Scout Ranks

[tjoneslo]

Originally Posted by Blue Ghost

To me, Scouts probably operate in a meritorcracy much as described, but when they're absorbed into the navy or marines for support or for added / augmented firepower purposes, then they have to operate with the guys who are regimented by rank.

I've never seen this addressed in any in depth manner by any official publication, nor read any article covering it.

Based upon personal opinion that when the Navy has to absorb parts of the Scout service (e.g. during a time of war), the Naval office gives each scout a rank based upon years of service. Or something similar and easy to implement without having to go through an in depth personnel review for each scout. So when the Scouts on, for example, the Naval run deep spy mission re-arrange their chain of command against the Navy supplied ranks, well confusion reigns.

I think the Marines wouldn't care. To them the Scouts are the flyboys, and crazy to boot. So either the Scouts are in charge (i.e. during normal ship operation) or the Marines are (i.e. during combat).

[esampson]

Originally Posted by tjoneslo

I've never seen this addressed in any in depth manner by any official publication, nor read any article covering it.

Based upon personal opinion that when the Navy has to absorb parts of the Scout service (e.g. during a time of war), the Naval office gives each scout a rank based upon years of service. Or something similar and easy to implement without having to go through an in depth personnel review for each scout. So when the Scouts on, for example, the Naval run deep spy mission re-arrange their chain of command against the Navy supplied ranks, well confusion reigns.

I think the Marines wouldn't care. To them the Scouts are the flyboys, and crazy to boot. So either the Scouts are in charge (i.e. during normal ship operation) or the Marines are (i.e. during combat).

Scouts aren't going to just be magically absorbed into one of the armed services. They will be assigned to assist one of the armed services. That assignment would specify details like who they have to listen to (it might be specific such as Baron Snargleflatz, more general like 'the captain of the Gudshpl'lip'p' or even highly generalized like 'the office of Naval Intelligence').

They wouldn't have any rank. If an Admiral gives them an order and that Admiral isn't part of their assignment they don't have to do a damn thing he says (although a wise scout might go along anyway). Similarly the don't have any capability to give orders, although they might be given some defacto authority to issue certain orders just to speed things up so that they don't have to go to the captain every time they want a service crew to work on their ship.

At least that's how I would imagine it would work.

[aramis]

I expect that scouts will be assigned a provisional rank when embedded long term, much as Merchant Crewmen received prior to WW I when pressed into Naval duty. That rank will be based upon their assigned role, and may be surprisingly high. A fleet's liaison might be assigned a provisional rank of 06 Captain, maybe even O7 Commodore. A liaison to a single ship would probably be an O4 Lt Commander or O5 Commander. They'd wear the insignia, receive the appropriate respect from ship's crew, and laugh it up in quarters.

[Blue Ghost]

I've written in years past some fiction about scouts picking a spec-ops teams on some planet (in one particular case it was a sultry world....kind of like Honduras or El Salvador), and I just had the scout boys just assume everyone knew their part, and integrated seamlessly with the marines when the bullets started flying.

When I read about the then "new" scout ranks all those years ago, I raised my eyebrows some because that seemed to put the scouts on even footing with the hard services.

Just me.

[arbitrary.remora]

Originally Posted by tjoneslo

I would imagine the scouts in the Traveller Universe (vs. for your gaming group) would try to avoid this situation. For exactly the reason you describe.

Sure, maybe. For a low risk assignment. The more complex the task and goals, the more diversified the command structure.

I like to think of the Scouts and the final repository for civilian (NASA-style) titles. The death or glory boys and girls may need their hierarchical, paternalistic rank structure, but Scouts are dead cool with stuff like:
Mission Commander
Payload Specialist
Ship Commander
Liaison Contact Specialist
Air-Raft Driver

It's important to show who knows what and does what, not who your Daddy was.

-a.r

[HG_B]

Originally Posted by aramis

I expect that scouts will be assigned a provisional rank when embedded long term, much as Merchant Crewmen received prior to WW I when pressed into Naval duty. That rank will be based upon their assigned role, and may be surprisingly high. A fleet's liaison might be assigned a provisional rank of 06 Captain, maybe even O7 Commodore. A liaison to a single ship would probably be an O4 Lt Commander or O5 Commander.

A bit like a brevet rank.

[aramis]

Originally Posted by HG_B

A bit like a brevet rank.

Comparable, but not the same.

For a while, US Military Academy Instructors who weren't commissioned themselves already received provisional rank as a 1 Lt. They got to wear the 2Lt uniform, with distinctive marks for instructors; commissioned officers serving as instructors wore their normal rank (on black, rather than whatever corps color they previously wore).

Several similar categories exist (Acting Rank, Brevet Rank, Field Promotion, Equivalent grade), but each is subtly different. Further, both Acting Rank and Provisional rank are positional.

A civil-service lawyer assigned to the JAG office might be given provisional rank as a Captain; he carries the effective rank and authority of a captain, answers to Majors and Lt. Col's, and Lt's answer to him. Depending upon a number of other factors, he might be in uniform, even. Or, he may have simply positional authority for the position.