Command Structure of the Doberman Navy

Admiral

The highest position in any navy or fleet is, of course, an Admiral. However, in the case of the Doberman Fleet, no such title exists. The fleet is given its mission orders from the Doberman High Council along with a Flagship assignment. The Flagship is the command ship for the fleet, with the Captain of that ship as the highest-ranked officer in the fleet. That captain gives orders for fleet formations, courses, et al.

Captain

The Captain of the ship is in charge of the safety and well-being of the crew as well as seeing to it that the ship's mission and role in the fleet is accomplished. Any order given by the Captain is to be followed, no questions asked. He must be in communication with the other Captains in the fleet at all times.

Executive Officer

The Executive Officer (XO) sees to it that all orders given by the Captain are carried out as expeditiously as possible. Most of the time he will be on the bridge of the ship and will echo commands to the crew. If the Captain is not on the bridge, the XO has absolute command of the ship, acting as the Captain.

Chiefs

Directly below the XO are the Chiefs. Each department on board the ship is assigned one Chief, who heads the department and commands all crew in that given area. He/She is intimately familiar with the inner workings of everything he/she oversees. A few departments include Engineering, Gunnery, Petty Officers, Security, and Galley. Carriers also have two special positions at this level--Chief of the Deck, who is in charge of flight deck operations and is directly *on* the flight deck; and the Airboss, who decides everything about the when, what, and who goes in the air.

Lieutenants (*)

Lieutenants (LT's) are assigned jobs by their Division Chief. It is then their responsibility to get that task accomplished, and if it isn't done it's their ass. They assemble their own crews of Yeoman from their department to get the job done.

Petty Officers (*)

Petty Officers (PO's) are the only rank to have their own Department head. The PO's on board a ship see to the supply and operations needs of departments and the crews therein. Need some more wrenches? Yell for the nearest petty officer. Also Jacks-of-all-trades in most cases.

Yeomen

The Yeomen are the lowest men on the totem pole, roughly comparable to the meager enlisted men. They do all the daily and dirty work on board the ship. Without them, though, the ships could never sail.

Many times, there is little actual distinction between LT's and PO's. If a LT is killed/wounded during a battle, a PO will fall in to fill the position. LT's and PO's form the core of damage control crews during combat. If a ship is damaged, either a LT or PO has authority to grab any available crew to fix something that they see is damaged.