Immemorial custom of the service

[Matsiyan]

Being a humble cadet and unfamiliar with the modern traditions of the TSN, I blush to put forward the following question, but, having a long fascination with the senior service, is it not the immemorial custom of the service to rate Acting Ensigns as Midshipmen?

• This topic was modified 8 years, 9 months ago by Matsiyan.

[Solari]

If I may. A real history and fictional lesson is in order.

This is just a commonwealth misconception about how ranks from wartime US Navy actually work. They are not the same obviously.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midshipman

This is where the confusion starts to come into play. And why an (Acting) Ensign is not a Midshipman.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensign_(rank)

Now to clarify how the TSN works, looks at Star Trek please.
http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Starfleet_ranks
And all of that is based on this:
http://www.defense.gov/about/insignias/officers.aspx

By the by, the title of Acting, came about from the (in)famous Wesley Crusher on TNG. Sadly it wasn’t really used since then on Trek. Odd. But it is a real thing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acting_(rank)

[Xavier]

I’ll be honest with you, when I first started the community I created a rank structure that I liked. I have read sci-fi, watched sci-fi and read/ watched military fiction and historical stuff too. I basically drew on a whole load of things and came up with the now established rank structure.

The reason why it is ‘acting’ is just because we have that period of time until you complete a ‘real’ mission. Earlier in our history, cadets wouldn’t take part in missions, just simulations. Our current numbers don’t allow that so they come along on missions. It basically showed you had passed and qualified as an officer, but had not seen active service on a mission.

[Matsiyan]

Thank you for the relevant and fascinating references. I now know more than I did. I was familiar with the Napoleonic Midshipman but did not know how it related to the later terms of Cadet and Ensign, nor how Star Trek had flirted with it.

[Author]

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