Executive Officer's Letter

[LeftEar JoNs 0]

Starfleet Recruitment Campaign

Cadet Handbook V.3, Copyright 2383

Commissioned Field Officer Letters

Section B1, Subsection 2

 

Prospective Recruit:

 

So, you think you have the grit to be an enlisted officer? Are you sure about this? Do you have any idea what you are getting yourself into? Or, let me phrase the question this way: can you tow the line?

 

I think we need to explore this, because I’m not really convinced that you are serious about entering the ranks of the enlisted officer.

 

I’ve served for a number of years in Starfleet, and I currently maintain a posting as the Executive Officer on a damn fine ship that we call the Excalibur. I am a commissioned Starfleet brat through and through, right down to the tip of my tail. This is all well and good, but there are those officers and crew in service to the Starfleet that have more experience then ten starship captains combined, and those crewmembers comprise the enlisted ranks of the fleet.

 

Just to refresh my memory, and introduce your memory to the concept, I accessed some data information regarding this little pre-venture of yours:

 

- An enlisted rank (Crewman, Petty Officer) is any rank below that of a commissioned (Ensign, Lieutenant, etc) officer, and these enlisted personnel perform specific occupational services rather then engaging in the more command oriented responsibilities of the commissioned officers.

 

- A non-commissioned (NCO) officer is an enlisted member of an armed force or defensive force who has been given clearance for a position of authority (Chief, etc.) by a commissioned officer. These NCOs serve as administrative or training personnel and also as advisors to the commissioned officers. The most important aspect of this position is as direct liaison between the common soldier and the command level commissioned officers.

 

So, our enlisted officers perform all of the occupational grunt work within the Starfleet such as vehicle repair, warp engine repair, cleaning toilets and the facilities, damage control maintenance and the like. They can also take on an administrative leadership support role as well, depending on their position. The gods know that Fleeter brats such as myself need all the liaison help we can get from our NCO leaders. The bottom line is that if it wasn’t for our enlisted, all of our enlisted, we would never get anything done.

 

I have a distant cousin by the name of Honor-Scar, a lieutenant posted to the Camelot space station. Honor-Scar is a real winner, a pilot who is as cocky as the Rihans are secretive, and who in my personal opinion needs a good swift kick. But, enough about her, she’s a commissioned brat, and we aren’t interested in us commissioned officers right now.

 

‘Scar, in one of her sporadic letters, mentioned that she deals regularly with a hard edged human female Chief Petty Officer by the name of Farron, or maybe Farrelly? Fitz? Whatever. The fact remains that this CPO is a lead aviation mechanic for the station and is the squad leader for her repair mechanics, and these mechanics are all responsible per their occupation for keeping the stations birds in the black and out in the atmosphere. This woman is also the administrative go between for her mechanics, the commander of the air group, and the pilots. And, more often then not, these Chief Petty Officers have at least twenty years experience doing what they do.

 

Another good example of the enlisted officer is Master Chief Petty Officer J.J. McQueen, a half Vulcan, half human instructor who was assigned to be the pilot conditioning trainer for my squad. He was five foot six inches tall, if that, with a thin and wiry build. The man looked like he couldn’t take on a Klingon Glob Fly. Naturally, being dumb midshipman, we all thought it was one big joke because we did out rank him. McQueen was just enlisted after all.

 

Did he set us straight. The squad was promptly sent to run laps around the academy ball field until we all puked. And, the honeymoon kept getting worse. We hated the bastard. But, in the end, we would have gone into Hell, the Great Abyss, the Barge of the Dead, or whatever afterlife for McQueen if he led us there. We respected the man. MCPO McQueen conditioned our minds and our bodies so we could be pilots. He trained us well, and to this day I can still strip down the cockpit of a Lancelot fighter and reconfigure it in just under four hours. McQueen was a good officer, a good enlisted officer with forty plus years and the scars to prove it. He saw a new hotshot squad of pilots every twelve weeks, but his goal was the same every time: give the hotshots the means to survive and share his enlisted occupational knowledge and expertise.

 

In conclusion, the enlisted officers of this fleet do it all, and in the process they get their hands dirty doing the muck jobs that those of us in the upper commissioned echelons never have to worry about. The NCOs learn by doing, and don’t spend a few years trapped in a class room at the academy or on a nice clean bridge mapping star charts.

 

So again, I ask the question: can you tow the line as an enlisted officer? Or, will you wiggle and twitch like some transparent jellyfish and take that walk down washout lane? Do you want to lead by example, learn practical skills, and prepare future generations of officers for service to the Starfleet?

 

If you think you have the guts, the cajones, the grit, the brass, the honor, or whatever your species calls it, to serve on the noble NCO forces, then highlight that little ‘Enlisted Corps’ checkmark box on your digital application form and send it off to the Starfleet command.

 

And, who knows, your journey might just lead you to the Excalibur. Come to the Lower Decks and show us what you’ve got Recruit.

 

Sincerely,

 

Commander MVess “Left Ear” JoNs

Executive Officer l USS Excalibur

Pilot Reserves, Starfleet Aviation Command