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Originally Posted by Tessa
It makes more sense now, was thinking about some friends of mine that are on active duty and a couple are specialist in their field (not just someone that's doing that job because they've been assigned to it) and all they do and focus on is their trade/rating. They can still fire a rifle, but would have no clue how to direct artillery fire or some other common position. Just seems strange to go the officer/command route you choose no trade at all and are like a gopher until you get admitted to OCS.
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Where are you from? I ask because the system used in the KM is paralleled in the Royal Navy. In the sailing-ship days a gunner was considered something of a wizard, with magical abilities that separated him from real sailors; hence he was exempt from all regular sailor duties.
When steam came into common use the same thing happened. An engineer is not a real sailor, which means he is both more and less than the regular command structure. He isn't trained in anything to do with the running of the ship, and other officers aren't trained in engineering.
The reason I asked where you are from is that if you are American, none of that makes sense, because in the US navy officers aren't specialists. On my ship we had a Radio Officer; over him was a Comm officer, and over him was the XO. We also had an engineering officer, but these were all officers learning different jobs, and they all had pretty much the same career track, and barring stupid mistakes and bad luck they would all someday be an exec and then a captain.