What’s really mean is that (as far as I can remember) O’Brien is the only noncom ever shown in Star Trek; he might be the only one in Starfleet! Talk about being singled out!
Yeah even on ST: Lower Decks all the Starfleet characters were officers. If any show was going to showcase noncoms in Starfleet you’d think it’d be ST: LD. Perhaps you could count most of the mawquee crewmembers in ST: Voyage as noncoms. Except that Voy is an exceptional case
What’s really mean is that (as far as I can remember) O’Brien is the only noncom ever shown in Star Trek; he might be the only one in Starfleet! Talk about being singled out!
I’ve had this discussion with friends and I think that’s right. Ranks are super weird in Starfleet.
Yeah even on ST: Lower Decks all the Starfleet characters were officers. If any show was going to showcase noncoms in Starfleet you’d think it’d be ST: LD. Perhaps you could count most of the mawquee crewmembers in ST: Voyage as noncoms. Except that Voy is an exceptional case
And a bunch of the Maquis were given commissions — Belann’a and Chakotay notably.