SFI History C11

Starfleet History Chapter Eleven

Jim 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.

The Herring Administration
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.

McGinnis’ Final Punishment
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.

Send in those Renewals
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.

The Next Election
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.

Epilogue
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.