Here we go again... why is this article here? There are no Trek citations, and the link to MA goes to an unwritten article. As best as I can tell, from a quick glance at the articles linking here, we're again just duplicating canon data with no genuine effort to integrate any non-canon info. --Seventy 04:36, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

The MA link is supposed to be "United States armed forces".

I suppose a good start to trying to make this article inclusive would be to recall sources in novels, comics or games that mention the US armed forces. -- Captain MKB 04:49, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

And here we go again -- I found a source for an article. Yay me! -- Captain MKB 22:20, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Huzzah! --8of5 22:26, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

USMF? Edit

I've never seen this abbreviation before. It also doesn't seem to come up readily on Google. Why is it used here? --Columbia clipper 03:31, 25 July 2009 (UTC)

Because it was used in ST reference: Star Fleet Technical Manual. -- Captain MKB 03:39, 25 July 2009 (UTC)

Ah, thanks. --Columbia clipper 03:51, 25 July 2009 (UTC)

LowercasingEdit

There is a standard of lowercasing on wikis that will be maintained here, this has been discussed and settled before, even though other reference sources may choose capitalizing certain words, it's not advantageous to wiki format and therefore we use a different standard here. -- Captain MKB 04:21, 25 July 2009 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but I don't see that across the wiki. Titles such as Duke are regularly capitalized. At the very least, the titles General of the Armies of the United States, Admiral of the Navy, General of the Army, and Fleet Admiral need to be fully capitalized, as they are similar in form to appellations like "King of Greater Andoria". These are granted as personal titles of distinction as much or more than as actual ranks. --Columbia clipper 04:32, 25 July 2009 (UTC)

Granted your point on titles of personal distinction, like those only held by specific individuals only, like a King of XX or General of the Armies being capitalized all the time, but for ranks in military service not being referred to a specific individual, we do default to the lowercase. For example, we'll say "there was a fleet admiral position waiting to be filled..." but we will personalize it as a title only when the individual is mentioned "... this was an order from Fleet Admiral Chekov sent by his courier."

Also, the table formatting has spaces and dividers as part of the code to keep it compressed, I'd rather not expand everything with additional linebreaks at this point with this table. -- Captain MKB 04:39, 25 July 2009 (UTC)

That might be difference between the US and Federation systems. In the US military, officers must be appointed to each rank by Congress. While billets do have ranks associated with them, the actual ranks held are granted to the person, not the post. Ranks beyond Major General and Rear Admiral, in fact, are confirmed on an individual basis at each change of assignment (unless otherwise voted by Congress, as in the cases of the 5-star+ officers, the Civil War-era senior commanders, and Admiral Spruance). But I suppose this is a point of excessive technicality to be concerned on a wiki devoted to an entirely different subject. --Columbia clipper 04:51, 25 July 2009 (UTC)