This has been floating around my brain for a while.
In the RL US military (as of 10 years ago) calling a female officer  "sir" is considered an insult. Her proper title is "ma'am".

In Destruction, the Sky-Diver captain calls Lake "sir" and she doesn't seem to react to it.

Was this an intended insult that she ignored or didn't pick up on, OR, like Star Fleet, are all SHADO officers, regardless of gender, called "sir" as part of SHADO's culture?

Well, my experience from 10 years ago as a civilian: I had been promoted in my job into a position supervising the guy who trained me. (I was on a management track and he wasn't.) He was an ex-Marine. One of his things was to call me "ma'am" with as much venom as he could. I finally told him to stop calling me that. His response was "You want me to call you SIR?"
To which I responded (the Trekkie in me came out) "YES"
He walked away grumbling and started using my name. 

But what I'm wondering is what the writer was thinking when he had the captain refer to her as "sir". Was he expressing his acknowledgement that she was an officer, or was he implying something else?

Of course we never will know. But we can ask.

I've seen it both ways, onscreen and in books. On ST Voyager, Tom Paris always calls Janeway ma'am. But I think Lt. Savvick was refered to as sir during the Kobyashi Maru simulation. In all of my work, I use ma'am if the officer happens to be a woman.

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Maybe the captain p*ssed her off once, and she chewed him out.  Either way, they did seem to be somewhat adversarial, in that scene.

No, he didn't really look all that pleased. And Ginny seemed just a tad bit concerned when they weren't able to arrest the dive right away. A fathom is six feet, so they were quite deep. That trench was one nautical mile down. (6000 feet)

Skydiver's test depth was 3750 feet or 625 fathoms. By the time they had arrested the dive they were at 825 fathoms or 4950 feet. Yikes! I'd be worried too! Boy, they really built that thing! Thank God, and General Dynamics!

Hi Snow Leopard. Welcome to the forum and guild.

In regard to your response and the questions, here in the U.S. it is always appropriate to use the rank. As to sir or ma'am I'm not sure but many of my contacts are current and recent military service personnel. I'll put the question to them and see if there is a protocol that applies. Should know if a few days...

Again, welcome to the group!

Moo

Hi Snow Leopard,

I've asked my contacts that include Army, Navy and Air Force. All say sir and ma'am are both correct per gender in US operations. Again, rank is always appropriate, but the other terms are largely up to the preferences of the officer. Nothing unusual.

Perhaps SHADO was indeed setting a standard or equally possible, the script when written assumed the command officer would be a male. Anyhooo, hope all is well in your corner of the world.

Moo

We had severe weather with storms, tornadoes and flash flooding here in Huntsville, AL last night. We went from drought and wildfire warnings to flash flooding in about 12 hours. As they say here, if you don't like the weather, stick around for an hour or two.

Posting to the forum can be a bit frustrating. Cutting and pasting to the Yabb format and fixing the spacing and punctuation. The help tab will take you there.

Posting to the library is as easy as submitting an email using the link on the main page. The Librarian was very patient and helpful with my entries. It took a few tries to get things right, but it was a useful learning experience for me. Not a tech guy...

I look forward to seeing your stories. All the best.
Moo

In my assessment of Lake, I find it hard to accept that she would ignore or not pick up on any implied insult. My read of that scene was that the sub was his baby, and she was rocking it too hard. She gave a impish grin when she turned the reins back over to him.

Straker came over as sexist when he addressed Ellis as a very attractive girl. He didn't use the term woman. I've never seen him as genuinely sexist. Culture involving the genders changes very slowly. Certainly Ellis smiled to me in a shy manner. Later, she obviously had fun pulling Straker's leg in Close Up. He tells her to come and see him when she gets to Earth. In Responsiblity seat, Alec is startled when Straker say Jo was Josephine. 'itwas a GIRL!'  And what's his inquiry? Attractive? Heh.
Yeah considering Straker's big blue eyes took Frasier in from toes to bosom to coiffure, yeah he found her attractive.
Shado was run on military lines, u.s. and uk, so whatever was sop in the 70's 80's regarding titles would be it.
I find actresses using actor to refer to themselves as being unusual.
Lake was a sharp woman. She didn't have problems cooling Alec's jets chuckle. I did find her brief thing with Collins odd.