How do I know Trip Had a Graduate Degree?

[Silverbullet]

Trip must have had an extensive education. He was a chief Engineer on a Starship he handled Warp Drives, impilse ingines. That would require knowledge of many things. Relativeity, Newtonian Physics, quantum physics, quantum mechanics. You don't pick those things up fixing boat engines. OJT (on the job training) some of it but most would be in a college or Star Fleet acadmy. I belive that he once said he was in Star Fleet Acadmy. May have been in the episode where he and Hoshi were sick and quarantined in Sickbay. "Observer Effect" Trip had hold a degree or degrees. Starfleet would not have mad e him a Chief Engineer and promoted him to full Commander without the education required for a Degree.

SB

[Elessar]

Although it's true that we are all pretty much in agreement here that *the_abomination* should never have been written, filmed, or televised, we try to refrain from personally attacking the people who created the series we all love so much. Thanks for your input, tambo2063, but please keep that in mind- Admin

I find it interesting that in order to be a military officer above a certain level (I'm assuming in the US, tambo?) a person has to have a college degree. Can any of our members in the military confirm that? If it's true it's a major argument against Trip not having one.

hey guys, sorry I didn't see this thread earlier - I can probably provide a bit of insight.

Something like 75% of officers in the U.S. Military come into that position (and we're talking Marines, Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard) through a civilian college education at a 4 year university and then an ROTC-like program. I say ROTC-like, because it includes the NROTC and Marine Corps OCS programs which aren't exactly ROTC like Army ROTC and Air Force ROTC are.

The other 25% is a mixture of a few different things... Some of them for the Navy and Marine Corps are Naval Academy Graduates (yes, some Marine officers actually went to the Naval Academy and then upon graduation selected "Marine option" - but it's like 2% of the Marine officer corps). Same for AF Academy Graduates and Westpoint Academy Graduates - and I only mention those apart because, while those are accredited 4 year universities (and quite challenging) they're a little different from 4-yr colleges.

So - the question is - is there such a thing as an officer in the U.S. Military without a 4 year degree? Answer is yes. Today they don't really do the "battlefield commission" thing they used to do, that was primarily a consequence of needing an officer when one was killed, and not having the time, lines of communication to HQ, or supply lines to get replacements sent in within a reasonable amount of time - and it even happened during WW2.

What's done in place of this battlefield commission that used to happen is, often times enlisted military personnel with an extensive record (and today, that's allowing for much younger people than before, since we have two wars going on) are able to apply for the officer candidate program of their respective branch. For instance, prior enlisted Marines (as in, guys who enlisted at 18 out of high school and never went to college) can apply to go to OCS. If they have a good service record (no serious disciplinary issues, high PFT scores, high ASVAB, good command reviews, combat experience, several years in service... which could be from 4 to 12, and are reasonably young - like under 35), then they can apply with their CO to go to OCS. And they can go, graduate, and commission as an officer with no college degree. As an aside, often times these prior enlisted will have a degree, because they enlisted, served their 4 years, got their GI bill benefits and got a degree, and then with that combined with their service record, applied to OCS while serving out their reserve time after their 4 year active period, and become either an active (or more commonly) just a reserve officer. So a degree would probably help you get into OCS, but it's not necessary. In the Marines anyway, officers who came from prior enlisted background with no degree, are called "Mustangs" and are highly respected as basically being the Marine's Officer - because he served as enlisted and "earned" his commission rather than had it handed to him just for getting a degree (as some enlisted personnel see the officer corps).

This is what I sort of implied Trip had done in my little offhand story, "A Day in the Life of Crewman Tucker" in Main Engineering. It's perfectly plausible in most cases, however; Trip is actually in a very specialized technical field and thus would have to have a degree of some sort, almost without question. Probably earned on a 22nd century version of the GI bill while on duty or something like that.

One thing a lot of folks who spend a lot of time in the military will tell you - is that lots of "rare cases" crop up where someone got something done a special way because they happened upon an experimental or test program or knew the right person or just got lucky and got some paperwork through that doesn't normally fly. The military is an organization like anything else and exceptions do happen. It's possible that Trip would be able to get to like an "Ensign" rank through an OCS type program, and then through a display of aptitude and a good service record, be paid / provided with the graduate level education necessary to advance in an engineering discipline. This kind of thing DOES happen at the higher levels of our military with Majors becoming LtCols or LtCols becoming Colonels, who need a graduate level of experience. Case in point - an AF Officer who graduated from the AF Academy is a Major and is hoping to get a spot at TPS, and so he goes and gets a graduate degree in Mechanical or Aerospace Eng from an accredited uni in the area and the AF pays for it and his time in school, while he is still active duty, may be his actual duty station, and he just fulfills some kind of reserve-like responsibilities. There's lots of weird deals in the military if you do really well.

[WarpGirl]

How is it you are able to "dumb" everything down so courtesly for mere mortals like myself? THANK YOU!