Babylon 5: Questions Answered and Unanswered part 5
48. re. 'The Lost Tales' and Lochley's promotion-do we take that the rank of Colonel outranks the specific rank of Captain? Or take with a modified pinch of salt? The the whole 'Quantum' space thing seemed like a bit of a gimmick, or even a prank on Sheridan's part to freak out the journalist interviewing him, so why take Lochley's promotion seriously?
49. What happens to Earth's homeless under President Clark? Are they just randomly sectioned (or imprisoned) as only the insane would 'choose' to become homeless?
50. Ditto 'fixing the economy':maybe the unemployed or underemployed can join Nightwatch no questions asked in return for fifty credits a week (JMS has stated a credit is equivalent to pounds sterling now) and being able to avoid the 19.00 hours curfew (and presumably a hold on rent or mortgage payments/it's probably considered treason to evict a Nightwatch member anyway?) i.e. to basically spy on their neighbours and keep up the global Nightwatch presence. Perhaps 'Workfare' programmes also.
51.If the Narns or a Narn nation in the thirteenth century did have space travel is it possible that the extermination of the Narn telepaths resulted in the deaths of 99% of their population in order to sufficiently weaken the telepath gene, hence their reversion to agrarianism?
52. Navy: Admiral positions could be substituted for General but generally speaking the Navy uses the same ranks as the Infantry. I am assuming the two 'Knights' in 'A Sky Full of Stars' both outrank Commander Sinclair (but are not Generals) and that Colonel replaces what would otherwise be Brigadier General, again allowing for Lochley's promotion to Colonel.
The important assumption is that because leaders of carrier groups and fleets are given the designation of 'Captain' then presumably this is a term for ship and fleet leaders and not one single rank. However an observation of the rank insignia worn by Captain Sheridan, Commander Sinclair ("The Gathering"), Colonel Bin Zayn and Major Kemmer show a comparison with real/existing insingia for Lieutentant Colonel (US Army). Specifically, the insignia worn by both Sinclair and Kemmer would lead to the assumption that they both occupy positions equivalent to Lieutentant Colonel, while the three officer's various salutes to each other would indicate that Colonel (or perhaps specifically Lieutentant Colonel) directly outranks Commander which directly outranks Major .Colonel Bin Zayn himself wears one command bar on his shoulder insignia, compared to Sheridan's two bars (and Commanders Sinclair and Ivanova's onebar).
I think from this information we can assume that there are differing ranking systems in each department of EarthForce but the differing ranks can be directly compared with (at least) one rank above another in any chain of command always outranking the one below.
Therefore, ranks are somewhat staggered so that
Major General or Rear Admiral outranks Full Colonel
which outanks Lieutentant Colonel and Captain
who outrank Commander
which outanks Major or Lieutenant Commander
who outrank Sector Captain or Lieutenant
which outranks First Lieutenant
which outranks Second Lieutenant
however, John Copeland (B5 producer) is quoted as saying that all EarthForce branches have the same ranking structure, with the first six officer ranks being the same as the modern US Navy (i.e. Ensign to Capain) with the ranks of Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel and Major being above Captain and below Admiral and General. At first this doesn't seem to make much sense, particularly when (Major?) General Franklin defers to Captain Sheridan as an equal and Majors Kemmer and Krantz saluting Commander Sinclair.
An explanation for this could be that there are several chains of command and officers can be in more than one at a time, being:
First, what I would refer to as a "Command" or (perhaps) Infantry chain of command, covering division and installation commanders, hence; Sinclair as a commander outranks Kemmer who is technically General Netter's Executive Officer and Sheridan is equal to General Franklin. A commander in this fashion will ahev authority over any security and medical personnel
Second, security; hence Major Kemmer outranks Security Chief (Warrant Officer) Garibaldi
Third, Navy and Marines Corps; hence Colonel bin Zayn outranks Commander Sinclair, "Dodger" (Private First Class) salutes Captain Lochley as a superior, Captain Lochley herself can be promoted to Colonel and Richard Franklin (later General) can serve as a first officer aboard a starship
Fourth, presumably, would be the equivalent of the Air Force
Five, medical corps
Six, perhaps military intelligence
and seven perhaps covers (part of) the Psi Corps. Certainly Lieutenant John Matheson had had enough training while still in Psi Corps to be accepted in two years as an officer in EarthForce when Psi Corps was disbaned after the Telepath War. Regardless, it is implied that there are at least four members of the Joint Chiefs.
Presumably "Admiral" refers to one of the heads of the various EarthForce branches and "General" is the same as Admiral or General, "Major" being a one-star or Brigadier General etc. General Franklin's rank of Major General could be a title, he probably has the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. This (and the alternative style ranks below) are consistent with the amount of EA starships commanded by a captain/the distinct lack of admirals; all non-generals who are given the command of a starship refer to themselves/are referred to as "captain", within a fleet or battle group there is probably an internal chain of command. These commanders are probably the admirals mentioned in the show, while some presumably would have an actual rank below that of Captain. In show members of the Joint Chiefs are referred to as General, so perhaps staff/flag officers as:
General
Lieutenant General
Admiral
Vice Admiral
and Rear Admiral
However it should be mentioned that for pilots RAF ranks are apparenly used also
e.g. Pilot Officer, Flying Officer, Flight Lieutenant, Squadron Leader, Wing Commander and Group Captain, instead of the navy-style ranks.
Also, if Kemmer is basically equivalent to a Brigadier-General, how did she get promoted so quickly?
An alternative, but less meandering system could be;
Commissioned ranks EarthForce:
Joint Chiefs of Staff=Admiral
Vice Admiral
Colonel=General
Lieutenant Colonel=Lieutenant General
Captain=Major General
Commander
Lieutenant Commander
Major
Lieutenant
Lieutenant (junior grade)
Ensign
all in the same chain of command, with starship captains being any fleet commander ranking below Vice Admiral who is not a Major
