When I was making my
preparations for the 'Battlecruiser Alamo' series, one of the
elements I had the most fun with was creating the tables of rank.
This is something that has often bugged me with science-fiction in
the past, with television SF by far the worst culprit; naval and
military terms are thrown haphazardly about with no regard for logic,
reason or tradition, the latter being the most important of all –
for essentially all the military ranks stem from some long tradition
or another, often now totally irrelevant – but yet the rank
remains. I had lots of fun here; given that the series opens with the
merger of three militaries into one, I had to create five
tables of rank, two for the Triplanetary forces (one Fleet, one
Espatier) and one each for the other three services. I have a nice
complicated table, but I'll break it down here one at a time. (I'm
pondering polishing this as an appendix for one of the books...)
Martian
Space Service
General,
Colonel-General, Lieutenant-General, Major-General, Colonel, Major,
Captain, First Lieutenant, Second Lieutenant, Third Lieutenant
Fleet
Sergeant-Major, Squadron Sergeant-Major, Staff Sergeant, Technical
Sergeant, Sergeant, Senior Corporal, Corporal, Private First Class,
Private Second Class, Private Third Class
Mars,
in the series, was colonized mostly by the United States, though with
some immigrants from the United Kingdom, Canada, and a few other
places; hence these ranks take the Army as their guidelines,
following the model of the USAF, though with a few variations.
Colonel-General is a rank used extensively in Asia, Russia and parts
of Eastern Europe; it seemed to fit nicely, avoiding the need for a
'General of the Space Service'. Third Lieutenant – well, I read
Starship Troopers, and let's just leave it at that. As for the
enlisted ranks, those are much more conventional – but
Sergeant-Major, instead of 'Regimental', or 'Company' (and I know
those are titles, not ranks – but then most ranks started out as
titles) breaks down as 'Fleet' and 'Squadron'.
Callisto
Orbital Patrol
Fleet
Commander, Flotilla Commander, Squadron Commander, Flight Commander,
Senior Flight Officer, Flight Officer, Junior Flight Officer, Recruit
Officer
Master
Astronaut, Senior Flight Sergeant, Flight Sergeant, Junior Flight
Sergeant, Senior Astronaut, Astronaut First Class, Astronaut Second
Class, Astronaut Third Class
This
one was treated rather differently; I decided to follow the same sort
of design process as used when creating the RAF ranks –
essentially, starting from scratch, taking a few bits and pieces
where appropriate. Callisto was colonised by Russia and the 'European
Federation' mostly, so that had a role as well – and again, title
has become rank in short order, with the flag ranks following the
French pattern of describing what size of command is appropriate –
a fleet, a flotilla, a squadron, or a single ship. The enlisted ranks
were rather easier here, again taking inspiration from the RAF.
Titan
Militia
Commodore,
Captain, Commander, Lieutenant, Sub-Lieutenant, Midshipman
Petty
Officer, Senior Spaceman, Spaceman, Recruit Spaceman
The
Titan Militia was pretty easy; it was settled by the East African
Federation mostly, with some from the 'Indochinese Union', but it
suggested Royal Naval ranks as a baseline, especially as I
established that this was the smallest fleet, the moon having being
settled on more of a shoestring. This was to be much more of a
'part-time' service, implied in the 'militia' term; so they didn't
need anything like as many ranks. It boiled down to replacing
'Airman' or 'Sailor' with 'Spaceman', and trimming down. Actually, a
lot of inspiration also came from the early US Navy rank structure,
before the first Admiral rank was created.
Triplanetary
Fleet
Admiral,
Vice-Admiral, Counter-Admiral, Commodore, Captain,
Lieutenant-Captain, Senior Lieutenant, Lieutenant, Sub-Lieutenant,
Midshipman
Senior
Petty Officer, Chief Petty Officer, Petty Officer, Junior Petty
Officer, Senior Spaceman, Spaceman First Class, Spaceman Second
Class, Spaceman Third Class
This
one, naturally, I paid the most attention to, but did it after I'd
established the planetary ones; the peculiarities of the setting
meant that it would have to draw inspiration from the others, but
couldn't be a direct copy – the militaries involved would not have
gone along with it! So – I went to Russia for the ranks, the four
flag ranks ranging down from 'Admiral' to 'Commodore', with
'Counter-Admiral' replacing 'Rear-Admiral'. 'Lieutenant-Captain' was
my alternative to Commander, if only because...I liked the sound of
it! The idea was that it was the lowest rank of independent ship
command, and that 'Captain' should be in it somewhere; the enlisted
ranks were fairly conventionally drawn, because I wanted that to be
more familiar.
Triplanetary
Espatier Corps
Brigadier,
Colonel, Major, Lieutenant-Major, Lieutenant, Ensign, Cadet
Sergeant-Major,
First Sergeant, Master Sergeant, Sergeant, Lance-Sergeant, Corporal,
Lance-Corporal, Private, Recruit
If
this looks US Marines, its meant to – but I drew in an additional
tweak to reflect the 'combined' nature of the services by
incorporating the European rank of 'Lance-Sergeant', which I first
saw in the Polish armed forces. I actually rather like the sound of
it, if I'm honest! And Ensign? Well, that was originally an Army rank; it seemed an interesting alternative to 'First' and 'Second' Lieutenants...especially as there were going to be a lot of Lieutenants running around anyway! The other new rank, Lieutenant-Major, I humbly
submit as my answer to the age-old 'two Captain ranks' problem;
evidently someone in the service decided to end it once and for all
be eliminating the rank of 'Captain' and replacing it with
'Lieutenant-Major' instead; it goes well with 'Lieutenant-Captain', I
think, and you can expect to see this one cropping up...
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