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From: owen@rtp47.UUCP (Karl M. Owen)
Newsgroups: net.startrek
Subject: Re: Commodores, admirals, et. al.
Message-ID: <240@rtp47.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 30-Oct-85 15:11:24 EST
Article-I.D.: rtp47.240
Posted: Wed Oct 30 15:11:24 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 2-Nov-85 06:31:15 EST
Organization: Data General, RTP, NC
Lines: 45

>	If I recall correctly, he still was Admiral Kirk in STII.
>
	True.

>	As I understand it, a commodore is an officer put in charge of a par-
>ticular mission (usually involving several ships) who does not necessarily
>outrank the commanders of the ships put under his command.  For example, he
>may be a captain himself, but for purposes of the mission at hand, he may com-
>mand several other captains who may even be senior to him.
>
>	In the case of both admirals and commodores, they are seldom in command
>of the vessel that they themselves are aboard.  Their area of responsibility
>is the overall tactical command of the mission, leaving the operation of the
>various ships, including the flagship (the ship carrying the admiral/commodore)
>to their respective captains.  It is considered very bad form for the flag
>officer to interfere directly in the operations of his flagship, but on the
>other hand, the captain of said vessel can hardly afford to ignore the "sugges-
>tions" of the flag officer.  These sorts of situations are famous for creating
>all sorts of tension and bad blood between the captain and flag officer.
>
	A pretty darned good description of the situation, although commodore
is also used as a courtesy title for people holding the rank of captain but
not in command of the ship they are on.

>
>	An interesting thought occurs to me after writing the above:  why not
>make Spock the captain of the Enterprise (or whatever other name a new ship
>might have) and saddle him with Kirk as a flag officer aboard?  The fireworks
>might be spectacular when Kirk found he couldn't always have his own way!
>
>	Any comments???

	Sure!  As to your last suggestion, it's a very good one - in fact,
they already did it in STII.  You will recall that Captain Spock is in
command of the training ship Enterprise and that Admiral Kirk makes a big
thing of not wanting to take command of the ship back from him (see 2
preceeding paragraphs). 

						Karl

-- 


				Karl M. Owen
				Data General, RTP, NC
				...!seismo!mcnc!rti-sel!rtp47!owen