--Commodore Mike Ballway, 27 June 1998

As early as late 1993 then-Commander Mike Ballway had campaigned for an STF Department of Engineering, to be modeled after the STNG Technology Department (STNG was a nearby club, almost a "sister club" to STF). Plans for such a department, however, were turned down by Jim Midyette and later by Jerry "~Z~" Phelps.

When Jim took back the Presidency in late 1994, however, he pronounced the idea good and assigned by then-Captain Ballway to the job of Engineering Director.

Early History: "Three Mikes"
When the ED started out, Captain Mike Ballway was the logical choice for EDir and was chosen. Soon after, Mike was also appointed Fleet Commander of Fleet Two -- the Great White Fleet -- and was promoted to Commodore (Jim had wanted to promote him to Admiral, but Ballway -- once known as the "Will Riker of STF2" for refusing to take promotions out of his Main Engineering on the Constellation -- refused, citing "Admiraphobia" and demanding a lesser rank. He was STF's first Commodore since the Platts).

The first few months were tedious. Nobody had ever tried to codify or even catalogue STF's technology before. Today there are only three ships in the [Prodigy branch of the] Fleet; at that time, we were a much grander club, with more than that in Fleet Two alone. After learning the registry and class of each ship, Mike set to the task of finding other Engineers to help design the new classes.

Three Mikes dominated the early ED: Vice-President and later President Mike Cathcart, Trinitron Captain and later Fleet 2 Commander Mike Barclay, and Engineering Director Mike Ballway (strangely, these three were the only Mikes in STF -- and they all led the ED at some point). Barclay and Ballway both had claims as the "final authority on the Trinitron class" and in the end, nothing much got done other than numerous postings of an "upgrade schedule" and the preliminary sketches of what would become the ships of the New Fleet.

Why Have a New Fleet?
The original purpose of the Engineering Department was to upgrade all STF ships from the Galaxy and Ambassador classes to new designs authored by STF members. The rationale behind this plan -- which had Presidential blessing as well as popular support -- was threefold:

1. Doing so allowed COs (Commanding Officers) and GMs (RPG GameMasters) to intimately know each ship -- at the time, there were no Enterprise-D blueprints, and there are still no Ambassador-class specs.
2. Doing so allowed STF members to be creative and place, on their ships, the features they desired, and
3. Doing so protected ships from obsolescence due to dialogue in future Star Trek episodes (example: Suppose, in the next Trek movie, Picard were to say that no more Galaxy-class ships existed -- that would really screw up our ship list as it existed at the time!)

--Commodore Mike Ballway, 19 July 1997

In late 1997, after Hertzsch won a second term as STF President, Vice-Fleet Admiral Townes directed the ED to new heights as four new ship designs were proposed (the Columbus, Independence, Olympic, and Darwin) and finalized specifications for the Trinitron were offered. In early 1998, the focus of the ED expanded to include shuttlecraft and starbase designs, as well as the proposed Phoenix. Also around that time, Townes eliminated the position of DockMaster, shifting Mike Ballway to AEDir and appointing three "Engineering Advisors" to simulate the old Engineering Council. After some shuffling, the appointees included Captain Larry Garfield, Captain Seamus Hughes, and Commodore Mike Bourdaa.

--Commodore Mike Ballway, 15 March 1998

• No Regrets -- Jim Midyette
• The Bourdaa Papers -- Mike Bourdaa
• The WeBB History -- Greg Hertzsch
• In This Reporter's Opinion -- Mike Ballway
• The REMoirs -- Randy McCullick (forthcoming)

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