Forum: Story Discussion and Feedback

NAVAL VETERANS' assistance needed, please.

I know that on the military, if you board a ship, you should salute the flag and request permission to come aboard. That flag would be located at the stern, so you should face aft as you salute.

However, if this is a science fiction story and you TRANSPORT aboard, would you still face aft? What if the ship is a tail lander, like the classic needle shaped ships from the fifties? Salute the floor? I am
thinking that a flag
would be draped or
posted at the transport room. Does that sound reasonable?

[Not a naval veteran]
Since it's Science Fiction I doubt a real flag is used. No wind in space :)
Instead I would expect a symbol on a wall (which might be in the shape of a flag). A fabric flag seems to delicate for use on a space ship, unless you can replicate a new one every day and have someone dedicated to replacing it every day.
The position pointing fore or aft doesn't seem important but saluting towards the symbol/flag should be easy if the symbol is visible after arriving. This of course assumes a transporter room as the arrival point. With transporter pads or random transporting you could arrive anywhere.
In short, the further your Science Fiction goes into the future the less likely it is that traditional flag ceremonies have remained unchanged.

Navy vet.

Thoughts...

Honor.

Tradition.

Duty.

Someone is present when the transport completes. An officer or rating, does not matter, they are the representative for the ship.

Tradition says you salute and ask permission to board. They return the salute and grant you access.

Doing so you are honoring both tradition and the (presumably) millions of people that have went before.

Duty. Duty is a multi-edge sword. But the routine of doing your duty to something (entity or document) bigger than you is a mental exercise that helps confirm you are a part of some worthwhile cause or organization.

Pirates... They would not salute or ask permission for they (generally) have no honor beyond to themselves.

I agree with Keet that some symbol might be prominently displayed and be the focus of the ritual.

I am reminded of the Honor Harrington stories. The ships are space ships, so the access port is probably midships somewhere, but there is always a flag, usually mounted on the wall, and usually the ship's ensign as well. When entering the ship, upon crossing the demarcation line denoting the transition from boarding tube to ship proper one requests permission to come aboard, faces the flag and salutes.

This may also depend on which service the space force takes its traditions from. Although we do often think of space forces in naval terms, thanks in large part to Star Trek and some of the early SF writers, it's just as possible that a newly created space force would borrow traditions from the Air Force instead.

The service of influence would likely be determined by whichever service had the most people recruited from in the first generation.

Similarly, a space marine force might start out with actual marines recruited into the new service, in which case they'd likely copy a lot of marine traditions, or it might start out with raw recruits on the theory that they need to be trained for a new type of warfare. In the latter case it's likely that the space marine force would create its own traditions or grab bits and pieces from different services and TV.

It's for a story in The Swarm Cycle. Multiple nations' traditions and only a few years of transition. Frankly, I just wanted a naval military FEEL for one throwaway scene. I'll use a flag wall.

It's been a few decades since I was in the navy but I remember boarding ships and there being flags (US flag and Navy flag plus others sometimes) right there at the quarterdeck. We saluted the flag that was there not the one at the stern. Maybe smaller ships had the quarterdeck at the ship's stern and didn't have seperate quarterdeck flags. Anyway I could easily see the tradition carried forward to space craft with the entry area called the "Quarterdeck" and flags being used there.

Operational preparation is vastly different between that of the Air Force and Navy. An Air Force operation only lasts for several hours, while a Naval operation can last months. Thus, a distinct difference in the supplies you will need between departure and return.

A very valid point.

https://storiesonline.net/a/Gina_Marie_Wylie makes that distinction in the first of her Kinsella novels, sadly not available here on SOL.

The mindset for the necessary logistics and subsequent mission planning behavior is vastly different.

A few hours, a day or two, until the mission is complete for the air force versus months or years with minimal base support for a naval vessel.