real issue with this. So do I. I don't see how you can possibly have a functioning society without some kind of money as a means of exchange. How would you aquire resources, or determine the value of one resource over another, without the ability to reduce these to a currency figure for comparrison? How would the Federation aquire resources, many of these in the hands of individuals (especially labor), without some form of payment? That's what economists call stealing. I don't see how a society can function without money. Even Voyager used replicator rations as an ad-hoc currency. There was also a lot of bartering on Voyager, but this has it's limits. The value of everything would have to be set against the value of a multitude of other options, which leads to inefficient trading markets with no price stability. Sorry, but I think the Ferengi are right on this one and the Federation is full of crap. Your thoughts?

Hmm, the Klingon Garnoopy in a Counselor's uniform doesn't seem so bad now.

Precip, Garnoopy, and myself were the first STSF graduates. It wasn't very well organized back then, and it took us about 5-6 weeks of CONSTANT simming to do it. I even had to write a nastygram to A9 about it. (Actually I wrote it to the GMs as a group but A9 responded.) Now, however, it can take as little as a week. This is VERY rare, but it has happened at least once that I know of. Then again there are some who were cadets when I was a cadet and they're STILL cadets.

That and Battlestar Galactica reruns are too hard to find. Humf - SciFi Channel was showing an All-Day marathon of Battlestar Galatica about 2 weeks ago; it was one of my snowdays :) HD DAMNIT!! I would have called in sick that day had I known!

Actually I was never interested in that. The counselor's uniform makes Garnoopy's butt look big.