Fleet Admiral Heihachiro Nogura (2196-2302)
Fleet Admiral Heihachiro Nogura - nicknamed "The Grand Old Man", the "Demon Headmaster" and "God Himself" - was one of the dominant personalities in the mid-23rd century Starfleet. Alongside Rittenhouse and Shukar, Nogura was the driving force behind the institutional culture, practices and divisions that characterised the service until the 2320s. A brash, calculating and fiercely intelligent operator, Nogura was admired, reviled and feared by many people - often at the same time.
Nogura was born in Hiroshima in 2196, the youngest of four siblings. His family were not military people, or particularly political: while a distant ancestor had served in the Imperial Japanese Navy, his parents were artists. He was the only one of their children who did not join them in the creative arts, instead obsessing over Romulan War serials and coverage of Starfleet exploratory missions. His parents - radical pacificists and members of the T'Plana'Hath Disarmament movement - clashed with their son repeatedly over politics, culture and his prospective life choices. The only member of his family he was really close to was his older sister, Kiyumi. The future award-winning photographer would often let the young Heihachiro stay in her dorm room at Tokyo University after various screaming matches with his parents. At 16, Nogura and an older friend would run away from home and attempt to join the Starfleet Marines. The recruiting sergeant, however, easily saw through the teenager's lies; the 16-year-old was small for him, with a slight squint and noticeable stammer. Nogura was held at the recruitment centre until his parents could pick him up. By the time they arrived, his friend was long gone with a Marine transport. The humiliation of failing where his peer had succeeded stung, and would quietly haunt Nogura for the rest of his life. By the time he passed the Starfleet Academy entrance exam in 2216, there was no trace of the squint or the stammer; and, unlike almost all first year cadets, Nogura entered the academy with an undergraduate degree in Economic History from the University of Tokyo. On his second day at the Academy, he got into an argument with another cadet, Oesi Morati, over the ethics of rapid currency reform in the North Americas: by the end of the semester, the two were nearly inseperable. A week after they graduated in 2221, the two were married; Nogura's best man was Midshipman second class George Kirk. Nogura served briefly as Yeoman to Captain Richard Robau, before returning to the academy as an instructor. During this time, he became acquianted with Ryn Shukar, Katrina Cornwell and Chrisjen Paris, who would all remain lifelong friends. Nogura would be promoted rapidly in his time in the field, earning a reputation as a quiet, deliberating but fair commander. He never yelled, or reprimanded, or delivered out punishments; a savage look or raised eyebrow was often enough to get the result he wanted. He commanded great loyalty from crews and officers underneath him: the command staff of every ship he commanded between 2229 and 2243 would all remain lifelong friends and allies. Nogura's time as a frontline commander came to an end in 2243, when USS Intrepid was destroyed after a three day battle with Klingon forces in the Vota Star Cluster. Although Nogura managed to save the majority of the crew, tragedy struck in other ways. Oesi, who was attached to a Starfleet mission on Argelius, contracted a rare strain of Rigellian Fever, and died two days before Nogura arrived at StarBase 22. The same day Nogura's older sister was killed in a shuttle crash on Luna. Between the death of his loved ones and his break with George Kirk over the latters' political leanings, the norms of Nogura's adulthood had collapsed completely by 2245. At this crossroads in his life, Nogura considered resigning from the fleet, and evening returning to Hiroshima. Instead, He took up a position as C-in-C of Starbase 4. This backwater posting soon found him at the heart of the sentientarian crisis that struck the Federation between 2245 and 2247. His conduct as Starbase Commander impressed the Presidio, who put him in charge of Starfleet Colonial Command. This sideways promotion further proved Nogura's talent as an organiser, but also his ire for other senior commanders and the bureaucracy of senior leadership. His lack of support from his peers did not bother him; instead, Nogura busied himself as a powerful patron of junior captains, officers and cadets. As the Chief of planning at Starfleet Operations, Nogura was heavily connected with Starfleet Personnel and the Academy, allowing him to wield significant influence over the promotion lists. Most of the great names of the 23rd century - Kirk, Morrow, Cartwright, Zh'vilrar, Fitzpatrick, Piandao - owed some, or most - of their career ascent to the 'Grand Old Man'. Nogura would play a critical planning role in the early days of the Klingon War. Disagreements with his superior, Admiral Gorch, would force Nogura out of Operations after September 2256. When Gorch resigned in September 2257, Ch'Shukar would propose Nogura as a replacement, only for him to vetoed by the rest to admirality. He was shunted into the Intelligence Planning Committee by Cornwell and Patar. However, neither of them could prevent Nogura from using his IPC role to take up a shadow role in Operations. It was a horrendous violation of departmental rules, and something Nogura would clamp down on - in time. In the aftermath of Caleb IV, Th'rhahlat managed to leverage Nogura into Operations, much to his private glee. His two years at Starfleet Operations would see Npgura bring the bloated department into the 2260s by sheer force of will. His work ethic, idetic memory and viceral reactions to incompetence would see him live up his nickname of "God Himself": many a staff officer would find themselves outmanuevered by their boss, who knew their briefs better than they did. In the post-Acamar reshuffle, Nogura was appointed Chief of Starfleet Intelligence. Parachuted into the intelligence service, Nogura was forced to navigate the complicated interdepartmental rivalries, personalities and archaic organisational patterns that hamstrung SI. Yet, through opposition and debacle, he managed again to turn the institutuion into a key asset for Starfleet. During this time, Nogura would briefly take command of Starbase 47, assuming direct command over Project Vanguard and the classified operations in the Taurus Reach. After the destruction of SB47, he would return to earth, only to find himself locked out of several elements Starfleet Intelligence due to "new institutional boundaries" - most crucially, counter-intelligence. As such, Nogura was unable to intervene against the Rittenhouse Plot until the very late stages, when details of the coup were leaked to him by sympathetic officers. At great risk to himself (Rittenhouse had three supporters in his office) Nogura was able to inform Federation Special Services and the President of the coup. In the aftermath of arrest, Nogura was promoted to Commander, Starfleet. Unlike many of the candidates, Nogura's reputation has survived the coup and inquiry intact. Now in total control of active Starfleet policy, the 'Grand Old Man' quickly surrounded himself with proteges and allies, including Kirk at Operations, Wesley at Tactical and Piandao at Security. This 'golden era' would not last, though: Nogura's opposition to the modernisation and de-militarisation schemes of the civilian government earned the ire of his junior officers, as did clashes over personality. Both Kirk and Morrow would resign to take field positions: Morrow would take command of 4th Fleet again, while Kirk went further by accepting a demotion to become Captain of the Enterprise. Nogura's reputation was also undermined by the semi-public failure of Operation Dixie, a deep space survey mission into Klingon space. While the operation would prove that Klingon forces were arming for general conflict again, the flagrant violation of the Organian treaty - combined with the total loss of all vessels and personnel involved - was a powerful mark against the Admiral. In 2281, an inquiry would begin in operation Dixie. Quickly, it expanded into a full investigation into Starfleet military operations and strategic planning. Nogura - now in his late 80s - continued to deny wrongdoing even as civilian and starfleet enemies began to circle, demanding an end to the "lost decade" of leadership. In November 2283, evidence would emerge that Nogura order the planning of a military invasion of the Klingon Empire in 2277; an act explicitly banned by the Federation Charter. He would resign at the end of the year, and was replaced by Harry Morrow. Despite initial humiliation Nogura's belligerent attitude to the Klingon Empire was vindicated by the Genesis Affair and its' fallout. Despite vindication, Nogura refused to return to a service that had, in his words, "left him behind". He retired to a townhouse in San Francisco that had once belonged to Oesi. He wrote two books: The Long War, on military operations during the Earth-Romulan War, and Without Need for Comforts, on Starfleet Exploratory Strategy in the early 23rd century. He was also a regular contributor - both as a columnist and a letter writer - to the San Francisco Herald and the Times of London. Nogura died peacefully in bed on July 9th 2304. He was interred with full honors at the Starfleet Cemetery in San Franciso. Nogura may have had less overt influence over the service than others like Archer, Shukar or Cartwright, but his long career took him into every corner of the instutition. His ideas, principles and practices are embedded in every part of the 24th century Starfleet, and the legacy he left through his proteges has been felt as far as the 2340s and beyond; Nogura would be cited by the Klingon Empire as a 'noble adversary' during the negotiations around the second Khitomer accords. |
InformationFull Name: Nogura Heihachiro *
Born: 14th April 2196 (Hiroshima, Earth) Died: 9th July 2304 (San Franciso, Earth) Affiliation: United Federation of Planets Branch of Service: Federation Star Fleet Commands:
*This article uses the 'westernised' ordering of Japanese names, based on Nogura's own usage. |
Excerpt From "The Edge of Midnight"
While Rittenhouse and some of the more hawkish representatives on the Federation Council wanted the DESRONs to operate “right on the sharp end”, the logistics simply didn’t add up. In the cases where long-range operations were attempted (such as Task Force Haroun’s sweep of the spinward side of the Alshanai Rift), vessels were forced to pile deuterium in unsecured cargo bays and shuttle landing decks, with catastrophic results. The loss of the Roanoke and the Ho Chi Minh can both be unambiguously linked to improper fuel storage. So, as long as the DESRONs were limited to their existing range, there would be no “counter-push” along the frontier. The “hard front” that Rittenhouse wanted would have to wait – and the longer it did, the more the border area deteriorated into an archipelago of Federation and Klingon bases, each with their own vulnerabilities and advantages.
This was fine, to some. Admiral Nogura, for his part, considered Rittenhouse’s “Broad Front Strategy” to be a pipe dream. “Uncle Shu’s right that we need a central strategy and a stronger tactical response,” he told Toussaint. “What we don’t need is a strategy that involves casting that strong tactical response to the four winds and hoping it does something there.”[14] As chief of Starfleet Operations, Nogura was at the heart of the logistical, bureaucratic and materiel reforms that were churning through the Presidio. This was both by necessity and design, but mostly by bureaucratic accident.
Starfleet Operations was, by early 2261, the largest and most bloated department within the stellar service. When it had been created in the Shran reforms, it had made sense. By creating a third party to control and deliver on supply, ship delivery, construction, and shore operations, Shran forestalled the creation of a Byzantine logistical system before it codified itself. Unfortunately, it was not a permanent solution. In the 80 years since then, Starfleet Operations had ended up with its finger in almost every pie in the fleet, whether it liked it or, with a purview that covered everything from the delivery of war nacelles to Axanar Fleet Yards to the specifics of Medusan-Trill translation matrixes. Every decade or so, Starfleet Command would relent and remove a department from its purview – first creating Transport Command, and then Support and Auxiliary Command, and then Colonial Operations, and so on and so forth.
Except, of course, it didn’t really remove them from Operations. Even when ALLANGTRANS and Colonial Ops were made separate departments, they still had to go through Starfleet Operations to get anything done. Even when the delineation lines were made clear, crucial bureaucratic components remained with Operation s because there was no real way to remove them. Even though the Starfleet Reserve had been a separate department since 2220, the Office of Fleet Readiness remained part of Starfleet Operations well into the 2290s. By the 2250s, the department was a bloated, unmanageable mess that was essentially incapable of central management. Its internal machinations, personal fiefdoms and internal memo wars were subject to constant ridicule. President Th’rhahlat referred to it as the “Holy Roman Empire”; Captain Pike called it “the labyrinth”. Being made Chief of Starfleet Operations was considered (in no particular order) a death sentence, a retirement notice or a sisyphean quest for fools. It was, thus, no surprise that Ch’Shukar would choose Heihachiro Nogura to take the reins of “Starfleet’s wild horse”.
Nogura had been Uncle Shu’s first pick for Chief of Starfleet Operations back in 2258 but had shelved it when it became clear that the rest of admiralty – and the security council – were unwilling to let such an uncooperative figure be promoted. The debacle at Caleb IV had given Shukar and Th’rhahlat the room they needed to bring in “their people”. Nogura’s brief time on the Starfleet Intelligence Planning Committee (IPC) had earned him some credit with the security council, especially over the increasing effectiveness of active SIGNIT against the Gorn and Kzinti.[1] Making him chief of Starfleet Operations was another easy win for Shukar; unlike all the other candidates, Nogura wanted to do it. Promoting Rittenhouse and Nogura at the same time was a calculated risk, however.They hated each other, for many, many reasons.
Rittenhouse thought the Nogura was an overbearing pencil pusher and manipulator who was out for his job, or worse; some form of Dissolutionist Anti-Federation Activist. Nogura thought Rittenhouse was an idiot. In some ways, promoting one in San Francisco and another on the frontier was a godsend, because it meant that they were rarely in the same room.[2] On the other hand, their new commands opened whole new fronts in their ongoing memo wars. Nogura thought Rittenhouse’s focus on heavy combat squadrons and rigid doctrinal structures was too military and cumbersome; Rittenhouse thought Nogura’s top-to-bottom restructuring of Starfleet Operations was some sort of scheme to undermine Klingon Command. Shukar, when he wasn’t ordering them to stop it, found it amusing.
As much as Shukar favoured Rittenhouse’s approach, it was difficult to argue with many of “the Grand Old Man’s” points; he tended to be right, even when he preferred not to be. Shukar couldn’t argue with shifting Operations into new facilities in London, Kyoto, and Tel Aviv, or with centralising Starbase and outpost support ops into a new Shore Operations department. Even Rittenhouse couldn’t argue with Nogura having the final say over the movement of fleet tenders and support craft when only Nogura knew their full capabilities. It certainly helped that Nogura’s reforms and budget reductions were a godsend to Commander, Starfleet in his battle with the Allocations Committee. Even Rittenhouse had to admit that “we wouldn’t have gotten the Federation Class without those reforms.”
This was fine, to some. Admiral Nogura, for his part, considered Rittenhouse’s “Broad Front Strategy” to be a pipe dream. “Uncle Shu’s right that we need a central strategy and a stronger tactical response,” he told Toussaint. “What we don’t need is a strategy that involves casting that strong tactical response to the four winds and hoping it does something there.”[14] As chief of Starfleet Operations, Nogura was at the heart of the logistical, bureaucratic and materiel reforms that were churning through the Presidio. This was both by necessity and design, but mostly by bureaucratic accident.
Starfleet Operations was, by early 2261, the largest and most bloated department within the stellar service. When it had been created in the Shran reforms, it had made sense. By creating a third party to control and deliver on supply, ship delivery, construction, and shore operations, Shran forestalled the creation of a Byzantine logistical system before it codified itself. Unfortunately, it was not a permanent solution. In the 80 years since then, Starfleet Operations had ended up with its finger in almost every pie in the fleet, whether it liked it or, with a purview that covered everything from the delivery of war nacelles to Axanar Fleet Yards to the specifics of Medusan-Trill translation matrixes. Every decade or so, Starfleet Command would relent and remove a department from its purview – first creating Transport Command, and then Support and Auxiliary Command, and then Colonial Operations, and so on and so forth.
Except, of course, it didn’t really remove them from Operations. Even when ALLANGTRANS and Colonial Ops were made separate departments, they still had to go through Starfleet Operations to get anything done. Even when the delineation lines were made clear, crucial bureaucratic components remained with Operation s because there was no real way to remove them. Even though the Starfleet Reserve had been a separate department since 2220, the Office of Fleet Readiness remained part of Starfleet Operations well into the 2290s. By the 2250s, the department was a bloated, unmanageable mess that was essentially incapable of central management. Its internal machinations, personal fiefdoms and internal memo wars were subject to constant ridicule. President Th’rhahlat referred to it as the “Holy Roman Empire”; Captain Pike called it “the labyrinth”. Being made Chief of Starfleet Operations was considered (in no particular order) a death sentence, a retirement notice or a sisyphean quest for fools. It was, thus, no surprise that Ch’Shukar would choose Heihachiro Nogura to take the reins of “Starfleet’s wild horse”.
Nogura had been Uncle Shu’s first pick for Chief of Starfleet Operations back in 2258 but had shelved it when it became clear that the rest of admiralty – and the security council – were unwilling to let such an uncooperative figure be promoted. The debacle at Caleb IV had given Shukar and Th’rhahlat the room they needed to bring in “their people”. Nogura’s brief time on the Starfleet Intelligence Planning Committee (IPC) had earned him some credit with the security council, especially over the increasing effectiveness of active SIGNIT against the Gorn and Kzinti.[1] Making him chief of Starfleet Operations was another easy win for Shukar; unlike all the other candidates, Nogura wanted to do it. Promoting Rittenhouse and Nogura at the same time was a calculated risk, however.They hated each other, for many, many reasons.
Rittenhouse thought the Nogura was an overbearing pencil pusher and manipulator who was out for his job, or worse; some form of Dissolutionist Anti-Federation Activist. Nogura thought Rittenhouse was an idiot. In some ways, promoting one in San Francisco and another on the frontier was a godsend, because it meant that they were rarely in the same room.[2] On the other hand, their new commands opened whole new fronts in their ongoing memo wars. Nogura thought Rittenhouse’s focus on heavy combat squadrons and rigid doctrinal structures was too military and cumbersome; Rittenhouse thought Nogura’s top-to-bottom restructuring of Starfleet Operations was some sort of scheme to undermine Klingon Command. Shukar, when he wasn’t ordering them to stop it, found it amusing.
As much as Shukar favoured Rittenhouse’s approach, it was difficult to argue with many of “the Grand Old Man’s” points; he tended to be right, even when he preferred not to be. Shukar couldn’t argue with shifting Operations into new facilities in London, Kyoto, and Tel Aviv, or with centralising Starbase and outpost support ops into a new Shore Operations department. Even Rittenhouse couldn’t argue with Nogura having the final say over the movement of fleet tenders and support craft when only Nogura knew their full capabilities. It certainly helped that Nogura’s reforms and budget reductions were a godsend to Commander, Starfleet in his battle with the Allocations Committee. Even Rittenhouse had to admit that “we wouldn’t have gotten the Federation Class without those reforms.”