Talk:Officer

Commissions on Voyager
Would Janeway's actions with Tuvok and Paris technically be commissions, or just promotion/demotion? Personally, I would use as an example her granting of provisional ranks to the Maquis members when they joined the crew. But, just MHO. --umrguy42 23:36, 21 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Paris's officer rank had been taken away, so when she gave him back his rank, she technically commissioned (or recommissioned) him. Tuvok was already commissioned, in that case she didn't commission him, but instead promoted him. -- Captain MKB 23:50, 21 June 2007 (UTC)


 * It seems to me that none of these changes are actual commissions. They're all "provisional" until confirmed by Starfleet.  If a captain had the right to "commission" officers, the command structure in Starfleet would collapse. Suppose Tuvok was the 50,001st lieutenant in Starfleet. 50,000 lieutenants and 5000 lieutenant commanders outrank him and in the normal course of things, it might take 15 years for him to reach commander.  Janeway "commissions" him as LTC.  Sometime later she commissions him again, now he's a commander. Let's say they come back after 3 years. If these were true commissions, he just jumped over 55,000 officers senior to him and shortened his career path by 12 years.  All because his captain got lost.  Maybe a few other captains decide to take advantage of this.  Captain Mike gets a black hole or something between his ship and the Federation, then during the resulting communications blackout promotes his buddy Ensign Q to Lieutenant Q (to hell with that JG nonsense).  If these were true commissions, the only way to undo them would be a court-martial.  If they're considered some sort of "provisional" or breveted rank or a "battlefield commission," then Tuvok is still a lieutenant (acting commander)  and Q is still an ensign (acting lieutenant).  Starfleet would review the reasons for the battlefield commissions and decide what to.  Tuvok gets a one rank bump, Q goes back to being an ensign. The Maqui go back to being civilians, except for the deserters and mutineers who go back to being deserters and mutineers until courts-martial clear things up. --StarFire209 04:49, 23 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I would think that the commissions she gave the Maquis are a better example of the term, giving a non-starfleet person a starfleet rank and position, or maybe that's more of a field commission. --Alan 21:27, 16 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Paris was demoted and Tuvok was promoted - no giving of commissions there. The maquis were only granted provisional (or acting) ranks not full commissions. The best example I can think of a captain granting a commission is when Captain Picard granted Wesley Crusher a commission at the rank of Ensign, making him a full officer before he even went to the academy. -- TrekFan 20:31, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

Missing references
There there are all the examples of commissions being resigned,, , , , , , , , ,. --Alan 21:27, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

Merge
Since field commission redirects to provisional officer, it seems to make sense to have this merge with officer. --Alan 21:27, 16 May 2008 (UTC)


 * Support. – Cleanse 11:48, 24 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Support - "Commission" and "officer" effectively mean the same thing. TrekFan 20:27, 12 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Support. – Tom 07:50, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

Removed
I removed the following passages:


 * Commissions have long been used by the supreme authorities of military services throughout history to appoint officers. In the United States military, for example, commissions were granted by the President of the United States, who was the US military's Commander-in-Chief.


 * When an officer is promoted, the commission he/she has for his or her current rank is revoked, and replaced with a commission authorizing him/her for his/her new, higher rank. The same principle applies in a demotion, except that the new commission authorizes the officer for the lower rank he/she is being reduced to.

Both have lacked a citation for many years. I highly doubt either was mentioned in canon.– Cleanse ( talk 03:51, January 14, 2011 (UTC)