In your complaints regarding the commander flying off on occasional
missions (and he only does it about 3 times out of 22 episodes, so I
hardly see this as a problem), you are forgetting several other *realities*
of military life. If you're a pilot, even as a commander, you have to
log in X-number of hours flying time per month in order to continue to
qualify for flight pay. This is a *requirement*. And it doesn't just
mean flying around the station a few times.

Second, many commanders -- as recently as Vietnam and afterward --
did and continue to go out on missions and sorties because it is rather
expected of them, and because it maintains the respect of the rest of
the squadron(s).

Third, and possibly most important, Earthforce is the same as the
contermporary Air Force in one important respect: promotion up the ranks
is tied *directly* to combat experience and, in this case, combat
flying. That's why women fighter pilots and helicopter pilots have been
fighting so *vigorously* to be allowed to fly combat missions; they know
that they can't be promoted fully up the line without that. Sinclair has
no desire to be a commander all his life, he'd like to move on. Hence
it behooves him to get in combat time whenever possible.

Your statement that it "doesn't wash" has nothing to do with how
the military *actually* works, and everything to do with the skewed and
inaccurate portrayal of the military that you get from Trek. This is
absolutely legitimate, and the B5 mailbox these days is partly crammed
with letters from vets thanking us for getting this part right.

I suppose I could mention this in passing in dialogue, but then it
becomes a matter of sticking in dialogue not because it's important to an
episode, but because some folks would like things explained to them. I
don't think that's my responsibility.

jms