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Forgive my lack of military understanding, but shouldn't a Flag ship have a flag officer on board? The Enterprise is often described as the Flag ship, but which flag officer does this refer to, or does it just mean "it's our most famous ship" ?

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    It's described as the "flagship of the Federation," not of Starfleet. I would interpret that as an informal designation. – Kevin Oct 16 '15 at 13:25
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    Because the writers don't know anything about the military. The lowest rank on the ship is "ensign" which would make them all officers and no actual crew too! – Gaius Oct 16 '15 at 17:37
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    Tho' if this were a Star Wars question there would be loads of tedious waffle trying to justify it anyway, so count yourself lucky! – Gaius Oct 16 '15 at 17:39
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    @gaius chief O'Brian was an enlisted member so the lowest rank was not ensign. We just didn't see more than a handful of enlisted crew members. – Joe W Oct 16 '15 at 18:14
  • Where would a starship fly its flags? – user14111 Oct 16 '15 at 18:59
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    @Gaius - not true. The lowest rank we see on the bridge and in most cases is Ensign, but that's certainly not the lowest on the ship. In fact, most away teams include 1-2 non-enlisted crewmen, and they appear in several episodes as well. One episode - The Lower Decks - shows everything from their perspective instead of the main cast. – Omegacron Oct 16 '15 at 19:58
  • @Omegacron: You're forgetting Chief O'Brien, who was a full-blown main cast member on DS9. – Kevin Oct 16 '15 at 20:44
  • In the Redemption episodes the Enterprise was the flagship of a fleet sent to block the Romulans from entering Klingon space. – user23614 Oct 16 '15 at 15:10
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    “Hello. I am Lieutenant Commander Data, and welcome to ‘Fun with Flags’.” – Paul D. Waite Oct 17 '15 at 02:05
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    The characters that are the focus of "The Lower Decks" are officers, not enlisted personnel, @Omegacron: they're ensigns (except maybe Nurse Ogawa). Chief O'Brien is one of very few named non-officers. – jscs Oct 17 '15 at 08:09
  • This question is just asking to get flagged ;-) – Rand al'Thor Oct 17 '15 at 10:20
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    @Gaius is that what "ensign" means, I thought it was like "marked for death" or something (joke) – Alec Teal Oct 17 '15 at 14:46
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    Currently, in the US Navy, the rank of Commander is sufficient to command destroyers and fast attack submarines. Captain is sufficient to command any single asset, and admiralty is required to command multiple assets. If a fleet were dispatched, the Senior Officer Present Afloat commands the group from the largest asset (usually) while the Captain of the vessel retains control of the asset itself. Point being, there won't always be an admiral on board - this is especially true in STTNG as orders can come from nearly anywhere. –  Oct 17 '15 at 20:07
  • @SeanBoddy so the captain is in charge of the ship, even with the admiral on board, but he admiral is in charge of the fleet? –  Oct 17 '15 at 20:14
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    Unless the admiral specifically countermands and relieves the captain of his post, yes. There must be no doubt who has command authority, ever. That person has the power of life and death at sea. –  Oct 17 '15 at 20:28
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    That arrangement is also seen at least once in TNG, @CarlSixsmith: in "The Pegasus", Admiral Pressman says that he commands the mission while Captain Picard remains in command of the Enterprise. – jscs Oct 18 '15 at 07:30
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    Before Chief O'Brian there was Yeoman Rand. Yeoman is not an officer rank but an enlisted job description, aka rate or rating in US Navy jargon. The US Navy does have vague job descriptions for its lowest three ranks (E1-3); Airman, Seaman, Fireman, Constructionman, Hospitalman, and Dentalman. There is no distinction between men and women just like Star Trek. Higher ranking enlisted personnel are referred to either buy the generic Master Chief, Senior Chief, Chief, and Petty Officer, or by rate/rank, e.g., YN1 Rand (spoken as wye en one). – Generic Geek Oct 18 '15 at 15:25
  • It is entirely possible that a generic Yeoman could be added to Federation ratings. I don't read the books so I have no idea how canon treats this. Former AG2 here. – Generic Geek Oct 18 '15 at 15:27

1 Answers1

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That's a different meaning of flagship. Dictionary.com defines it as:

1. a ship carrying the flag officer or the commander of a fleet, squadron, or the like, and displaying the officer's flag.

2. the main vessel of a shipping company.

3. any of the best or largest ships or airplanes operated by a passenger line.

4. the best or most important one of a group or system: This store is the flagship of our retail chain.

Here, it is being used in the 4th sense. It is the most advanced, best, prettiest, coolest of all Federation ships. It is, therefore, the federation's flagship. It similar to saying that Windows is Microsoft's flagship product.

terdon
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  • And you don't think that any of the flag officers want to be on that ship? That's one of the benefits of being in charge. You can do the cool jobs. – Ernie Oct 23 '15 at 22:19
  • @Ernie The Enterprise crew had to put up with a lot of danger. Star Fleet admirals seem to be desk jockeys who wouldn't care to put up with that nonsense. – Harabeck Apr 20 '20 at 13:44