EarthForce
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EarthForce is the military branch of the Earth Alliance, Earth's governing body in the fictional Babylon 5 universe.
EarthForce is organized into three separate branches:
- the Navy (blue uniforms),
- the Marines (brown/olive),
- and the Security forces (gray).
Officers are apparently allowed to transfer between branches - Richard Franklin (father of Dr. Stephen Franklin) once served in the Navy, as first officer on the EAS Ares, but by the time we actually meet him, the elder Franklin was a general in the EarthForce Marines (which, in the episode "Gropos", were specifically identified as "EarthForce Marine Corps" in their marching song).
Each branch of EarthForce uses the appropriate style of ranks for that branch:
| Navy | Marines/Security |
|---|---|
| Ensign | 2nd Lieutenant |
| Lieutenant j.g. | 1st Lieutenant |
| Lieutenant | Captain |
| Lieutenant Commander | Major |
| Commander | Lieutenant Colonel |
| Captain | Colonel |
| Rear Admiral (lower half) | Brigadier General |
| Rear Admiral (upper half) | Major General |
| Vice Admiral | Lieutenant General |
| Admiral | General |
| Fleet Admiral | Five star General |
- The Admiral ranks are semi-conjectural because they had never been held by any character on the show, although they can be assumed to exist since they were mentioned in dialogue (and one character is said to be on the fast track to making Admiral). Richard Franklin was a Major General and there was a Lieutenant General communicating to Babylon 5 from the Senate building during the episode "Point of No Return". Several five star generals were shown including Hague, of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Earthdome commander, General Foote.
Flag officers from all three branches comprise a Joint Chiefs of Staff which is mentioned in a few episodes.
While the Marines and Security divisions have a fairly standard "ground" rank structure (used by real-world Earth ground forces), some characters who are ostensibly part of the Naval division apparently have ground ranks (such as many Generals we see, plus Major Ed Ryan in Severed Dreams). It is unknown why this occurs.
- A popular fanon theory is that an officer from Marines or Security can transfer into the Naval division but would keep his or her original rank when doing so.
- Another theory is that any officer wearing the 'blue' uniform will have a ground rank until their flight status - either as a Starfury pilot or a starship crew member - is approved, at which point they would adopt a Naval rank.
- (Generals would be the exception to this rule, however; they are as likely to command a battle fleet as a ground-based infantry division. Admirals are still mentioned in several episodes, so they certainly exist as well; for example in And the Sky Full of Stars we learn that Jeffrey Sinclair was on the fast track to making admiral, and Signs and Portents in which it is said that both generals and admirals were in the running to command Babylon 5.)
- It has been suggested that EarthForce has elements of both rank systems, such as a Naval rank of Captain (with Commander, Lieutenant Commander, etc. under it) which is in turn outranked by Major, Colonel, etc. This is not possible, for several reasons:
- In the episode "Babylon Squared", when Major Krantz (a Marine) meets Commander Sinclair (Navy), Krantz visibly defers to Sinclair, suggesting that a Commander outranks a Major (which is true in real-world Earth militaries).
- In "Eyes", Susan Ivanova - a lieutenant commander at the time - momentary leaves the bridge and asks a major to take over her position. If an EarthForce major outranked a captain, it would also outrank a commander, and this is clearly not the case.
- In "By Any Means Necessary", Ivanova is pestered by a major from EarthForce Security who orders her to relay a message to Earth. Ivanova refuses the order and is not disciplined for it.
- "Severed Dreams": Major Ryan arrives on the station but does not attempt to pull rank on anyone. Under the 'blended' rank system theory, Ryan would have outranked Sheridan, and this is clearly not the case.
- Some background materials, such as those provided for B5 role playing games, attempted to combine the two rank systems by placing Major in between Lieutenant and Lieutenant Commander, and dispensing with the Admiral rank altogether. This is unlikely, as there is no evidence that the rank of Major belongs in such a place (no officer was ever seen to be promoted to, or from, that rank, so there is no proof that the rank belongs in that order in the chain of command). Also, the RPG rank list omitted the rank of Colonel, which at least one character (Colonel Ari ben Zayn from "Eyes") definitely had.
EarthForce operates a large fleet of ships, comprising such vessels as the Cotten class tender, Olympus class corvette, Omega class destroyers and Hyperion class heavy cruisers, Nova class dreadnought, and numerous smaller support craft. Their newest design is the Warlock class destroyer, which incorporates several new technologies such as artificial gravity (given to EarthForce by the Minbari).
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All EarthForce ships have the registry prefix EAS, which stands for Earth Alliance Starship.
EarthForce may have many hidden black ops projects some of which could have been seen in the Earth Alliance Civil War where Omega class Destroyers were merged with Shadow bio-tech to create powerful warships for President Clarke's regime. Even after Clarke's defeat, these rogue operations continue to experiment with the technology to create even more powerful ships, one of which was responsible for the destruction of the Ceberus, a ship that then Ensign Matthew Gideon was the only survivor of.
