Chief Miles O'Brien: Personnel File 

O'Brien was the most blue collar star trek character ever.

Played by very talented actor

Such an underrated character in my opinion, he was one of my most favorite characters on DS9.

"KIA but survived" Such is life in Starfleet.

"I don't hate you Cardassian, I hate what i've become because of you" best scene for O'Brian. Everyone loves Geordi but I liked O'Brian better. he could jerry rig anything and married a beautiful woman and earned the respect he got in Starfleet.

O'Brien is a prime example of "working class" Starfleet. He shows it is possible to have actual soldier-types is Starfleet, simply by showing the people who are on the frontlines and/or are the ones who actually have to get their hands dirty. Honestly, until O'Brien we never really had non officers, except the ships "secretary" or an RN or two, with meaningful line and lives.

O'Brien demanding he be called "Chief" and not "Sir" has little to do with humility. It's part of Navy doctrine. As high as his rank may be among Enlisted personnel, he isn't a commissioned officer, and should not be called "Sir". He is a Senior Chief Petty Officer (even though the name says "officer", he isn't one) and therefore should be called "Chief".

One of the first unwritten rules of any Navy, the chiefs actually run it. Smart officers always listen to their chiefs and senior P.O.'s, hell, most of the dumb ones do too.

O'Brien is the most respected starfleet officer in the fleet, even though he isn't strictly an officer. Some the best Starfleet captains respect him. The Klingon high chancellor, two of them, respect him. Romulan senators respect him. Even Cardassians respect his abilities, though not all the time. The best repairman in Starfleet hands down

O'Brien's preference for being called 'Chief' and the weight his words carry area almost exactly like the rank of CPO in the Navy. A Chief or Senior Chief ( and to a far greater extent, a Master Chief ), while not having 'rank', still carry great authority. Especially within their specific purview. Any Junior Officer that overrides the opinion of their Chief is not long for the service as any decent CO will take the word of Chief over even a Lt ( O-3, y'all call them 'captains' ).

O'Brien comes from the same school as Montgomery Scott. "Give him what he needs, not what he wants." This is why Miles performed aptly in any role from tactical to engineering, and any captain worth their salt (Sisko) can depend on him, and not have to worry about glory.

A missed opportunity was that O'Brien could have returned to serve on the Enterprise-E for the events of First Contact like Worf had. In fact, it was a perfect opportunity to bring the crew of the Defiant into the cinematic stage. To see heroes of the Cardassian and Dominion Wars fight alongside the Enterprise crew against the Borg would've probably been too bloated for a single movie, but dammit, it would've been awesome.

Growing up, I never truly appreciated the character of Miles O'brien. I was always enamored with the "alien" characters as a kid. Now as an adult, I rewatch DS9 at least once a year, and Chief O'brien has become one of my favorite characters in all of Trek. He is the most relateable character on the show an shows some of the most character development throughout the series.

The only enlisted man in Star Fleet!

o'brian is the everyman of star trek. one of my top five characters easily. the guy you respect but also have a beer with and talk about anything other then work. damn i miss ds9

He was also declared "Possibly the most important man in Starfleet history." at some point I'm the future.

It’s too bad that we won’t see him in the new Victory is Life Expansion in STO. I’d love to see him and Bashir together again. Best bromance in Star Trek.

Obrien is every man.

The problem with being only a Enlisted petty officer is every young Ensign who went to starfleet Academy out ranks you

Chief Miles O'Brien. Perhaps the most important person in Starfleet history.

By far one of the best characters in Star Trek. Really like how he went from main side crewman on TGN to a full lead character on DS9.

The lack of Crewmen, Petty Officers and Chief Petty Officers in all of the TNG-era shows always annoyed me. If everyone is an officer, then who does all the work? TOS had some. I think Enterprise did, too, but I'm not certain.

He is my man, by far my fav NCO in star trek, although about the only one we are showed in detail. He is now the chief engineer of the USS Enterprise-F according to star trek online 'what I call cannon Beta' . This is a position he is very well suited to and deserves.

He was a tradesman, and I use that term with a heck of a lot of respect. No doubt he is as intelligent and capable as the officer class, but he was the one who got the job done with his hands. I think he is essential to making the picture complete.

"Overall O'Brien has suffered through a lot" Sums up a lot of his episodes.

in the episode rules of Engagement, it states he served in 235 separate battles, that was before the Dominion War, it's most likely he served more battles than Worf

"Obrien must suffer"

O'Brien is the only character (main/recurring) that wasn't a super man. The writers sure lived to see how far they could ram that 4in by 4in plank up his butt :(

The most important man in Star Fleet history...

Would have liked to see more interactions with Nog. Always enjoyed their mentor/mentee relationship.

Did you pronounce “appreciate” the way O’Brien does at the end of the video on purpose or is that how you pronounce it?

It took way too long for Star Trek to figure out its enlisted ranks. I don’t know about the navy but in the Army and Air Force only superior warrant/commissioned officers are called sir. Except 2nd lieutenants don’t call 1st lieutenants sir. Enlisted people are never called sir. Like I said, it may be different in the Navy and Marines.

O'Brien is a true badass.

"I tore my pants!" -War hero Miles obrien.

O'Brien is my favorite DS9 character overall, at least of the main cast.

i love O'brien (and the actor that plays him Colm Meaney is so underrated) he is one of the most down to earth characters in Star Trek even if he can be bull headed at times. side note prime directive can go take a running jump its a dumb rule that is ignored most of the time anyone.

A fan and personal favourite great video!

Though most people like to associate themselves with the primary characters of TOS, TNG, DS9, etc... it is the somewhat ancillary characters that have earned the most attention to me. Lt. Barclay and CPO Miles O'Brien are such characters. You alluded to one of my favorite uttered lines in all of Trekdom... "It's not you I hate Cardassian..., I hate what I became because of you." Nice job!

The most important person in Starfleet history, according to a teacher in the far future.

Excellent! I would like to see a Will/Tom Riker one.

3:17 the LtJg pips i think were from the Rutledge, i think ol Ben had him field commissioned to Ensign in both recognition of Miles' actions as well as his perceived potential as an officer (probably viewed him as a potential captain), and i think Ben promoted him to Lt Jg before they left for their next posting each (instead of rescinding his commission) and recommended him for the Enterprise. Then later on when he reached full Lt he resigned his commission to become a non-comm again but was probably able to become a Chief Petty Officer in doing so when he gained the Transporter Chief gig (i think ol Sergei was congratulating him, Worf basically adopted Miles, a fellow warrior of great glory - The Hero Of Setlik III, into his family, and a factor in him choosing DS9 as a posting when Worf joined the cast). To me, Miles is The Reluctant Soldier, repeatedly having greatness thrust upon him as he just wants to live a quiet life of fixing things at work then going home to a wife and kids, darts and kayaking with the boys (im legit Inuit, i can appreciate that lol). He is a man who is so apt at being a soldier but he has a hardwired disdain for war and a high value on life, even if things like model warfare and the ability to make advantageous weapons plus being a fast-thinking tactician shows he could have walked another path and maybe have had 4 pips on that collar, instead.

O'Brien's personnel file could just read: Shoulder injury, life-changing traumatic incident, shoulder injury, life-changing traumatic incident, shoulder injury...

Miles E. O'Brien is a cross between an enlisted Starfleet M.A.C.O. and chief engineer Scott. What still gets me is that he's a man of many trades (who can put up with both Barclay AND Bashir). LOL Seriously, even his mirror counterpart Capt. "Smiley" has integrity. Skilled technician and leader in any reality. Only one of the "little people" 'Q' referred as who was in the first and last TNG & DS9 episodes!

The most important character in Starfleet

I never knew how powerful a character he was!.......Much thanks!

O'Brien was clearly intended to be a blue collar character. And his unconvincing motivations are kind of the limit of imagining the Federation as an utopian society. In a place with no material struggles, to be overcome taking low level jobs, why someone would voluntarily take a subservient position? Jeez, Nog technically outranked O'Brien, the minute he was out of SFA. Of course "merit breeds respect" and all that jazz, but in truth the lowest ranking, greenest officer could boss him around and he could do nothing about it. And even allowing for his peculiar characteristics of bravery and competence, not everybody is a special case. Most crew and officers would interact based on hierarchy. The question is, why someone would just take orders? Doesn't the fact that there are plenty of faceless crewmen, just toiling in obscurity, belies a certain conviction, in my opinion disturbing, that some people are naturally destined to subservience by their own nature? So, the paddy naturally shys away from refined cello playing and doesn't go to no fancy officer academy. No sir! Technical school is good enough for me! Aye sir!

Thank you. He's my favorite

Controversially jumped up with field promotion to Lieutenant. Retained the rank for at least another tour on another ship. Then retroactively bumped back down to proper noncom rank. And I'd always thought discrepancies in uniform styles, protocols, ratings, etc across the series were just starship Captains exercising their preferences. I'd thought that Picard decided O'Brien was responsible enough to be treated as a Lieutenant (at least on his own ship). Yeah I know real military (naval) ranks don't work that way. But promotions and demotions in Starfleet aren't based on merit and service, they're based on the whims of the showrunners.

Most overworked NCO in the Galaxy.

Great job. Do Dax next please :)

A temporary military promotion is called being 'brevited'. George Armstrong Custer is a prime example. Originally a Lt. Colonel, he was temporarily promoted to Brigadier General during the Civil War. After the war, he reverted to the rank of Lt. Col., but could retain the title of general. That is why his headstone at Little Bighorn has two officer grades engraved on it instead of one.

Obrien might be on some layer most important character of ST... he is average and yet so special... I get this Samwise Gamgee vibe from him. Without his work no action of main characters would work.

He is his future self from 2 and a half hours ago. He sacrificed his path self to save his future self. He definitely has PTSD or some temporal traumatic stress disorder TTSD

One of my favorite parts of O'Brien is how he is amazing talented but refused promotion (to a commisioned officer) more than once. In DS9 he says something to the fact of that many times, such as when Sicko has to attend an undesirable formal function "that's why I stayed an enlisted man, so I would never HAVE to go to those things". This, mixed with his obvious technical skill, leads me to believe that Starfleet has tried to promote him several times in light of his ability, but he would rather avoid (or has no desire for) the life of an officer. Something to the effect of "Starfleet is his job, not his life". In any event, he has a knack for problem solving and technical science, as seen by his fixing the Defiants power-core problems (from " almost tears itself apart at warp" to casually zipping around the gamma quadrant while under a cloak). Probably could have given scotty a run for his money.

O'brien's choice of holosuite entertainment isn't at odds with his dislike of killing. In the holosuite, he knows that no one is getting hurt. In real life, real sentient beings are suffering. In his mind, he is able to maintain the difference between those to worlds.

In the Navy, it's the Chiefs that make things happen and who are "really in charge." A senior noncom's real job is to train junior officers, always keeping in mind respect to the rank, even if the officer in question is a dork (which they usually are until they earn their salt). His portrayal of a Chief is spot on and one of my favorite characters in Trek.

I have always liked O’Brians character. He should have been given more opportunities to shine.

As an Irish man I love this guy

What I love is he’s an enlisted person He’s not an officer He’s one of the very few enlisted Starfleet member that is a total badass.

The unluckiest man in Starfleet. Should've stuck with music school.

Could you please make a character profile episode on Sheppard Book from Firefly?

Chief O'Brien is basically the only Irishman in media that isn't comic relief or a mad bomber.

7:50 correction: 33 years. Remember O'Brian's mental age was 20 years older then his physical age due the 20 year mental holographic imprisonment he was sentenced too. Now that I think about it he'd also be +1 hour on top of that as well because of the time displacement event surrounding him caused by the cloaked romulan warbird.

If any star Trek character deserves a short spin off, it is O'Brien

Miles Edward O'Brien. Hands down my favorite ST character.

I always hated that O'Brien doesn't appear in the movies. I mean they bring Worf off DS9 for First Contact and Insurrection but not Miles? Really??

My favorite episode is were he is in prison. The way he said that he should have been a evolved human broke my heart. O'Brien must suffer

"Now, look buddy. O'Brien's an engineer. That means he solves problems. Not problems like 'what is the best song for a cello', since that would fall within your purview of the conundrums of the musical art form." "O'Brien solves practical problems." "Like, what if some mean motherhubbard wants to tear your station a structurally superfluous new docking port?" "The answer, is a torpedo. And if that don't work, use more torpedoes." "Like this little ol' number. Aimed by O'Brien. Fired by O'Brien." "And you best hope... not pointed at you."

A Chief in Navy service is only officially outranked by an Ensign. Technically no Ensign is going to try the throw their weight against an enlisted Chief or above. Chiefs are a highly respected rank, as becoming one often takes 15-20 years of service. To put it frankly and use a common in-service quote, no Chief is going to take any ---- from a "butter-bar" Ensign who is likely less than 25 years old and got their degree in "underwater basket weaving."

Miles O'Brien, the strongest shoulders in the Federation.

When they were coming up with DS9 they weren’t sure where it would be, who the main foil Would be. Once O’Brien decided to move to DS9 where he’d have a far more prominent role. He had some great episodes on TNG, like the ones you mentioned. However Colm wanted far more. When Worf joined Worf couldn’t figure out how O’Brien could stand DS9? “This station needs me!”

There's a Tumblr account, "Chief O'Brien At Work", and it's about the adventures O'Brien had during job. 300 very short episodes and... Imagine adventures without any adventure. My favorite ep is "....................i could transport all of you to space if i wanted.....". End.

He also doesn't take the moniker "Sir" over "Chief" because of military naming conventions between non-commissioned officers and commissioned officers (lt. Lt com, commander, captain, rear admiral, admiral, etc.). Ncos like petty officers, seargants, airmen, and p1s, p2s, pfcs, specialists and corporals are all addressed by their rank, and different branches have different naming conventions for each. Like when I was in the US army, e5, e6, and e7s were all sergeants, even though they were Sargeant, staff-seargent, and SFC respectively. A marine wouldn't be caught dead using such a casual naming convention. But a Chief outranks a PO, because it's what comes after PO3, just like what comes after SFC is Master Seargants and they require that exact naming convention. Same reason Master Chief John Spartan is refered to as Master Chief by all except his direct peers and his superiors, who call him Chief. Great video though. Chief O'Brien has always been a sort of fuzzy character for me, one that I've always wanted to know about. So this video absolutely gets a LIKE from me because it ticks all those informational boxes I was lacking. Great work! Definitely going to continue delving these personnel records. I get giddy for this stuff.

Miles Edward O'Brien is likely one of the best secondary characters ever produced by Star Trek. He's not "the hero", he's just an everyman trying to get by in life, and life keeps trying to punch him in the dick. Sometimes it succeeds, sometimes he punches back, and the cycle continues. In this way, he's incredibly relatable, and it makes him extremely endearing. His best episode, arguably, is in TNG's "The Wounded", especially at the end where he sits down with Maxwell and has a heart-to-heart with him. First time I ever heard the song "Minstrel Boy", and it damn near broke my heart. This man has been though absolute hell, and someone has managed to come out of it. He's not whole, not by a long shot, nor intact...but he survived. "...I'm not gonna win this one, am I Chief?" "...no, Sir."

The thing i hate about O'Brien is that when i see him on TNG or makes me want to go watch DS9. I've watched DS9 fully 3 times and just skimmed season 4 on for the Dominion War at least 5 times, yet only watched TNG 1 time fully and skimmed it 1 or 2 times. That means it kills me that seeing O'Brien I want to "just go watch 1 episode of DS9" because i know I'll get sucked back in and miss out on TNG again.

He was never "field promoted" to lieutenant. He was always a Chief Petty Officer in TNG and later Senior Chief Petty Officer in DS9. The writers were still just trying to figure out the rank insignia. I believe that the enlisted pips were actually silver (vs officer who had gold pips) in the first season of TNG. It's impossible to tell the difference on 80s quality TV.

I always liked O'Brien, even in ST TNG he was one of the solid "Good Guys" (even when the more main characters couldn't be). Even better watching DS9 O'Brien came into his own and was giving the opportunity's and time he deserved (DS9 was very good at that ).

I blame Miles O'Brien's demotion from Ensign all the way to full Lt. on TNG & then to Master Chief or CPO to Time Travel all the times Capt.Picard & Crew travel thru time, screw up his life & career. hahahaha Great! video

Miles, oh Miles. Such a character to elicit laughter and tears shall never exist in all of Star Trek. The worst thing ever foisted upon him by the writers was marrying that awful, shrill, harpy. As a former Non-Commissioned Officer of combat experience, I can tell you that sometimes looking at historic battles can help one piece together the fragments of memory of ones own combat.

I like this music therefore every Star Trek fan will like this music however even Sherlock and Bruce have deduced that no, child, not true at all and THEN...one-third of the way in the music stops for seven point 9 minutes. Wowee.

Technically Junior officers outrank Senior Non-commissioned Officers, but I dare you to find any Ensign try to dress down a Senior Chief Petty Officer. It's a blood bath

Writer1 "I want to mentally torment a character in this episode " Writer2 "Yeah but who do we torment?" Writer 1 and 2 "O'Brian!"

glad got happy ending live earth. him jordey number 1 lot guys. live life after fight were John luck Picard, date, jazing drax lot other charters didn't get happy ending.

O’Brien and Harry Kim. Two characters that are seemingly innocuous except they both had episodes of time displacement and wound up being replaced by alternate timeline versions of themselves.

My head canon or justification for O’Briens constant rank inconsistency’s was that he was a non com IE never attended the academy and was a crewman but was given a field promotion during the mission where he learned to hate Cardassians, and subsequently made Lieutenant around that time, and the rank was never revoked despite being a field commission, and during his time on the enterprise D he was allowed to keep his commission but when Deep Space 9 was being sorted out and commissioned he was chosen to be the Chief of Operations, and as such started wearing the Hollopip in preparation for his transfer, which also stripped him of his lieutenant promotion as Chief Petty Officer is a lower rank

him and scotty are great the only 2 Celt in star trek bar them beaming some on board

Best Star Trek character ever right up there with warf and data excluding Spock,Kirk,Scotty and bones they are at the top simply because they are the “founding fathers “ of Star Trek

Miles is one of my favorite characters but his wife, Keiko, and his best friend, Julian, were extremely annoying. The guy was henpecked at every at every turn.

Always my favorite! I was so happy and excited at his transfer to Deep Space Nine. It was nice to see him as a main character, and see that character fleshed out beautifully.

The timeline or show writers made a mistake, in 2374 Molly O'Brien was 8 which doesn't line up with her being born in 2368.

I am wondering. Is he a new take on Scotty? You know the Celtic engineer. Yes Scotty was of course Scottish while O’Brien is Irish but still. Similar characters

I am wondering. Is he a new take on Scotty? You know the Celtic engineer. Yes Scotty was of course Scottish while O’Brien is Irish but still. Similar characters

O'Brien is one of my favorite Star Trek characters.

Who voiced this and where was Ric?

If you missed the Kickstarter, check out his webpage. chiefobrienatwork.com/ Web comic that is just the life of o'brien in his transporter room.

in the US Navy a senior chiefs opinion is given just as much attention as a LT or CMDR. it is the second highest enlisted rank in the navy and often the chiefs have far more field experience, the officers communicate with the chiefs often when dealing with crew matters as well.

After watching DS9 don't get why O'Brian did so few on the Enterprise. I think he could make a great team with Data against the Borg

Can we just admit that the writers did a horrible job maintaining any continuity in this character's biographical information and rank? The really should have just cast another actor for the roles which they wanted to write. Or just cast the same actor and make him a different alien species each time and hope that the viewers bought it.

I love O’Brien, but I hate that his rank is the same as the officers! How the hell am I supposed to know if he’s enlisted? WTF star fleet?

I love how this character points out the academics and everything by experience does matter in the long term. And how it points out that be everyday character is just as important if not more so in certain cases because of the breadth of that experience. A piece of paper doesn't mean much if you don't have any experience.