Commodore Thomas Nelson is the Director of Starfleet Operations and holds the distinction of being the first commissioned officer of the Earth Starfleet.  Captain Nelson was selected by the UESPA Administrator in 2135 to form the Earth Starfleet with this new organization formally created in December 2135 with Captain Nelson appointed as the first Director of Starfleet Operations.

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Captain Nelson was born in 2093 in the North American Union (Florida, USA) and attended Yale University, graduating in 2115.  He then transferred to the American Continent Institute where he defended his doctoral thesis in warp propulsion mechanics in 2119.  A year later, Dr. Nelson joined the United Earth Space Probe Agency and was assigned to the Warp Five Complex in Bozeman, Montana.  In the mid 2120s, Dr. Nelson entered UESPA flight school and became a qualified warp pilot astronaut in 2128.  He briefly served on two separate UESPA space vessels before taking a promotion to become the new Deputy Administrator for Mission Operations in 2132.  He was appointed as Director of Starfleet Operations in 2135.

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As the head of the Earth Starfleet in its earliest period of existence, Dr. Nelson was appointed a Starfleet Captain and began to expand the organization from a single office at UESPA headquarters in Houston.  In 2136 he became Starfleet's first flag officer upon promotion to Commodore and began efforts to relocate Starfleet to a new headquarters located in the California city of San Francisco.