Able Seaman (AB, OR-2)

AB insignia 0.7×0.7 inches; this grade is the lowest referenced in the notes. The grade was not mentioned on screen though. Dax [MA] – the owner of the locker in which the murder’s boots were found – was addressed as “crewman” and did wear this insignia (IAW #5094).

This insignia was also worn by the trainees in The Wrath of Khan; out of the 23 uniforms with this insignia sold in the “It’s A Wrap!” auctions up to week 54, six belonged to the trainee variant. Two out of the 23 spotted a service pin of 5 years, five seem to have served more than 10 years (two pins each) and one uniform came with two 10-years pins. In the modern day US Navy you can receive a promotion to petty officer 3rd class after just two years of service.

Petty Officer 2nd Class (PO2, OR-5?)

PO2 0.9×0.9 inches; other than the modern day US Navy there is no petty officer third class. Beside the huge gap from crewman grades to petty officer grades compared to modern day procedures this rank is rather odd: an insignia was only sold three times in the 54 “It’s A Wrap!” weeks, one of the insignias as a single listing (IAW #5127).

Petty Officer 1st Class (PO1, OR-6)

PO1 insignia 0.9×0.9 inches large; good conduct version conjectural based on alternative CPO insignia (see below), but it doesn't seem to exist. Several online stores for movie costumes offer an all golden version too. This is the most famous rank (16 times) attached to uniforms at the “It’s A Wrap!” auctions after able seaman.

This rank was also worn three times by trainees with white engineering suits plus by a possible fourth trainee who didn’t spot the red division band, the reason for these combinations of uniforms and rank is unknown, possibly they were applying for promotion to chief petty officer.

Chief Petty Officer (CPO, OR-7)

CPO insignia 0.9×1.15 inches. Only the version on the right was sold in “It’s A Wrap!” auctions, shown left without any gold markings is the insignia as described by Fletcher in his notes. Another oddity is that two of the uniforms didn’t spot any commendation or service pins on the division stripe. The Federation Council security guard has served at least 15 years.

The insignia was used to denote a PO1 in the 1997 Star Trek Encyclopedia with just the flair in gold, for the 1999 version the false coloured version was used as CPO insignia.

Senior Chief Petty Officer (SCPO, OR-8)

The SCPO insignia has just the bar in the centre in gold as per the notes by Mr Fletcher, the 1997 Star Trek Encyclopedia has the grade omitted and assigned this insignia to CPO, but also coloured the flair only in gold. Just two insignia were sold in the “It’s A Wrap!” auctions (#5126 and #5296) coloured as shown on the right. However the incorrect Star Trek Encyclopedia name was used several times when the CPO insignia was sold.

Master Chief Petty Officer (MCPO, OR-9)

The MCPO is similar to the SCPO one, but no longer has the octagonal shape and is round. In both Encyclopedia versions the flair is gold too, which is again an addition made by the authors. In reality the insignia seems to exists primarily as depicted in the Encyclopedia as three were sold by “It’s A Wrap!” attached to an uniform and said to be used in The Undiscovered Country; the Master Chiefs in question had service pins for five, 10, and 20 years of service time.

Also supposedly added by the Star Trek Encyclopedia was the rank of Master Chief Petty Officer Second Class, which does not come from Fletcher’s notes – it lacks the flair on top of the insignia. Interestingly however a MCPO2 insignia was sold by “It’s A Wrap!” in weeks 17, 33, and 36 when other insignia were sold and the MCPO insignia had the flair in silver as designed by Fletcher. The sizes for the insignia are given as 1×1 inches (MCPO2) and 1×1.25 inches (MCPO). Maybe the insignia were recreated for VOY: “Flashback” using the Encyclopedia as a source, but this is just my personal theory.

Last Update: 2008-06-04

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