Table of Contents:
1. Introduction
2. Rates & Ratings/Promotions
3. In Character Enlisted Roles
4. Training
5. Uniforms/Hangouts/Interactions, etc
6. Conclusion
1. Introduction
Enlisted personnel are the most commonly overlooked characters to play. Eighty-five percent of personnel in Starfleet are enlisted. It is the non-commissioned personnel that truly keep Starfleet running. They are not the roles that are glamorous or considered powerful but they are still very important to the smooth running of the Fleet as a whole.
By the time you finish this course you may feel as if it is more fun and interesting to play an enlisted person than an officer. We hope that you will have a clearer idea of how they contribute to the smooth running of the crew or station.

2. Rates & Ratings/Promotions
Enlisted personnel have a rate as well as a rank. The rank of an enlisted person is what they have earned by being in the military a certain period of time and completing certain tasks, missions and tests that are required. The rate of an enlisted person is what they do.
For example, Petty Officer 2nd Class is the rank of an enlisted member (E5) and how their pay scale is determined. Their rate would be Yeoman, Engineer’s Mate, Boatswain, etc. There is a more in-depth explanation but for sim purposes this is all you need to know.

	Star Fleet	Star Fleet Marine Corps
(E1)	Seamen Recruit	Private
(E2)	Seamen Apprentice	Private 1st Class
(E3)	Seamen	Lance Corporal
(E4)	Petty Officer 3rd Class	Corporoal
(E5)	Petty Officer 2nd Class	Sergeant
(E6)	Petty Officer 1st Class	Staff Sergeant
(E7)	Chief Petty Officer	Gunnery Sergeant
(E8)	Senior Chief Petty Officer	Master Sergeant or First Sergeant
(E9)	Master Chief Petty Officer	Sergeant Major or Master Gunnery Sergeant

Descriptions of Ratings
There are just too many jobs performed by enlisted personnel to list them all here or even give an adequate sampling. IF you are interested in playing an enlisted officer, talk to the Command team of the Sim you wish to participate in and discuss with them which area they could use this type of character in. Then check out http://usmilitary.about.com/od/enlistedjob1/a/navyjobs.htm if you would like to further detail your character.
Promotion
The Promotion of enlisted personnel work on the same scale as their officer counterparts. For further in formation on promotion schedule please see our Rank Structure document. Once again, the time for promotion to another rank is a guideline for the Command Team and they are not required to promote anyone they do not feel is ready for that next step.

3. In-Character Enlisted Roles
Enlisted Personnel often handle duties which are routine, such as minor repairs, monitoring equipment, taking inventory, cataloging sensor data, etc. Each department head has several enlisted personnel at their disposal and is welcome to use NPCs for this if no real player is available.

If you are playing an enlisted person, you will report to your Department head (DH) for instructions on your duties for that day. Please be aware of time passage on your sim. If you did not begin a new day for the next sim do not report in to the DH again and ask for orders. Of course, if more than a day has gone by you would not want to be carrying out the same duty that you had been performing on the last sim. Time frame is very important for all sim members.

Keeping Busy
Not every sim can involve you directly and sometimes your DH will be required to be unavailable. At these times you should be prepared to carry out routines you know are safe and productive. These times are sometimes extremely enjoyable character development side stories.

What department you are in will determine what you use to keep yourself busy. Most departments will have an inventory done so this is one way you can have your character productive. Run routine diagnostics, fill out requisition orders to be reviewed by the DH later, review appointments (medical), maintenance schedules (eng), catalogue data from a recent scan of a planet or nebula (sci), or run through the list of training programs you feel would benefit your department and/or yourself. (sec) These are just a few examples of how to keep busy when the plot focus is elsewhere.

4. Training
Enlisting in Starfleet as a noncommissioned officer is much easier than trying to gain entrance into Starfleet Academy. There is no rigorous entrance exam, nor are there four years spent learning and training. Instead, there is a very basic physical fitness, and intelligence/aptitude test, that has a very high acceptance rate. Enlisted personnel are sent to boot camp for a specific amount of time where they are put through various physical training, taught about military protocol and learn how to be a representative of the uniform they wear.

The minimum age that a person can enter boot camp (for our purposes) is 17. The upper limit on age depends on species. Of course, all enlisted personnel will be required to meet the minimum criteria for being in Starfleet.

Enlisted personnel leave boot camp after a relatively short time and go on to AIT which trains them for their specific tasks in Starfleet. The length of time required to finish AIT depends on what they have chosen. Nurses would spend at least 2 years in school to finish their AIT. Engineers may only need 18 months and Security might be as little as one year. The more training they have in a particular area, the more expertise, the longer they will have spent in school and the greater the chance they will move up the ladder to supervisory positions.

Enlisted Personnel may not seem attractive at the onset and are definitely a harder role for a role player to execute properly. Enlisted personnel will always refer to any officer as sir or ma’am. No matter what rank you are as an enlisted person, an Ensign outranks you. On the flip side, this does not mean that officers will run rough shod over you. Enlisted are often referred to as Mister “last name” or their rank plus last name. Mister is a generic term for both female and male.

Good officers realize that enlisted persons are valuable to the crew. Officers will tend to respect and value the opinion or suggestions of enlisted persons who have been in the service for several years. (Think Miles O’Brien – TNG/DS9) Officers who ignore enlisted personnel opinions or look down on them tend to lose the respect of fellow crew members. It only makes sense that the person who works with your transporters from day to day over the last 5 years has a better understanding of the workings than any officer who never comes in contact with the transporters except when going somewhere.

5. Uniform/Hangouts/Interaction etc
Enlisted Starfleet Naval personnel wear the same duty uniforms as all other Starfleet Personnel with the undershirt designating what department they are attached to. Dress uniforms will differ slightly from an officer’s dress uniform. All other uniforms, such as camouflage would be the same as an officers.

Enlisted personnel have an enlisted mess but they may also gather in places known as common rooms. Ten forward lounge would be considered a common room for our Sims. In these areas, enlisted and officers are able to interact with each other in an off duty status and therefore slightly more relaxed. As long as you are in uniform you should maintain protocol. Call officers Sir/Ma’am or by their rank. If both officer and enlisted persons are out of uniform there may be room for a much more relaxed interaction. Under very limited circumstances do officers and enlisted personnel fraternize in a romantic nature. ( In the real military this would be completely out of the question. Due to the nature of harassment charges. We believe that by this time in Trek that harassment issues are more than extremely rare and therefore eases the restriction of romantic possibilities)

It should also be noted that at any point in your career before you are the age of 40 (for humans, this age differs for other species and this does not reflect IRL Military) that you can apply to Officer Candidate School (OCS). This could be an interesting plot twist for you and your character. As with any other major sub plot, you should discuss this with your Command Team before actually playing it through.

6. Conclusion
This guide will hopefully be helpful to people wishing to expand on their role playing skills and taking on the task of an enlisted person. Keep in mind this is only a guide and you are only limited by your imagination and the constraints of your particular sim.

(This guide was put together with information gathered from US Naval and Coast Guard Sites, Star Trek Encyclopedia, GM Council input and role playing experience. We do not copyright this and it may be used by anyone for their star trek game. We do ask that you would be kind enough to mention where you got it from.)