OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF CHAPLAINS AND COUNSELORS, STARFLEET
TO: WHOM THESE PRESENTS MAY COME
FROM: SYDNEY WINSTON, VICE ADMIRAL, CORPS OF CHAPLAINS/COUNSELORS
SUBJECT: HUGH ANDREW CRAWFORD, LIEUTENANT JUNIOR GRADE, C OF C/C
DATE: 020130.1307
CC: BOARD OF OFFICER SELECTION AND BILLETING, FILE

Due to extenuating circumstance, this Office is asking for your consideration in filling one of your open chaplain/counselor slots with the above named officer. This is being done, quietly and outside normal channels due to HACK’s unique background and other experience within the Fleet.

It should be noted that HACK has spent the past 3.5 solar years in a Starfleet Medical Rehabilitation facility, recovering from injuries received while serving aboard the USS Robert April NCC 52976. HACK received the second of his two Distinguished Service Cross awards for his gallant defense of the April and the maintenance of her environmental and life support systems after a Breen attack.  A concurrent award of the Combat Shuttle Pilot Star with Nebula cluster was awarded to him for the away mission, under fire, which recovered weaponry from a damaged beyond repair Galaxy class starship. That weaponry, when mounted aboard the April gave that ship sufficient defensive and offensive capability to defend sector FOX 11/31 until fleet relief arrived.

While undergoing rehabilitation following the bio replacement of both hips and his spinal column HACK entered into and completed the Starfleet Chaplaincy/Counseling training school. He was recently commissioned a Lieutenant Junior Grade in the Corps of Chaplains/Counselors. This would not be so unusual, except that HACK is 57 years old and is believed to be the oldest human actively serving in Starfleet with the rank of lieutenant j.g.

HACK is the only son of Andrew and Rebekah Crawford. As you may recall, Andrew is the “Laird o’ Manor” on New Caledonia Prime in the Caledon system. The Crawford’s were part of the Scottish enclave, which went into voluntary exile about 120 solar years ago rather than submit to the cultural leveling policies of the One Earth government. Along with several other strongly ethno centric cultures the Scots accepted the offer of a sleeper Conestoga exploration/Pioneering ship and left as a community to seek cultural freedom in the stars.  Seven hundred twenty families boarded that Conestoga; all Scots and all determined to maintain their lifestyle on a New World.  Traveling at warp 2.5 the sleeper ship found the star system that would become Caledon after about 20 solar years in space.  The Crawford’s had three daughters before Hugh Andrew was born.  He was being groomed to inherit both the family grain and sheep farm and his father’s title prior the USS Fulton’s arrival at New Caledonia Prime.

At the age of 16 solar years, in response to the automated beacon sent out by the Conestoga upon the discovery of a class M planet, HACK was exposed to Starfleet for the first time.  USS Fulton, a research ship, sent an away team to secure Federation relations with the Caledon colonies. Young Hugh was given a tour of the Fulton and immediately tried to enlist.
As he only knew Celtic, the spoken language of the colony, Hugh was encouraged to study Earth Standard and a few other areas of education lacking in the colonial school system and reapply formally on the Fulton’s next visit.  By the starships return, two solar years later, Hugh had completed all the remedial education successfully and was admitted into the enlisted crewman’s recruit program.

HACK picked up his nickname, which has stuck with him throughout his career, at the recruit depot at Great Lakes. Between seeing his initials on his gear, and Hugh’s custom of practicing traditional Celtic martial arts with claymore, skein dubgh, dirk and targhee, HACK became his tag. He liked it and began referring to himself that way.

The following is a summary of Hugh Andrew Crawford’s Service Schools, Training and Service:

Basic Recruit Training,
Great Lakes Recruit Depot,
graduated as Superior Recruit in Class;

Operational Services School,
material movement and cargo stowage,
3rd in class, promoted to Senior Crewman upon graduation;

Starbase 74,
cargo expediter,
promoted to Petty Officer 3rd class during tour of duty;

Material Handlers School, low gravity and zero gravity movement and storage, 1st in class;

Starbase K-32,
Assistant Inspector of Civilian Cargo and non Starfleet materials, promoted to Petty Officer 2nd class and awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, non combat,
for his foiling of a Klingon agent’s plot to bring an anti-matter implosive device aboard the Station;

Non Biological Transporter School,
transportation of non biological hazardous materials and transporter maintenance,
graduated 2nd in class;

USS Stargazer NCC 2893,
Assistant Chief Transporter Officer,
non biological,
earned promotion to Petty Officer First Class and was awarded both the Good Conduct and Honorable Service Medals;

Combined School Shuttle Pilot (type 15 shuttle craft)/Non Matter Stream Biological and Non Biological Materials Transportation,
ship to ship and ship to station transportation of containerized non matter stream able materials;

Personal Weapons/Use of Force Training,
qualified in armed and unarmed self -defense and the type 1 phaser;

Starfleet Academy Enlisted to Warrant Officer Transition, Junior College,
graduated 2nd in class with the rank of Warrant Officer 1st Class (non-commissioned);

USS Robert April NCC 52976,
Assistant Chief of Operational Services Materials Management. During the Dominion War HACK’s Chief was killed and HACK was “frocked” to Commissioned Warrant Officer 3rd Class and given command of the Operational Services Department.  HACK’s actions in taking the Captain’s Gig to a partially destroyed Galaxy class star ship and looting the wreck of phase cannon, photon torpedoes and phase coils for the torpedo launchers in time for weapons and engineering to install and get them operational allowing the April to repel a Breen attack resulted in his being awarded his second Distinguished Service Cross, this one with crossed combat swords. His defense of the shuttle bay and cargo bay against Breen boarding parties resulted in the injuries causing his hospitalization. He holds the Combat Wound Medal from this action.

Officer’s Candidate School & Chaplain Counselor School combined training. During the Rehabilitation period, HACK felt the “call” upon his life and was given permission to go through the training program. Graduating with honors, HACK was commissioned a Lieutenant junior grade.

As you are aware, HACK will loose his commission if he does not find a billet aboard a Starship. If that happens, he will have to retire from Starfleet within the year at the mandatory Senior NCO/Warrant Officer retirement age of 62 solar years for Terrans. If posted to your vessel his Limited Duty Officer commission will allow him to extend his service longevity to the end of your mission. He would then be eligible to retire as an officer. Remember, as an LDO, he is not eligible for promotion beyond Lieutenant.

Personal Note: If you take him on as part of your crew, be aware that he plays the bagpipes passionately (badly), continues to practice his Celtic martial arts daily despite his debilitating injuries. He still has difficulty dealing with the separation from his wife Chipper and his two girls Sarah and Marilyn. You might recall the exo/xeno biologist Doctor Chipper Sampson Crawford, Commander, Star Fleet Medical Services used to be HACK’s wife when she was an enlisted Medical Technician.



On the next pages, you will find, in order of precedence,
the Medals and Awards issued to and earned by Hugh Andrew Crawford.

Distinguished Service Cross with Combat Crossed Swords
Combat Shuttle Pilot Star with Nebula Cluster
Distinguished Service Cross, non combatant
Honorable Service Medal
Good Conduct Medal
Distinguished Academy Graduate Medal
7) Combat Wound Medal






“WHA’ BE FOR YE W’ AYE COME T’ YE”
BEING THE FIRST BOOK OF THE MEMOIRS OF
HUGH ANDREW CRAWFORD

Tha’s ma story, according to Starfleet, an’ I am holdin to it. Ho’ev’r, dear reader ye may ken tha’ there be always a story neath the story. “’Tis tha’ story I am here to tell.”

I am Hugh Andrew Crawford, second lawful Laird o’ manor of the Caledon colony. At the solar age of 60, I sit on the rather uncomfortable seat of the second scone throne. Nearly all of my adult life I had fought to avoid the duty that is now thrust upon me. Fate, circumstance and time hae all worked agin tha’ avoidance.

Where then, dear reader, to begin this tale? There is a beginning, and a beginning before tha’ and the true beginning. Perhaps I will start with the true beginning. Near to the true beginning as I might for oral history and badly corrupted ships, records are its basis. Then shall I speak of the Counsel, the Conestogas, and the Colony   ‘tis these three shall be the first of the story.

Forgi’ an old man his rambling as the story weaves in and aboot, bu’ fect be told dear reader, ‘tis a tangled web my life has weaved. Some people ye shall meet ye shall ken, others shall be strangers to ye, yet of great import to ma tale.  Tis ma hope tha’ by the end of it, all will be clear to ye.

So far there was a velvet glove wrapped about the iron fist, but, now came the offer. Earth government with the “help” of the Vulcans had developed huge settlement ships that could take entire populations to the stars. Each had special sensors to seek out new class M worlds upon which the ship’s compliment would reestablish themselves. Entire communities were offered the move intact. Seed crops, flocks, herds, possessions and people all placed on one ship and launched out into space. It was a chance to start over, to be the pioneer, the pilgrim, and the adventurer that living on Earth disallowed. Torah, Menorah, and Mitzvah had carried Israeli colonists out over the past three months. Sydney, Gold Coast and Auckland were to carry off Australians and New Zealanders within the next month. The Saint David was being built for the Welsh who wished to go to the stars. The Saint Brigid and the Cladagh were nearing completion for the Irish.  Koran, Mullah and Haj were reserved for Islamic émigrés. The Roman Catholic Church had five ships of its own commissioned for clergy and faithful choosing the outer path.  Vatican, Holy See, Saint Peter, Saint Paul and Swiss Guard were screening applicants for a departure date in early February of the next year.

THE COUNSEL

The question before the Scottish Counsel was plainly put by the newly unified earth government.

To benefit all mankind, to advance the sciences, the race to the stars and to unify the planet in purpose, peoples, and place all nations were being asked to divest themselves of their individual currencies, cultures and religions.  The new language, Earth Standard, was little more than the pre Zephrim Cochrane era business English used universally for trade and commerce. It would now be the only language taught in earth schools, worldwide. The new currency, something called the credit, would never touch a human hand, would exist as numbers on a computer to be debited with purchase and credited with labor.

There was an unofficial, yet clearly felt, pressure put on those communities reluctant to get with the program. Earth needed to pull together, lest it pull apart again in the same fashion as the eugenics wars and the last universal war. Fearing worse consequences than loss of individuality and diversity earth government began expanding the policy of erasure in those cultures whose history and unity kept them out of the new mainstream.

The Scots, the Irish and the Welsh were among those cultures not willing to sacrifice who they were as peoples for the new greater good. Other groups, diverse in culture, but unified by religion were also gathering themselves in opposition to the one world government. Priests, rabbis, imams and ministers were being forced to lead their flocks in secret or to take on the new role of “counselor”. Counselor had become the politically correct term for all things social, psychological and spiritual within the new government’s system.