Battlegroups Report 10

Greetings and welcome to a new edition of the Battlegroups report! Lots of stuff going on, so let’s get right to it!

NEWS FROM THE BGS

First, some bad news. Due to his RL military obligations, VA Autoris Maximus has stepped down as RelCOM. Please join me in wishing him the best of luck and Godspeed. Hopefully he’ll be able to return to us soon. Also note that applications for RelCOM are NOT being accepted, so don’t bother sending me any.

Competitions continue, both on the Squadron and Wing level. Wing VIII recently came out on the short end of an engagement with Wing IV. But somehow I think their next competition will have a happier ending.

An update on the impending competition (or exercise): the Colossus has finished her refit, and Challenge has taken her place in drydock. The refit will take at least two weeks, during which time Wing X will be dispersed to other ships within the Challenge Battlegroup and Colossus will assume the system patrol route formerly conducted by Challenge. Relentless and Immortal continue to patrol the border sectors on Condition Two alert. Recon probes by unidentified fighters have become more aggressive in the last few days, and free traders in the area report that they have been stopped on occasion by unmarked ships demanding to see their cargo manifests. BG Intel is now firmly convinced that we have an impending pirate offensive on our hands, although they have not identified any particular group or faction.

STANDING ORDERS AND PROCEDURES

Just so everyone understands the concept, I’m going to go over medals again. You don’t award someone two medals for the same action. Why people can’t grasp this is beyond me. If you’ve given out an impact award for someone flying a bunch of missions in one week, don’t count those missions again for an end-of-month award. If someone has done an outstanding job during a given month, award a medal based on those accomplishments and not just flying. Our new OPS is pretty firm on this, and it’s the way things will be for the immediate future.

It is quite possible to award someone a medal for an outstanding display of flying DURING the month and then come up with an MSE award as well. All it takes is a good grasp of the English language and an understanding of how the award system works. Most of our outstanding pilots are doing things besides flying. They may be very active on MBs, writing fiction, showing leadership at the Flight or Squadron level, and so on. That’s all stuff that can earn medals. High overall activity has always counted. It’s not that hard to do once you step away from the ‘only flying counts’ mindset and look at the other things people do here.

It’s possible that our system will only make sense if separate medals are created for SP flying, much like the DFC and other MP awards (and I for one don’t happen to think that the FCHG rankings are the same as medals, but that’s another rant…). But unless that happens, this is the system we have and it’s up to us to make it work for all BG pilots. Just step outside the ‘only flying matters’ box and you’ll be surprised at how much you can learn about what your outstanding pilots are doing. Who knows, maybe we need a ‘mini-IWATS’ course about how to write award recommendations.

RANT FROM THE RANKS

No rant from the ranks this time around, so I might have to provide one of my own next time out. But there’s always that old sergeant’s bit of advice – “Son, there’s three ways of doin’ things: the right way, the wrong way, and the military way.” Since the EH is based on a military model, you might want to listen to ol’ Sarge…;-)

CLOSING THOUGHTS

We now have an official Battlegroups Forum! I encourage all of you to make heavy use of it. The ASF’s been using their forum for years to sound off on issues of importance to their entire battlegroup: let’s do the same!

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

BGCOM/VA Krax Tarnisar/TIE Corps Battlegroups