(written from a Production point of view)
Yancey Newell Tarrant (born 30 October 1942; age 81) credited as Newell Tarrant is a retired Navy flight officer who played Commander Rogerson, the command duty officer of the USS Enterprise in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. He is the son of theatrical director and actor Newell Tarrant and actress Jean Tarrant.
A graduate of the Naval War College and TOPGUN, Tarrant fought over two hundred combat missions in the Vietnam War. He concluded his twenty-year naval career – which included postings on both the Enterprise and the USS Ranger, where scenes aboard the "Enterprise" were actually filmed – as the commanding officer of the Chargers of VF-161, a carrier-based fighter squadron operating from the decks of the USS Midway. Currently residing in Goodyear, Arizona, he has become an author, with his first novel, Shadow War, published in 2002, and his second novel, Dissolution published in 2004. [1]
Of all the Star Trek personalities with military service, Tarrant is the only one with service in the Vietnam War. During this period, Tarrant was a Navy fighter RIO and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross as well as multiple Air Medals. (Source: Navy Personnel Command)
According to the Internet Movie Database, Tarrant also played roles in episodes of Remington Steele (1985, with Leslie Hoffman) and Rags to Riches (1987, with Graham Jarvis), in the comedy Happy Hour (1986), and in the fantasy film Infinity (1991).