Obviously the new series is supposed to be a parallel of a US Aircraft Carrier. Unfortunatly, not knowing anyone whose actually served on a carrier, or on a naval ship in general, I’m not sure how good it gets the details.
From what I can see, from my knowledge of the US Navy from a civilian point of view(Well, a civilian who likes reading about the mlitary), they:
-Use Naval Terms(Deck, Bulkhead, CAG).
-Actually have enlisted people who do important work(the opposite of star trek, where the enlisted people have no names, red shirts, die quickly and otherwise don’t exist).
-Use a somewhat Naval Rank Structure(Chief Tyrel, Admiral Cain, Commander Adama), but not quite.
-Have marines to form assualt teams and do boarding operations(something Star Trek has needed but rarely uses, and never as much as seems needed).
- Significant water conservation/recycling systems.
There’s more but nothing comes to mind at the moment.
Obvious differences/flaws:
-StarBuck is obviously a qualifed pilot, but the best _____ in the fleet? She keeps getting picked for jobs I doubt she’s crosstrained for(Sniper, Interrogater, security for the meeting on cloud 9). Did she do a lot of extra classes at the academy or something?(I don’t know much about how the Naval Academy works).
-The rank structure seems to be a combination of Marines/Naval, or just completely messed up. Is Tigh is a Marine Colonel? Those outrank a Naval Commander(but, to my knowledge, they usally aren’t in the same chain of command, either), and Adama Jr. is a Captain, but Naval Captains outrank Naval Commanders, so does that make Lee a Marine Pilot?
-Surely there has to be a Marine officer on board who knows the job better then Starbuck, eliminating her need to go as a sniper. Even a Marine NCO would work. I don’t think it would be that hard to have added a prominent Marine character.
Obviously I’m ignoring the changes needed because of the Sci-fi medium, that being FTL, space suits, etc. And changes due to their lack of manpower and inability to be resupplied or reinforced, and the fact they had a skeleton crew to begin with because of the decommissioning.
Any Naval/Marine dopers, or just military enthusiasts, feel free to correct me or add to this list. Any articles from the military point of view would be useful as well.