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Well I just watched an episode of Voyager last night, and I was handily reminded as to why I stopped watching the show. One particular gripe was that Janeway was on the verge of tears while reprimanding two senior officers! This is a military?! Picard never started blubbering while chewing Riker out!

So I was thinking, say we replace the Voyager crew with a United States Navy crew. Assume that they know how to operate the ship, how it works and are fully versed in the engineering concepts needed to repair it if damaged. How long would it take them to get back to Earth?

EDIT: Also assume that this crew is bound by the policies and regulations of the Federation, but they act like professional, military officers.

I'm betting that the Federation regulations would just about hamstring the US Navy crew. Those would be the first thing to go out the window when they got to the Delta Quadrant.

They have a much more uneventful ride home. Half of that show's plots required some crewmember to do something idiotic that no real military officer with a healthy fear of his CO would do.

Well on one hand they'd be a lot more efficient in ship-running, but as far as making it home, I'd not be so sure. Part of the reason they got home withing a generation was that they got help from "themselves" from the future. Whether the Navy troops would get such help is questionable and their trip would be considerably longer. Which could present another problem... If the trip were to take the full 70 years the crew would get old and would probably need replacement, which leads to a question: Does the U.S. Navy have mixed gender crew? Or do we assume that there's still civlians aboard?

If not there may be trouble. (unless they do something extreme like keeping copies of themselves in the transporter databanks and restoring dead crew by cloning them through that.)

So I'd say the Navy would run the ship very nicely, but by doing so they may miss out on the dumb luck that let the original crew take a shortcut.

McNum wrote:If the trip were to take the full 70 years the crew would get old and would probably need replacement, which leads to a question: Does the U.S. Navy have mixed gender crew? Or do we assume that there's still civlians aboard?

US Navy does have mixed-gender crews. Navy estimates are that during the 1989-1990 year, 5% of its female personnel were pregnant at one point or another. During the Gulf War, the Acadia and USS Yellowstone came back with an average pregnancy rate of 31% among all sailors. During the Bosnia operations, an average of one person every three days was evacuated for pregnancy.

Durandal wrote:Well I just watched an episode of Voyager last night, and I was handily reminded as to why I stopped watching the show. One particular gripe was that Janeway was on the verge of tears while reprimanding two senior officers! This is a military?! Picard never started blubbering while chewing Riker out!

Which episode.


Besides, Janeway often upholds the prime directive to the point of insanity, and then later throws out with "rules are meant to be broken." She also tried to torture people a lot.

"US Navy Crew" and "Policies and regulations of the Federation" are really not compatible. Anyway, given the safety standards of Federation ships, the captain would probably declare his ship unfit for service and demand six months in dry dock to put her right.

The Dark wrote:

McNum wrote:If the trip were to take the full 70 years the crew would get old and would probably need replacement, which leads to a question: Does the U.S. Navy have mixed gender crew? Or do we assume that there's still civlians aboard?

US Navy does have mixed-gender crews. Navy estimates are that during the 1989-1990 year, 5% of its female personnel were pregnant at one point or another. During the Gulf War, the Acadia and USS Yellowstone came back with an average pregnancy rate of 31% among all sailors. During the Bosnia operations, an average of one person every three days was evacuated for pregnancy.

Wow. That's pretty good. I might just go join the military.

Grand Admiral Thrawn wrote:Which episode.

The one where they ran into the über-hospitable aliens who wouldn't give them their über-transporter technology to take them 40,000 lightyears closer to home.

Sea Skimmer wrote:"US Navy Crew" and "Policies and regulations of the Federation" are really not compatible. Anyway, given the safety standards of Federation ships, the captain would probably declare his ship unfit for service and demand six months in dry dock to put her right.

Hm ... never thought of that. The captain's first order would probably be to put some fucking armor around the reactor.

How about this? They follow the Federation protocol for interaction with other species (the Prime Directive and all that), but internal ship policies are those of the US Navy?

McNum: You have to remember that the Voyager crew fucked up a lot of opportunities to get home, things which a Navy crew would probably handle differently. A Navy crew wouldn't put exploration as a primary objective.

Time-delay explosives on the Caretaker array. Voyager is home the next day.

Durandal wrote: McNum: You have to remember that the Voyager crew fucked up a lot of opportunities to get home, things which a Navy crew would probably handle differently. A Navy crew wouldn't put exploration as a primary objective.

That's true, but I was assuming the Navy wouldn't find as many lucky chances as the original crew did since they'd probably not explore as much, like you said.

My best bet would be they'd set the course for home and only deviate from it to either avoid anomalies or potential enemies. That and the occasional dilithium harvesting. Any ship encounters would probably be coincidental, or if they respond to a nearby distress call. (I assume an SOS still is a priority for Navy personell.)

I wonder how the Navy would affect the Delta Quadrant politics compared to the original crew. Somehow I don't quite see the Navy as meddeling as much since as the originals. On the bright side they'd probably not get as many enemies, but they might miss out on a few allies as well.

US Navy does have mixed-gender crews. Navy estimates are that during the 1989-1990 year, 5% of its female personnel were pregnant at one point or another. During the Gulf War, the Acadia and USS Yellowstone came back with an average pregnancy rate of 31% among all sailors. During the Bosnia operations, an average of one person every three days was evacuated for pregnancy.

Pretty bleak statistics. I am immigrating to the US sometime in the future and that just made me reconsider my attempt at joining the US military.

Besides, Janeway often upholds the prime directive to the point of insanity, and then later throws out with "rules are meant to be broken." She also tried to torture people a lot.

Don't forget the legendary incompetence. When presented with two choices with bad outcomes Janeway would make a third one that is even worse.