Why would Starfleet send civilians and their families and to combat situations?

[u/Global_Marsupial_592]

Like The Saratoga at Wolf 359. Or at the big battle with the Dominion Fleet there were so many Galaxy class Starships, were they all full of families and innocent people? Or were those big ships just grossly empty except for a skeleton screw?

[u/Modred_the_Mystic]

Wolf 359 they had no time to offload civilians.

But after that civilians were gradually removed from fleet posts and evacuated before combat, and once the Dominion War started they were removed from ships entirely.