Red Squadron at Yavin question (Battle of Yavin Roster Thread)

I wonder if the tourist, Egreog Sacul from Star Tours, and Jorj Sacul are related to each other, ?

 

LOL! That'd be great. Someone's got to incorperate that into an article or something...

TC

 

Up!

The official SW Galaxies site mentions another, previously unknown, Y-Wing pilot at the Battle of Yavin:

"Doyle Skims (deceased). Y-Wing pilot killed during Alliance assault upon the Death Star. Doyle was posthumously awarded a medal of valor."


Kam

 

Names of the groups according to the movie and other sources was probably Red Squadron; x-wings, Gold Squadron; Y-wings, Blue Squadron; X-wings and A-wings, Yellow Squadron(Gold Squadron II); Y-wings, Green Squadron; unknown.

Red Squadron(X-wings):
Red Leader = Garven "Dave" Dreis
Red 2 = Wedge Antilles
Red 3 = Biggs Darklighter
Red 4 = John D.
Red 5 = Luke Skywalker
Red 6 = Lt. Jek Tono Porkins "Piggy".
Red 7 = Elyhek Rue
Red 8 = Bren Quersey
Red 9 = Lt. Naytaan
Red 10 = Theron Nett
Red 11 = Lt. Wenton Chan(?) -Died
Red 12 = Fin Danglot(?) -Died

Gold Squadron (Y-wings):
Gold Leader = Jon "Dutch" Vander
Gold 2 = Tiree
Gold 3 = Ryle Torsyn
Gold 4 = Lt. Lepira
Gold 5 = Davish "Pops" Krail
Gold 6 = Hol Okand
Gold(?)= Talos Merkin(?)
Gold(?)= Commander Keyan Farlander
Gold(?)= "Bill French", , (?).
???

Yellow Squadron(Gold Squadron II; Y-wings):
Yellow (?) Y-wing ?
Yellow (?) Y-wing ?
Yellow (?) Y-wing ?
???

Gold or Yellow(Gold Squadron II);
???- Commander Keyan Farlander
???- Doyle Skims(Gold?, Yellow?)

Two possibilities either Keyan was with Gold, and he was defending Yellow after everyone in his group died, or he was the last of Yellow(Gold II) defending Gold. I?m going to go by the possibility that he is part of the Gold Squadron we see in the movie, and the 3 y-wings he defended but were shot down were part of ?Yellow?(Gold II)

Blue Squadron (X-wings and A-wings):
Blue Leader = Captain Merrick Simms (X-Wing)
Blue 2 = Commander Ru Murleen (X-Wing)
Blue 3 = Rookie One (X-Wing)
Blue 4 = Thurlow Harris (X-Wing)
Blue ? = Commander Jake Farrell(A-wing)
Blue ? = 1 more unknown (A-wing)(?)
blue ? = missions A-wing(?)
???

Green Squadron (?):
???

Renegade Flight(X-wings, part of Blue, Green, or was it just by itself?):
"The Boss"- Commander Narra (assumed control of Red Squadron during the Battle of Yavin, died later at Derra IV).
??? - Renegade pilots at the battle of yavin who called Narra, "The Boss".

Note that there are sources that state that only Wedge and Luke survived from Red Squadron. So Narra couldn't have been part of the original Red Squadron count, though it does say that he did take over Red Squadron during the battle. Maybe he switched from another group to take command due to his seniority?

Unknown Assignments(several were transferred out of Red Squadron just before the final mission):
- Travis
- Commander Hamo Blastwell(went MIA during the battle, until Tiefighter novel)
- Naeco
- Samuel Raider(alive after the battle)
- Captain Ernek Marskan(alive after the battle)
- Lt. Wenton Chan(possible Red Squadron death, Red 11?)
- Fin Danglot(possible Red Squadron death, Red 12?)
- Talos Merkin(Gold?)
- Speedy the Sullustan
- X-wing pilot Jorg Sacul(?)
- "Bill French"(Gold?), , ?
- Y-wing Pilot Doyle Skims(Gold?, Yellow?)
- ?Many Young Pilots? that died during the final battle, that Keyan had brainwashed into thinking they could use the force to become invincible (may have included ?Speedy?).

 

Very impressive.

Any speculation on the ranks of the Red Squadron pilots? I don't recall Luke being given one in the film or radio drama, but I'd be very surprised if Biggs and Wedge lacked them.

 

should we also add Jal Te Gniev to the list of Red Squadron pilots (he was grounded due to measles, and Luke used his x-wing in the battle of yavin). I would assume that he was still considered part of Red Squadron even though he didn't fly that day. -- from Vader's Quest.

 

The list is only of ones that were, or could have been flying. Not ones that were known to be grounded. Course some of the above were transfers out of previous groups, so they aren't being counted for what they used to be part of, but what they were assigned to during the final part of the battle. The list at the end only points out characters that have names, that were known to be in the battle, or were reassigned to other "unknown" squads during the battle.

Course he wasn't counted in the Red Squadron during the battle of Yavin roster, simply from the fact that some source books say that the only survivors out of the specific Red Squadron during the final part of the battle were Luke and Wedge.

Keyan Farlander was part of Red Squadron for the first portion of the battle. But he transferred into a Y-wing midway through. IIRC, the X-wing he was flying was the one that Luke later flew for the final portions of the battle. So the X-wing would have been Gniev's, had he been feeling well, but Keyan flew it first, then Luke for the final part of the battle(though an earlier post in this thread does point out where some of the characters were assigned earlier in the battle if you are curious).

It would be more difficult to break the battle down to its 3 main missions, and listed where they were assigned, and what they were flying at any given point in the battle. Maybe I'll try to undertake it later, but it would require 2-3 seperate lists, not just the one I listed above of the final part of the battle.

We know that Mon Mothma was down on Yavin during the battle(according to X-wing, and Farlander stories), is there any possibility that Jan Ors could have been on the planet as well, and possibly assigned to one of the flight groups? If they were using every abled pilot?

 

in that case, perhaps making a grounded pilots list would work -- iirc, Gniev was still considered Red Squadron until he was given a new position as a recruiter, which he took to get away from that glory-stealing farmboy whose dad was known by red leader.

i'm not sure that every able pilot flew that day.. i would guess that the rebels might have had more pilots than they had craft to fly.

 

Well Red Squadron isn't an official squadron name, colored squadrons are used at various battles to designate between between squadrons to avoid confusion. It's just used to seperate squadrons( which there can only be a dozen pilots at any given time). So if all 12 positions are filled that means that anyone not flying is not part of Red Squadron, they would just be "unassigned". Because of this a Blue Squadron seen in the wraith books, or a Red Squadron seen in Star Tours, aren't necessarily the same Red and Blues that were during the Battle of Yavin. There were infact, different assignments of Blue and Red throughout the battle at different points in time in the battle.

 

ah... but the ships were painted with particular color patterns that matched with the squadron colors and numbers (red 5 has 5 red stripes on the wings while red 3 has 3 etc.).
so perhaps the ships stayed in particular squadrons and the pilots were in the 'pool' until assigned to a group.

but Gniev felt there was some sense of ownership or possession for the x-wing Red 5 (well, prior to yavin).
time to dig out vader's quest when i get home...

 

"ah... but the ships were painted with particular color patterns that matched with the squadron colors and numbers (red 5 has 5 red stripes on the wings while red 3 has 3 etc.).
so perhaps the ships stayed in particular squadrons and the pilots were in the 'pool' until assigned to a group."

Yes, this may generally be the case, I'd think. However there are sources that state that the ships at Yavin were put together out of whatever they could get ahold of, IIRC. Hence why Blue Squadron wasn't made up of only X-wings, or only A-wings, but both, as that is all they had on hand. Jake Farrell's A-wing was painted red, and yet he was part of Blue Squadron is another example of this.

IIRC, years later Corran Horn had his x-wing painted green, when they are painted red standard?

Also essentially from what I can tell, you could have 2 commanders at 2 different battles at two different places that occur simultaneously that could both have Red Squadrons, and Blue Squadrons. As they are not communicating with each other on each of the seperate battles, there would be no confusion involved. But that doesn't make both Red Squadronds the same group.

"but Gniev felt there was some sense of ownership or possession for the x-wing Red 5 (well, prior to yavin).
time to dig out vader's quest when i get home..."

It may be the case that he is generally assigned to Red Squadrons, and used the same x-wing every time that he has grown an attachment to it. However he was "unassigned" for the entire battle battle of Yavin, as Red Squadron already had its assigned quota in the battle.

 

"IIRC, years later Corran Horn had his x-wing painted green, when they are painted red standard? "

yes, but he actually owned that x-wing (or at least has possession of it when he took it (from Corsec?) and brought it with him when he joined the rogues.

most of the other x-wings were appropriated by the rebel alliance and assigned to squadrons. at some later point in time, the paper trail caught up to corran and i think he had to sign over ownership of his green x-wing.

 

digging up Vader's Quest:
issue 1: page 6: Gniev (probably drunk) says" And the kid? He takes my x-wing, steals my kill and gets a medal"


and that's all they say about Jal's connection to Red Squadron.

 

heh.. i just realized.. while technically not part of the rebel alliance at this point, the following two individuals were later recognized for their roles in assisting the rebel alliance at the battle of yavin and the rescue of princess leia:

Millenium Falcon:
Han Solo, smuggler
Chewbacca, smuggler

 

I don't need to understand these things in the real world in order to accept them in the Star Wars world.

wow. I feel free now.

 

ludi... huh?

 

"at some later point in time, the paper trail caught up to corran and i think he had to sign over ownership of his green x-wing."

Nope. It was his still at the end of The Bacta War, and there's been no references either way since then.

 

Upping as it relates to the topic, here

 

snarf5181--
"There would be corrdination to ensure there are not duplicate squadron designations. The Blue Squadron at Yavin base never existed at the same time as the Folar base Blue Squadron, for example

The RA/NR/GA would make sure they only have one squadron of a particular name in their ranks, to avoid such confusion.

As such, you'll never see more than one Green Squadron at a time under the RA/NR/GA, so there won't be seven guys responding to Green 3.

If, by some chance, an independent squadron that happens to share the name of a sanctioned squadron joins the same fight alongside that sanctioned squadron, one squadron would probably temporarily change it's name. "

in addition to that, u have to remember that the primary colours were only used to denote the squadron before a more appropriate name could be chosen. wraith squadron was at one stage grey squadron, before the name 'wraith' was chosen by pilot tyria sarkin. the blue squadron training at folor eventually became polearm squadron under the same circumstances.
around the galactic civil war, there were also instances of this happening. star wars RPG claims the existence of a certain Nomad Squadron which was formed shortly after yavin. rogue squadron was formed then, too. and logic suggests that colonel horton salm & colonel edor crespin had their aggressor & comet wings respectively around that time as well. so really, there weren't likely to be many squads named after primary colours for any long period of time, given that squads named after them quickly chose other better names. of course, squadrons which couldn't agree on the best name to adopt would have to sit with their colour definition for a while longer....

however, during larger battles like that at Endor, squadrons with unique names already in place would be merged to form wings or groups named after primary colours, for simplicity's sake (and to be fair). which is probably why rogue squadron became part of red wing for the day.

joruus--
"Any speculation on the ranks of the Red Squadron pilots? I don't recall Luke being given one in the film or radio drama, but I'd be very surprised if Biggs and Wedge lacked them. "

they were probably just flight officers. wedge had, by then, only flown two missions (IIRC...) and thus probably wouldn't have been promoted by then. the leadership vacuum after yavin probably got him a lieutenantship, though.

i'm not sure if this has been addressd (five pages IS a lot to get thru....), but is there any mention of the many pilots which were shown in the post-battle of yavin ceremony? yeah, the ones cheering luke & han on when they received their medals. were they ALL either down with some sort of illness or were inexperienced? it seems likely that that huge pool of pilots would have several pilots who'd be more experienced & capable than luke skywalker, and would thus get to be red 5 at yavin instead of luke.

and does anyone know why luke got command of his flight trio (consisting of biggs & wedge)? why would they give command of two relatively experienced pilots to a newbie who had yet to prove himself?

 

Luke was only red 5 in the final assault, before that Keyan Farlander was flying that particular X-wing in the preliminary attack runs (helping to clear away defenses for the final run). See that link in my last post, for more information.

 

Up

 

^^ profound.

 

I just came across this and it has been dead for a bit. But I figured it was worth noting that Hobbie was grounded at the time of the Battle of Yavin as we see in the Darklighter comic.

And it is safe to assume that Farlander would be Gold 9 if he were in that squadron. Given that he would have 3 flight due to his rank, skill and experience.

Edit: Another note is as to the debate over Dodonna. He was captured in the Imperial raid on Yavin 4 according to Galactic Battlegrounds. But videogames are lower on the canon chains that I have seen. So it could be wrong. Which also leads us to the Rebel Assault debate. Oh boy. What did I start?

 

And it is safe to assume that Farlander would be Gold 9 if he were in that squadron. Given that he would have 3 flight due to his rank, skill and experience.

That makes sense. After all, he was a Captain at the time.

Another note is as to the debate over Dodonna. He was captured in the Imperial raid on Yavin 4 according to Galactic Battlegrounds. But videogames are lower on the canon chains that I have seen. So it could be wrong.

His capture was also mentioned in the Marvel comics and Wedge's Gamble, so it makes it canon. There's also the fact that he escapes in Rebel Strike, but that can be retconed to say that he made it out of that particular temple, met with Command briefly, then headed back.

IIRC, he stayed behind, got captured, and was transferred to the Lusankya, where he stayed for twelve years before being rescued by Rogue Squadron.