Romulans....what were they doing?

[Aaron]

Its interesting to note that West wore the insignia of a Vice Admiral. In some contries though Colonel is used as an appointment, generally meaning the Head of a Unit, typically in a ceremonial fashion such as the various Colonel in Chiefs of Commonwealth Regiments. Its possible that he was in charge of some type of unit, possibly like modern Navy Seals since his role was to present a rescue plan...

Yes, a completely honourary role with no command responsibility.

I have no problem with him being in a specialist branch ala Int or SF. Though I can't imagine why he would be the actual assassin in ST:Vi.

[Mikey]

Or why he would later become a Founder...

Yep, the rank of "Colonel" definitely points to some branch of service other than SF "regulars." Since we've seen Starfleet personnel - not marines, or army, or anything like that - assigned to infantry roles (AR-558) we must assume that it was rank used for intel, S31, or some such.

[Mark]

Makes no sense, unless they eloped to somewhere like Bajor, resigned from Starfleet, and accepted commissions in the Bajoran Militia for the duration of the story. You'd think that people attempting to write a story in the Trek universe would at least know a couple of the basics

There was a Colonel in ST:VI about who's job we know nothing and the Director (or whatever it was) that Sloan posed as who had the same number of pips as a Starfleet Captain.

Its interesting to note that West wore the insignia of a Vice Admiral. In some contries though Colonel is used as an appointment, generally meaning the Head of a Unit, typically in a ceremonial fashion such as the various Colonel in Chiefs of Commonwealth Regiments. Its possible that he was in charge of some type of unit, possibly like modern Navy Seals since his role was to present a rescue plan...

He DID??? I can't believe that I never caught that. Feeling slightly blind and inattentive now, me being the guy to pick up little details to astound my friends. We can keep this between us, right?

[KuvahMagh]

I'm surprised to actually lol, its on most of the error sites out there, though as has been mentioned, there are reasonable explanations such as an honorary title.

[Bryan Moore]

I'm surprised to actually lol, its on most of the error sites out there, though as has been mentioned, there are reasonable explanations such as an honorary title.

I'm with the honorary title. One of the Trek books actually explains it as such, but I'm puzzled to remember which. Perhaps one of the Excelsior adventures? A "Colonel in Chief of so and so" as previously mentioned or something.

[Mikey]

Being an honorary title begs the question: West sure seemed to have an active role, didn't he?

[KuvahMagh]

Being an honorary title begs the question: West sure seemed to have an active role, didn't he?

Yeah, my words got twisted a bit, what I meant simply was that some militaries use the term Colonel in an Honorary role, it evolved from a real role as the head of that unit. I figure he was the head of the SF equivalent of the SEALs or some similar organization and a person filling that role is given the title of Colonel.

[Mikey]

Thank you. An explanation like that helps us of the intellect-impaired persuasion.