Because their like a grab bag of Civilian services, from the other Diplomatic Service, to the Parks & Wildlife, to Secret Intelligence Services, to Customs to the Post Master and Telecom.
the US Navy can't go browning the CIA's F/A 18's, C-130's or "Fishing Trawlers" without orders from either the Hill or the House or cutting a deal with Langley, the US Army can't drive up to an NRO ground station load a bunch of Nerds in to their HMMUV's drive them to the nearest air strip and stick them on a MAC flight to the Sandbox to fix a faulty Dish at an In-Country C3 node when their short on staff, and so on.
E.G. "Bob" works for Parks and Wildlife as a Ranger for the last 10 years in the Pacific South-West & Texas chasing Poachers and helping other agencies chase down Smugglers (Contraband & People) and such, he has taught Wilderness Survival for the D.o.D. and other agencies, and with a U.S.G.S. grant is working on his P.H.D. in Geology. Now somewhere dry & rocky a very bad man has gone to ground (most likely in some caves), Satellite mapping has comeback inconclusive so the DoD goes looking for someone that knows Rocks & Terrain, who also knows Weapons, Small Unit Tactics and Survival. Chances are Bob's name will be near the top of the list the DoD put together of people they want to borrow from their Civilian, Intelligence and Law-Enforcement Cousins to actually put their boots on the ground In Country and get up close to where the Bad Man is hiding and tell the Grunts what rocks to kick over and holes to poke their heads in to.
the Army doesn't just drive up to Bobs rangers station and take him on a field trip, some one senior in the DoD talks to some one senior in the Interior department and asks if they can borrow Bob, if the Interior says yes they want to make sure Bob gets treated right and with some respect so to make sure Ranger Bob will not be misused he will likely be made a Commissioned Specialist with a courtesy rank but left outside the chain of command.
Same almost assured happens for IISS personal on loan to other services in Traveller.
the US Navy can't go browning the CIA's F/A 18's, C-130's or "Fishing Trawlers" without orders from either the Hill or the House or cutting a deal with Langley, the US Army can't drive up to an NRO ground station load a bunch of Nerds in to their HMMUV's drive them to the nearest air strip and stick them on a MAC flight to the Sandbox to fix a faulty Dish at an In-Country C3 node when their short on staff, and so on.
E.G. "Bob" works for Parks and Wildlife as a Ranger for the last 10 years in the Pacific South-West & Texas chasing Poachers and helping other agencies chase down Smugglers (Contraband & People) and such, he has taught Wilderness Survival for the D.o.D. and other agencies, and with a U.S.G.S. grant is working on his P.H.D. in Geology. Now somewhere dry & rocky a very bad man has gone to ground (most likely in some caves), Satellite mapping has comeback inconclusive so the DoD goes looking for someone that knows Rocks & Terrain, who also knows Weapons, Small Unit Tactics and Survival. Chances are Bob's name will be near the top of the list the DoD put together of people they want to borrow from their Civilian, Intelligence and Law-Enforcement Cousins to actually put their boots on the ground In Country and get up close to where the Bad Man is hiding and tell the Grunts what rocks to kick over and holes to poke their heads in to.
the Army doesn't just drive up to Bobs rangers station and take him on a field trip, some one senior in the DoD talks to some one senior in the Interior department and asks if they can borrow Bob, if the Interior says yes they want to make sure Bob gets treated right and with some respect so to make sure Ranger Bob will not be misused he will likely be made a Commissioned Specialist with a courtesy rank but left outside the chain of command.
Same almost assured happens for IISS personal on loan to other services in Traveller.
