Star Ship Captain

Star Ship Captain

Occupation and position within the United Stars Navy. The official rank is O-8 Captain and the official term is CO (Commanding Officer) but the common term everyone knows is Star Ship Captain.

The United Stars Navy separates this Occupation from any other. It is the most difficult and most revered post within the Navy.

Any Commanding officer of a trans light capable ship of Destroyer upward is called the Captain. He or she might not have reached the actual Rank of Captain yet.

Ships of Super cruiser upward have Commanding Officers of Captain Rank.

Officers that reach the O-8 Rank but are not considered Captain material or are in postings that do not lead to Ship command are promoted to Commodore.

Officers earmarked for command are selected by their personality profile right from the start and usually without their knowledge tested and evaluated harder and differently than the rest.

The Union Navy has developed an effective and time tested method selecting Command Officers, earmarked for starship command.

The process is long and can take decades. A potential candidate is eventually taking the OPS position for one or two years and then is sent to Command School for two years. After that the Candidate is offered an XO position and after 2-3 Years of serving in that position a Command Seat is usually offered.

The average Union Captain serves for 20-30 years and usually moves to several ships (in general increasing in size)

Fleet Command can and has bypassed this process for especially talented officers, when the need or circumstances arise.

By Union Fleet Charter and by Union Assembly decision, Union Fleet Command can offer any person they deem fit the Command over a Starship (It is usually done to honor and integrate Officers of such positions from newly joining Societies.[1]

Fleet Command maintains a Panel of Senior Captains (usually semi retired Starfleet Captains with a distinct career and or Admirals that commanded a Ship in their career) called the Captains Council (there are several of these) Traditionally most First time Captains are sent before the Captains Council and are "grilled" with questions and theoretical situations. Only if the Coucil approves a "Commission" is offered.[2]

[1] Examples are The Blue, the Nul, The Attikans and others. When their fleets were integrated, the commanding officers of their ships were all declared Acting Captains and remained in command of their respective ships, but had to complete Command School as soon as it was possible to remove the "acting" and make it a permanent rank and position. A few Nul Captains were fully commissioned right away.

[2] This is called the Command Seat Roast