Republibot 3.0
Regular
Something that's always bugged me in B5 is the somewhat nebulous concept of military ranks. For instance, we continually see "Majors" in charge of major operations (Functioning as XOs of ships, in charge of a secret illegal Earthforce base, etc). A Major is the equivalent of a Navy Lt. Commander. It's a solidly mid-level officer, nothing impressive. For every Commander/Lt. Colonel, there's probably 30 Navy Lieutenants or Army Majors. Likewise, when Lochley gets "Promoted" to Colonel in "Lost Tales" - what's the deal there? A Colonel and a Navy Captain are the same rank.
While on the subject, Captain Gideon is a Navy Captain, but the rank bars on his shoulder appear to be like the "Train Tracks" (or double-bars) worn by Army/Marine/Air Force captains. And I don't get why Lt. Matheston (Apparently an actual lieutenant) is the XO of a ship.
It's a quibble, I know. Early on they seemed to be attempting to avoid a 1:1 representation of military ranks, just probably to imply this is the future and this isn't exactly like our military. Later on they seem to have just kinda' given up on this. And eventually I began to wonder if JMS just doesn't really know military ranks and didn't feel like looking it up. Certainly "Major" sounds majorly important. And I guess if you didn't really know the navy and other forces use different ranks, it might be possible to think a Colonel outranks a captain since a colonel DOES outrank any non-navy captain...
While on the subject, Captain Gideon is a Navy Captain, but the rank bars on his shoulder appear to be like the "Train Tracks" (or double-bars) worn by Army/Marine/Air Force captains. And I don't get why Lt. Matheston (Apparently an actual lieutenant) is the XO of a ship.
It's a quibble, I know. Early on they seemed to be attempting to avoid a 1:1 representation of military ranks, just probably to imply this is the future and this isn't exactly like our military. Later on they seem to have just kinda' given up on this. And eventually I began to wonder if JMS just doesn't really know military ranks and didn't feel like looking it up. Certainly "Major" sounds majorly important. And I guess if you didn't really know the navy and other forces use different ranks, it might be possible to think a Colonel outranks a captain since a colonel DOES outrank any non-navy captain...
