The yeoman program

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I wonder what the recruiting and training process is like for yeomen.

Somehow, I have this image of it being like the Christian historical romance novels I read (and possibly secular clean romance as well, I don't read too many of those) where it features young women being trained as telegraph operators, waitresses, etc. (like so https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16112942-when-love-calls )

Basically, for whatever reason (a desire to see the galaxy, financial, rebelling against family, avoiding an undesirable situation, running from something), a woman (or man) decides to leave their home and sign up for the program. After a relatively quick training program in which they make friends, they're assigned somewhere and face challenges (and maybe a love interest).

Asking because I've thought it w

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

I suspect that the role of yeoman has changed over the decades, and indeed varies according to the service in question:

Current USN definition:

A yeoman is an enlisted service member within the United States Navy that performs administrative and clerical work under their primary role and assignment. They deal with protocol, naval instructions, enlisted evaluations, commissioned officer fitness reports, naval messages, visitors, telephone calls and mail (both conventional and electronic). They organize files, operate office equipment, and order and distribute office supplies. They write and type business and social letters, notices, directives, forms and reports.


Current RN definition (of the equivalent Writer Logistician rating):

The smooth running of a ship is about much more than on-point kit. Our people’s welfare needs to run smoothly, too. As an HR Administrator (Writer), you’re in charge of Human Resources (HR), handling legal matters, financial admin, and looking after the welfare of your crewmates. Whether you’re advising your Captain about promotions or organising your crewmates’ pay, it’s up to you to make things happen. It’s a unique job in a unique environment, and a great opportunity to discover what makes us tick – and how we keep ticking, all over the world.

"My job is to make sure everyone on board is looked after and has the support they need. Working behind the scenes to keep the ship moving is really rewarding – it’s not like any HR career I’d get at home." Steph, serving HR Administrator (Writer), Logistics Branch, RN.

Current USCG definition:

The YN is a behind-the-scenes role, but this doesn’t mean it’s any less important. Duties include:

• Payroll certification
• Payroll delivery
• Preparing military travel orders and transportation
• Preparing correspondence
• Performing administrative duties

YNs keep the Coast Guard ticking, helping members advance in their careers and understand their pay, benefits, and Coast Guard policies.

 

[F. King Daniel]

TOS gives me the impression it was a casting couch-type deal.

 

[Christopher]

TOS gives me the impression it was a casting couch-type deal.

As far as Roddenberry's casting of the actresses went, it probably was, unfortunately (e.g. Andrea Dromm as "Yeoman Smith" in the secon pilot, who was touted as the female lead in publicity but spoke exactly four words in the episode and was reportedly cast purely so Roddenberry could seduce her).

But in-story, that definitely wasn't meant to be the case. The original idea was that yeomen were usually male, which is why both Pike and Kirk were shown to be uneasy having female yeomen. And TOS made it quite clear that Kirk would never let himself act on his attraction to Rand, which was why he didn't like the temptation of a female yeoman (oy, the '60s). It's just that after Grace Lee Whitney left, they switched to a succession of female yeomen-of-the-week rather than replacing her with a new female regular, and so the original intent that female yeomen were rare gave way to a status quo where all yeomen were female.

Though we have glimpsed at least three male yeomen post-TOS, a patient of McCoy's in TAS: "How Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth" and the assassins Burke & Samno in TUC.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

Though we have glimpsed at least three male yeomen post-TOS, a patient of McCoy's in TAS: "How Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth" and the assassins Burke & Samno in TUC.

Although I've always thought that Burke and Samno being Yeomen was a little odd, given that they appeared to acting as honor guard (which is part of Security*). Perhaps less so Burke who wore Ables'man insignia*, so might be doing his initial "temporary assigned duty" rotation, but Samno wore Petty Officer (1st Class) insignia* so it would be odd for such an experienced hand to be acting outside their speciality.

* Per Bob Fletcher's notes.

 

[Christopher]

^Good point. I think there have been a lot of Trek writers who've had no idea what "Yeoman" means. I've even read some tie-ins here and there that ascribed officer's ranks to characters with the Yeoman title.

 

[Nyotarules]

^Good point. I think there have been a lot of Trek writers who've had no idea what "Yeoman" means. I've even read some tie-ins here and there that ascribed officer's ranks to characters with the Yeoman title.

Must have been hard for them to use a dictionary back then lol
Or we could argue in the future military there is no difference between enlisted class and officer class since its origins were mainly classist..

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

^Good point. I think there have been a lot of Trek writers who've had no idea what "Yeoman" means. I've even read some tie-ins here and there that ascribed officer's ranks to characters with the Yeoman title.

In fairness, there is technically a canon basis for this in the unnamed lieutenant-JG who acted as Kirk's assistant/adjutant in TFF (played by Shatner's daughter Melanie) who was listed as "Yeoman" in the credits.

Or we could argue in the future military there is no difference between enlisted class and officer class since its origins were mainly classist..

I agree that a rigid demarcation between officers and enlisted is unnecessary and outdated (certainly by the 22nd-24th Century), canon makes it clear that "direct entry" positions exist for personnel with enlisted level training, who hit the fleet within weeks to months rather years, but that equally can reach officer rank if they put the extra time into "on the job" training later. Broadly speaking the "law enforcement approach".

 

[Christopher]

In fairness, there is technically a canon basis for this in the unnamed lieutenant-JG who acted as Kirk's assistant/adjutant in TFF (played by Shatner's daughter Melanie) who was listed as "Yeoman" in the credits.

Credits don't count, because they're outside the narrative, and sometimes they're wrong. The guy in "Tomorrow is Yesterday" was Captain Christopher, not Major Christopher. And the guy in "Turnabout Intruder" credited as Galloway couldn't be Galloway because he died in "The Omega Glory."

Although I guess you could argue that she was performing the functions of a yeoman, and that would be part of the narrative. But that's implicit rather than explicit. And sometimes costume rank insignias are just wrong, so we can't even be certain she was "really" a lieutenant.

 

[Tim Thomason]

There's also the fact that Kirk, in TOS, was a bog-standard ship Captain on a routine exploratory mission, so an enlisted aide made sense. But STV Kirk, while knocked down to Captain, had been a world-saving ultra-famous admiral and former chief of Starfleet Operations. Commissioned adjutants are common for real-world flag officers, and since Kirk's demotion was practically in name only, he may have continued to receive flag officer perks. He was likely the most prestigious Captain in the fleet.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

There's also the fact that Kirk, in TOS, was a bog-standard ship Captain on a routine exploratory mission, so an enlisted aide made sense. But STV Kirk, while knocked down to Captain, had been a world-saving ultra-famous admiral and former chief of Starfleet Operations. Commissioned adjutants are common for real-world flag officers, and since Kirk's demotion was practically in name only, he may have continued to receive flag officer perks. He was likely the most prestigious Captain in the fleet.

Works for me.

 

[Kor]

Uniforms and insignia can also be wrong, especially with TUC. What department was Valeris supposed to be in, again?

Must have been hard for them to use a dictionary back then lol
Or we could argue in the future military there is no difference between enlisted class and officer class since its origins were mainly classist..

It seems like there was a thread about enlisted vs. officer recently. O'Brien once told Worf that his engineering crew (presumably all enlisted) had never attended Starfleet Academy. So Starfleet must have other technical education programs for people going to the enlisted track.

Kor

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

[From DS9's "Starship Down") - establishes that alternative programs exist:

[Engine room]
O'BRIEN: It looks like the torpedo hit somewhere in here.
MUNIZ: Problem is, we're cut off from that part of the ship.
O'BRIEN: But we'll have to think of something.
WORF: Mister Stevens, recalibrate the structural integrity field to minimise the strain caused by the torpedo.
STEVENS: The field generators are already at their limit compensating for the hull breach on deck two.
WORF: I am aware of the situation. If you cannot carry out my orders, I will find someone who can.
STEVENS: That won't be necessary, sir.
O'BRIEN: Can I have a word with you, sir?
WORF: Of course.
O'BRIEN: With all due respect, I think you're riding the men a bit hard. You have to understand, they're out of their element. They're not bridge officers, they haven't been to Starfleet Academy. They're engineers. They're used to being given a problem to solve, then going out and figuring out how to do it.
WORF: What are you suggesting?
O'BRIEN: Give them a little slack. Ease up on the reins. Let them do what they're good at, and give them a little encouragement now and then.
WORF: I will take it under consideration.

---

From TNG's "The Drumhead" - establishes why someone might go this route:

[Picard's quarters]
(Picard is pouring tea)
PICARD: There you are, Mister Tarses. Would you care for some lemon?
TARSES: No, thank you, sir. This is fine.
PICARD: Well, tell me a little about yourself, Crewman. I know you were born on Mars Colony.
TARSES: Yes, sir. All my life I wanted to be in Starfleet. I went to the Academy's training programme for enlisted personnel. I took training as a medical technician and I served at several outposts. The day that I was posted to the Enterprise was the happiest day of my life.
PICARD: Did you ever consider applying to the Academy, going the whole route, apply to become an officer?
TARSES: My parents wanted me to. And then I thought about it. I used to sit under this big tree near the parade grounds
PICARD: An elm tree with a circular bench?
TARSES: Yes, that's the one.
PICARD: I spent many an hour there. It was my favourite spot to study.
TARSES: I used to sit under that tree and watch the drills, picture myself an officer. I know that it would have made my mother very happy, but.
PICARD: You didn't do it.
TARSES: No. I was eighteen, and eager. The last thing I wanted to do was spend four years sitting in classrooms. I wanted to be out there, travelling the stars. I didn't want to wait for anything. And now it's done, isn't it? My career in Starfleet is finished.
PICARD: Not if you aren't guilty, Simon.
TARSES: It doesn't matter. I lied on my application, and that mistake will be with me for the rest of my life.

---

And finally VOY's "Flashback" - establishes that it's possible to be promoted from enlisted to Ensign :

[Gamma shift crew quarters]
RAND: All right, gamma shift, time to defend the Federation against gaseous anomalies.
JANEWAY: Gaseous anomalies. We were charting a gaseous anomaly on Voyager.
TUVOK: And that's when my problem began.
JANEWAY: That's more than a coincidence.
RAND: How are you this morning, Ensign?
TUVOK: I am well, Commander. Thank you.
RAND: I thought you might like to see some of this morning's com traffic before you went on duty. There's a message from the Yorktown I think you might be interested in. It's from your father.
TUVOK: Thank you.
RAND: You're not going to have time to drink that, you know. You're due on the bridge in five minutes.
TUVOK: It's not for me. It's for the Captain. I've observed that Captain Sulu drinks a cup of tea each morning. I thought he might enjoy a Vulcan blend.
RAND: Oh, I see. Trying to make Lieutenant in your first month? I wish I'd have thought of that when I was your age. Took me three years just to make Ensign.
TUVOK: I assure you, I have no ulterior motive.
RAND: Whatever you say, Ensign. See you on the bridge.
JANEWAY: You've never brought me tea.

 

[Nyotarules]

Uniforms and insignia can also be wrong, especially with TUC. What department was Valeris supposed to be in, again?
It seems like there was a thread about enlisted vs. officer recently. O'Brien once told Worf that his engineering crew (presumably all enlisted) had never attended Starfleet Academy. So Starfleet must have other technical education programs for people going to the enlisted track.
Kor

Not that being totally to true to canon matters but you can become an officer without even entering the academy , Michael Burnham joined Starfleet after graduating the Vulcan Science Academy. Perhaps the rules are as long as your school was prestigious you can join. The VSA makes Starfleet look like secondary school?

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

Not that being totally to true to canon matters but you can become an officer without even entering the academy , Michael Burnham joined Starfleet after graduating the Vulcan Science Academy. Perhaps the rules are as long as your school was prestigious you can join. The VSA makes Starfleet look like secondary school?

Georgiou attended "Advanced Instellar Combat" training at the Laikan Military Academy, Deanna Troi studied psychology/psychological therapies at the University of Betazed...

This suggests that while Starfleet (admistratively) has one Academy for the "fast trackers" (to leverage contacts with the Admiralty, the Diplomatic Corps and the Federation Council), major institutions on the other members worlds at least have "ROTC" arrangements with "Starfleet Training Command" for the bulk of "restricted line" officer, staff officer and enlisted training.

 

[Christopher]

Roddenberry wanted to portray Starfleet as an organization where the "ranks" were more like job titles, an expression of someone's qualifications and aptitudes rather than some arbitrary hierarchical status. So if you got an education outside Starfleet Academy that nonetheless gives you the equivalent qualifications of a Starfleet officer, then you'd warrant being assigned an officer's rank.

We've seen something similar with Starfleet's Officer Exchange Program. The first exchange officer we met, the Benzite Mendon, wore a Starfleet uniform and was addressed and rank-pipped as an ensign. (Though Kurn, conversely, stayed in Klingon uniform and his commander rank was treated as a Klingon Defense Force title that carried over.)

 

[Nyotarules]

Georgiou attended "Advanced Instellar Combat" training at the Laikan Military Academy, Deanna Troi studied psychology/psychological therapies at the University of Betazed...

This suggests that while Starfleet (admistratively) has one Academy for the "fast trackers" (to leverage contacts with the Admiralty, the Diplomatic Corps and the Federation Council), major institutions on the other members worlds at least have "ROTC" arrangements with "Starfleet Training Command" for the bulk of "restricted line" officer, staff officer and enlisted training.

Make sense since if there were only one campus, how big does SFA have to be to train officers to defend and go on explorations for a trillion member organisation? The size of California? lol
In universe every UFP planet should have a SFA campus, they should not need to travel to Earth.

 

[FreddyE]

as long as your school was prestigious you can join. The VSA makes Starfleet look like secondary school?

I suspect that it´s more like "Starfleet Academy or education on same level or higher according to FELS (Federation Education Level Standards)".

There are offical standards how one type of education of one country translates into the system of another country. I suppose the Federation has something similar for its member planets.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

Roddenberry wanted to portray Starfleet as an organization where the "ranks" were more like job titles, an expression of someone's qualifications and aptitudes rather than some arbitrary hierarchical status. So if you got an education outside Starfleet Academy that nonetheless gives you the equivalent qualifications of a Starfleet officer, then you'd warrant being assigned an officer's rank.

Which IMO he did succeed at for the most part. With very occassional exceptions (most notably O'Brien, who explicitly didn't want to be a "manager" so it makes sense that he is allowed to do that).

I've occasionally wondered if something like the extended scheme for CAP would work for junior personnel:

Captain = Lieutenant
First Lieutenant = Lieutenant JG
Second Lieutenant = Ensign
Senior Flight Officer = Senior [Specality] Officer
Technical Flight Officer = [Specialty] Section Officer
Flight Officer = [Specialty] Officer
Service Member = Cadet or Midshipman.

[Specialty] works similarly - but probably less narrowly - than the enlisted rating system. For instance, the "Bridge Officer" community would be Flight Officer/Duty Officer, Security Officer, Weapons Officer, Communications Officer, Intelligence Officer.

Which would preserve the idea that there is a "manager" group and a "worker"/"specialist" group, but be more consistent Roddenberry's "everyone is an officer" single community ethos.

 

[valkyrie013]

On topic:
I've always seen yeoman as a job title, whover man/woman/other, whatever Rank, Enlisted or officer.. And as shown was basically the captain's "secretary.. or "Admin assistant.." Someone who keeps the paperwork side of ships operations on track. They have there own office, shuffling paperwork, getting the captain to sign off on things, and brief him/her/it on the things that are happening.. Which in a ship is a good thing for the captain to have, especially someone like Kirk who took a hands on approach and let the humdrum operations be taken care of by staff.
It looks like most of the paperwork side gets taken care of by the 2nd in command by the 24th centery.. Captain still signed off on stuff, but most of the daily stuff was handled by Riker, performence reviews, allocation of ships resources..etc.
I'm pretty sure Spock done some stuff, but seemed he was mostly science guy, where Riker really didn't have a "Job" except being 2nd in command.

Off Topic:
The Academy to me is like.. Harvard, or Princeton.. They had them in the future.. Data was a professor in the AGT timeline.. So you do have other "universities" that quallify someone for Starfleet officer service, its just that the Academy is so prestigious, and a high mark.. But I guess one could get in with a degree from Andorian Community College of Accounting if there aligned with the Academy system..