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Starfleet Career Summary
2250 – As a first-year Academy student with ensign rank, assigned to
U.S.S. Republic NCC-1371
2254 – Upon graduation, promoted to lieutenant and posted to U.S.S.
Farragut under Capt. Garrovick
2264 – Promoted to captain, in command of U.S.S. Enterprise for
five-year mission
2266 – Exonerated in wrongful death charge of Ben Finney, first captain
ever to stand trial
2269 – Returned from five-year mission; promoted to admiral in charge
of fleet operations at Earth 2271 – Demanded to relieve Capt. Will Decker, his choice as successor
for the refit Enterprise, and dealt with V'Ger crisis before beginning
second five-year mission
2277 – Accepts appointment to Academy faculty, moves into San Francisco
apartment
2286 – Charged, convicted and reduced permanently to captain's rank by
the Federation Council for theft of Enterprise a year earlier, after
saving Earth from alien onslaught by securing two extinct whales via
time-traveling; given command of U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-A
2287 – Explores center of the galaxy with refit Enterprise hijacked by
Sybok
2293* – Spearheads initiatives leading to Khitomer Accords and exposes
anti-peace conspiracy in Starfleet and Klingon Empire; dies while
saving the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-B from an energy anomaly just minutes after
its commissioning ceremony 2371 – Reappears in Nexus long enough to help Captain Jean-Luc
Picard save planet Veridian III from destruction in the Nexus
As much as any other figure in Starfleet history, the tall tales about
James T. Kirk's exploits over a 40-year career are as numerous as the
official record — and probably closer to the truth in some instances.
Kirk's renown began by becoming the youngest captain in Starfleet to
date at 34 and the first captain to bring his starship back relatively
intact after a five-year mission, having also gained a reputation as an
independent whose success couldn't be argued even though he often bucked
the system. He also has the distinction of being involved in 17
different temporal violations, a career record which still stands.
Kirk's ancestors pioneered the American frontier, and his Midwest roots
tied him closely to American history, a lifelong interest. He had an older brother, George Samuel Kirk, although "Sam" and his wife Aurelan
died at Deneva in 2267; their one son and Kirk's nephew Peter survived
them. As a child of 13, Kirk witnessed the massacre of 4,000 people
during a famine by the governor of Tarsus IV, nicknamed Kodos the
Executioner.
A romantic at heart, Kirk never formed a lasting, romantic relationship
due to his devotion to career — especially during his captaincy of the
U.S.S. Enterprise. He did father a son with Dr. Carol Marcus, David, but
was asked to avoid his upbringing and did not know he had matured into a
scientific genius until 2285-86, when the young man was killed by
Klingons on the Genesis planet he'd help to create. Kirk long grieved
for the boy's death, and that he had only a few months to know his
progeny. He also regretted not having married a woman named Antonia whom
he dated for about two years, from 2282 to 2284.
A family friend named Mallory helped gain Kirk entry to Starfleet
Academy, and he soon had the rare treat of earning starship duty as a
first-year cadet with the brevet rank of ensign while aboard the U.S.S.
Republic. There Kirk was close friends with Benjamin Finney, for whose
murder Kirk was later tried, but was tormented by an upperclassman,
Finnegan. As an older cadet he served as an instructor, where Gary
Mitchell was one of his students and later his best friend, saving his
life on Dimorus. His heroes included Abraham Lincoln and Captain Garth,
whose missions were required reading in class, as were the works of Dr.
Roger Korby. Kirk had the distinction of being the only cadet ever to
beat the "no-win" Kobayashi Maru scenario; he had secretly reprogrammed
the simulation computer, making it possible to win and earning himself a
commendation for original thinking.
After graduation, Kirk's first assignment was the U.S.S. Farragut as a newly-promoted lieutenant, a tour distinguished by his command of a
survey mission to Tyree's planet Neural in 2254 and his guilt-plagued
discovery of the creature dubbed a "cloud vampire" which led to the
deaths of his captain and 200 shipmates — although he realized that
there was nothing he could have done to save them. Kirk once contracted
and recovered from Vegan choriomeningitis, but still carries
microorganisms of it in his blood.
Kirk's historically rapid rise to a captaincy and command of a loyal and
respectful 430-member crew are reflected in the awards and commendations
he had garnered by 2267, including the Palm Leaf of the Axanar Peace
Mission, the Grankite Order of Tactics, a Class of Excellence award, the
Prantares Ribbon of Commendation, First and Second Class, the Medal of
Honor, a Silver Palm with Cluster, the Starfleet Citation for Conspicuous Gallantry, the Karagite Order of Heroism and several Awards
of Valor.
It was on this Enterprise that he assembled a crew and forged
friendships with fellow officers who would themselves become Starfleet
legends: First Officer and Science Officer Spock, Dr. Leonard McCoy,
engineer Montgomery Scott, Hikaru Sulu, Pavel Chekov, Uhura. Even after
the end of their five-year mission, it almost became a cliché that only
Kirk and his crew could save the Federation from a new crisis — or at
least Earth. That is exactly what happened in the case of V'Ger in 2271
and the whale-calling aliens in 2286.
Kirk had accepted a promotion to admiral in charge of fleet operations
upon his initial return, but accepted a reduction to captain when he
regained command of the Enterprise in 2271 to thwart V'Ger, relievingWill Decker after recommending him for the "center seat." Some 14 years
later after another five-year command mission and a return to Academy
teaching, he used Spock's cadet ship to thwart a grab by his onetime
nemesis Khan Noonian Singh for the experimental Genesis device. That
mission in turn set off a chain of events that led to Kirk's reunion
with Carol Marcus and his son David, David's death, Spock's sacrifice
to save the ship and his storage of his katra in McCoy's mind, and the
discovery that Spock's body had regenerated on the Genesis Planet.
Bucking the odds once again, Kirk's loyal officers all risked their
careers and lives to steal the Enterprise, retrieve Spock's body for
refusion with his katra, and face down a Klingon crew in their way bent
on taking Genesis — which included the destruction of Kirk's beloved
starship. With the stolen Klingon Bird-of-Prey and Spock on the road to
recovery, the officers opted to return to face punishment — but not before time-traveling to retrieve extinct whales to space Earth from an
alien probe's onslaught while searching for them. Once again, Kirk was
rewarded rather than punished, and given command of the all-new U.S.S. Enterprise-A that year.
Heavily involved with the beginning peace negotiations with the Klingons
after spoiling an attempt by terrorists to destroy the proceedings,
Kirk's actions helped bring about peace in the galaxy just prior to his
retirement in 2293. While on the ceremonial christening of the U.S.S.
Enterprise-B, Kirk disappeared into the Nexus, a temporal ribbon in
which he has a timeless, perfect life, and pronounced dead. However, in
2371, Captain Jean-Luc Picard persuaded him, amid endless Nexus fantasies,
to help him to save Veridian III from the possessed El-Aurian, Dr.
Tolian Soran. They stopped the madman's plot, but Kirk was killed in
the fight and buried in a plain grave on the rocky planet.
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