INTRODUCTION
Introduction
Original IntroductionsTHE HISTORY
Bradbury
Longshaw
Heatherington
Wetch
Stillwell
Booth
S. Smith
Maddox
Lerman
McGinnis
Herring
M. Smith
Rickard (1)
Malotte
Livingston
Rickard (2)
Lizard
Blaser
Killough
Epilogue
The
Brief History
SFMC
History
Commandants, SFMC
LISTS
Commanders, STARFLEET
International Conferences
STARFLEET Academy
Admiralty Board
STARFLEET Historians
AWARDS
CREDITS
LEGALITIES
MAIN
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Chapter
Eleven
James Herring
Other than Brandt Heatherington, Jim Herring
was just as unprepared as he could be in becoming the 11th Commander. He had three
strikes against him:
1. He was only appointed Chief of Operations, STARFLEET, in April, replacing the popular
Admiral Cindy Krell, and had served in that position for a little over six months;
2. The out-going Commander, STARFLEET, Fleet Admiral Daniel McGinnis, was less than
cooperative with Herring or the Chief of Communications, STARFLEET, Rear Admiral Doug
Glenn, who would be acting as the Coordinator for the up-coming STARFLEET elections;
3. That he was considered (unfairly placed) as a member of the McGinnis "Gang",
those members of his Executive Committee that had supported the former CS's position
concerning what would become the "McGinnis Debacle", moniker that would hang on his back for
several years.
However Herring had two things for him: he was older than Heatherington when he became
Commander and he was NOT McGinnis.
James Herring was more competent than most members of STARFLEET was willing to give him.
The first thing he did was to refuse promotion to Fleet Admiral. He knew he would
only serve a little over a month an a half and felt he did not deserve the rank. He did
promote himself to the rank of Rear Admiral (he was a Commodore).
With Herring living in nearby Missouri, he went to meet with McGinnis to retrieve as
much of the materials as possible. It was only after Herring had to personally 'retrieve'
records, files, and other materials from McGinnis that the truth came out. STARFLEET was in
serious trouble both financially and physically. The only trace of funds belonging to
STARFLEET found were those belonging to the Scholarship funds. Traces of funds belonging
to STARFLEET and other charitable programs administered by STARFLEET were not found at
that time.
In response to this unprecedented appearance
of duplicity and circumvention by the former Commander, STARFLEET, Admiral Herring, with
the approval of the STARFLEET Executive Committee, stripped Fleet Admiral McGinnis of his
lifetime membership, which is granted to any former Commander, STARFLEET, as well as
taking the unparalleled step of demoting Fleet Admiral McGinnis to the rank of Captain.
This was a superfluous action as Captain McGinnis had also resigned his membership on back
on Nov. 14.
It was during this time the word was sent out
to those who had membership renewals due before the end the year, to delay their renewals
until the next administration. A change of address was put on the old post office box, to
prevent new memberships from being sent to Captain McGinnis. It was also found that hundreds of
membership forms had not been processed. This took until mid-1997 before all these
membership forms, as well as the membership forms for those who waited until 1997 to send
them in, to be full processed.
But Herring's immediate problem was how to hold an international election for the next
Commander, STARFLEET. He would find a way, with the help with Election Coordinator Doug
Glenn, and others who had faith in the association.
Despite the disinterest and obstruction of the former Fleet Admiral, now Captain McGinnis,
the election occurred and on January 3, 1997, the results we finally confirmed and
announced. With that Jim Herring relinquished leadership of STARFLEET to the newly elected
Fleet Captain Michael D. Smith.
Only then did Rear Admiral James Herring sit back as the Commanding Officer of the USS
Arlington and help out as best he could with what was now in others hands. In 2006
Herring would be elected the Coordinator for Region 12 with a promotion to Vice Admiral
soon after.
NEXT
Chapter Twelve: Michael D. Smith |