Battlegroups Report 7

Greetings and welcome to a new edition of the Battlegroups report! This one’s a bit late, and will be shortened as a result. Look for the next report to return to normal size, and include our first Rant from the Ranks!

NEWS FROM THE BGS

Command changes dominate the news this time around. Please join me in congratulating RA Autoris Maximus on his appointment as RelCOM! Auto did a fine job during this tenure as Wing XI WC, and I’m sure he’ll continue that tradition on board the Relentless. Of course, this leaves Rogue Wing looking for a Wing XI WC…and it was a short search. GN Badlands has returned from the Immortal’s past to assume command of Wing XI.

On a sadder note, VA Absolut Vodka has announced that due to RL concerns (his wife’s expecting another child…yay AV!) he’s stepping down as COM of the Colossus and accepting command of Pi Squadron in Wing VIII. Please join me in wishing him well! I am NOT accepting applications for ColCOM at this time.

Many competitions are in progress, including a caption contest involving our XWA Wings and a new XWA Ladder on the Immortal. All our ships also seem to be creating (or adding to) ‘elite’ squadrons. Activity is on the rise, after a lag from the holidays, the start of school for some, and exams and the like.

DON’T FORGET THOSE MSES! CMDRs, if you haven’t done yours by now, it’s late. At the request of the FO, I’ll also be doing evaluations of the COMs this time around. Some of you may remember I started doing this before all the command changes. Well, it’s back…and I expect COMs to evaluate their WCs as well.

STANDING ORDERS AND PROCEDURES

There’s been some talk of late on the message boards about the behavior of officers, especially when it comes to superiors dealing with juniors. Some people may not be very clear on this issue, so I’m going to lay down what I expect from every officer in the BGs.

The guiding thought here is to treat your subordinates with respect. That’s why the military requires that a superior return each salute rendered by a subordinate. You’ll find that they follow your orders more willingly, even cheerfully, if you’ve gone to the trouble to show that respect. I could bore you to death with tons of RL examples, but I’ll spare you my war stories. In a TC context, remember that if it weren’t for all those FMs and FLs (regardless of rank…and anyone who thinks that there’s such a thing as a ‘lowly LT’ should have met the recently transferred DarkEagle when he arrived in the BGs) we wouldn’t be here. Obviously you need the higher-ranks, but without the ground-level members we’d just be a bunch of admirals arguing about who got the better shuttle docking point. That’s a lesson that you ignore at your own peril.

And I want to be very clear on one thing: abuse of subordinates by superiors will *not* be tolerated in the BGs. A commander holds a position of trust over his or her people, and I will not see that trust abused. By the same token, subordinates need to remember to show the proper respect when dealing with superiors.

Let me also be clear: I don’t currently see either of these points as being big issues in the BGs. We have a fine group of leaders on the whole, and pilots who ANY commander would be proud to lead. But we can always do better, and I’m a firm believer in letting people know where I stand. Fewer surprises that way.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

I got submissions for both Tactics and the Rant from the Ranks, and these will appear in the next report. Keep those submissions coming! Also, the concept of a Battlegroups Academy has been proposed to me by a former BG pilot. It’s an interesting thought, and I’d like to hear from people about what they think such an Academy could or should do. One thing I’d like to see it do is offer an “Introduction to the Battlegroups” mission for both TIE and XWA.

That’s all for now. Keep flying and having fun!

BGCOM/VA Krax Tarnisar/TIE Corps Battlegroups