On 12/1/25 14:17, Jim Vassilakos - jim.vassilakos at gmail.com (via tml
list) wrote:
> According to Element Cruisers, page 46, "Specialists such as legal
> advisors are normally commissioned but, although they are technically
> 'line' officers whilst serving aboard a warship, they are not part of
> the chain of command unless the captain chooses to assign them
> additional duties." There's also a chart showing the chain of command,
> with a logistics officer (a lieutenant), an assistant logistics
> officer (a sublieutenant), three administrative officers (ensigns),
> and 16+ additional personnel (enlisted).
>
> The problem is that I have no military experience, and I have no idea
> how JAG works in the real world. My only "knowledge" (if one can call
> it that) is from TV shows and movies where the JAG officers are
> usually portrayed as being lieutenants and above. But my sense from
> page 46 of Element Cruisers is that a ship's lawyer would be reporting
> to the logistics officer, a lieutenant, and so how does it work with a
> lieutenant reporting to a lieutenant?

IIUC, any palaver about differing dates of commission/rank would be
subsumed by the position - if Lieutenant Argle is the lawyer reporting
to Lieutenant Bargle, the logistics officer, then Argle reports to, and
takes orders from, Bargle.  It _doesn't matter_ that Argle is a month
away from pinning on Lieutenant Commander rank.  Lieutenant Commander
Argle would still report to, and take orders from, Lieutenant Bargle. 
They would probably both address each other as "sir/ma'am" after Argle's
promotion.

Again IIUC, only line (US)/warfare (Commonwealth) officers can
(legally?) take command of a ship if there's any alternative. In the
situation you cited, without any additional duties, Lt. Argle would
accede to command after the death/incapacity/unavailability of _all_
"regular" line/warfare officers and any line/warfare-but-no-extra-duties
officers senior to Argle.

If Ensign Eneri, having only recently obtained her bridge watch
certificate, is still around, _she_ would accede to command ahead of
Argle, being a regular line/warfare officer.

>
> I briefly considered making the lawyer a warrant officer, but then I
> realized the naval rank table doesn't include warrant officers. It's
> petty officers all the way from E4 to E9. I suppose I could make the
> lawyer an ensign.

What _type_ of warrant officer?  Commonwealth (senior enlisted), or US
(warranted from ranks, essentially "commissioned" by the service
secretary, not the head of state)?

>
> Also, I was wondering if the Imperial military would have a unified
> JAG corps, or if each branch (Navy, Army, Marine) would have separate
> JAG schools.

At least in the GTU, the IM and IN would (being components of the
Imperial Naval Service) would have their own, unified, JAG corps.

The Unified Armies of the Third Imperium, commanded and equipped from
the _subsector_ level (meaning HIM can only order about the Core
_subsector_ army directly), would likely have something similar, but
with differences among each Unified Army.

>
> It's a minor detail, but I'm curious what you all think.
>
My thoughts above.

Alex