Battle of Yavin (Part II):  Red Squadron Pilots

[Editor's Note: This article was updated on 11/11/22 with additional information about Wedge Antilles and Col Takbright ("Fake Wedge").]

Let's take a closer look at the pilots of Red Squadron. First, here's a list of the roster as it was in old Expanded Universe. This is a list with which many of our readers are probably pretty familar already.

If you missed any parts of the series, click below...

PART I: Alliance Forces at Yavin 6/18/2018
PART II: Red Squadron Pilots 6/19/2018 (Updated 11/11/2022)
PART III: Figures and Toys of Red Squadron 6/20/2018 (Updated 10/26/2022)
PART IV: Gold Squadron 6/21/2018
PART V: Blue and Green Squadrons 6/27/2018 (Updated 10/26/2022)





Looks familiar, right? Well, as of April 2014, anything that wasn't mentioned directly in A New Hope was wiped from the record. That spared Wedge, Biggs, Luke, and Porkins as the only confirmed named pilots. Others that had lines or obvious cockpit screen time in were canonized shortly thereafter, most notably by sources such as the Star Wars Trading Card game in 2015. Dreis, Branon, Naytaan, Nett and Paeco were updated into the new canon, before things started to get screwy. In the New Canon Expansion Draft, the General Manager decided to leave Rue, Quersey, and Chan unprotected.

For a little historical perspective of the Star Wars timeline, let's see the pilots that we know participated in the Battle of Scarif, as seen in Rogue One and associated sources.





I have mentioned this a couple of times, but when Red and Gold Leaders reported into Admiral Raddus during Rogue One, it may have been the biggest fanboy moment I've ever experienced. I know it was total fan service, but it was unexpected, and so perfectly done. I got chills when it happened and actually let out an audible "Woah!" in the theater, along with hearing the smattering of applause from the audience. It was a cool moment. It puts into perspective that many of the combatants at Scarif went on to fly against the Death Star. It was also a nice touch to show Red 5 getting shot down, so we know why that position was open for that womprat kid from Tatooine.





The names and/or backstories several of the Red Squadron pilots were altered, but the result of the Battle of Yavin in both the EU and New Canon left the fate of the squadron unchanged. Luke and Wedge were the squadron's only survivors from the assault on the Death Star.

Besides A New Hope, the major sources for the new canon pilot rosters in Red Squadron are the short stories "Duty Roster" and "Grounded" found in From a Certain Point of View. Both stories are excellent, and among my favorites in the book. But there are two "major" contradictions between the two sources, which frankly, is kind of annoying since the stories are collected in the same anthology. In "Duty Roster", Garven Dreis reads off the assignments to pilots assembled in the squadron's ready room. He begins by saying, "You all know that we have more pilots than birds," which sets the stage for the drama as he announces the 12 pilots that will fly, and by extension, omitting the names of the pilots that will not. Dreis names several of the surviving pilots from Scarif to participate at Yavin, and canonizes the rest of the roster. In doing so, Zal Dinnes becomes the first female pilot in Red Squadron. Of the pilots that were not selected to fly, the story names the 3 pilots that were part of the EU's Red Squadron, so while their participation is nixed, their existence was spared. In addition, Col Takbright, who was previously identified by Leeland Chee as the name of the pilot known as "Fake Wedge", was also re-canonized.





In "Grounded", the chief of starfighter maintenance, Nera Kase, laments how there were several spaceworthy X-Wings that were left in the hangar during the battle because there were not enough pilots to fly them. Such a scenario not only contradicts what is presented in "Duty Roster", but basically renders moot the entire premise of Dries's assignments and omissions. Kase watches the battle from the briefing room, and sadly checks off the pilots who are shot down, one by one. In doing so, she remembers the pilots that she and her subordinate maintenance teams were responsible for preparing for battle, and ticks off each pilot's name, flight hours, kills, experience, etc. Kase contradicts herself when she mentions "Gold Two (Dex Tiree, 3,237 hours, ace, five confirmed kills)" and then just two pages later, she mentions "Gold Two (Dex Tiree, 5,062 hours, double ace, thirteen confirmed kills)". Seriously, there's a contradiction within the same story only 2 pages apart. While I thought "Grounded" was an excellent story, I personally feel that the self-contradiction weakens it's case when going up against "Duty Roster".

We'll get into Gold Squadron another day, but here's another big contradiction: "Grounded" has Elyhek Rue flying as Red 7, with no mention of Harb Binli, who is Red 7 in "Duty Roster". Wookieepedia's entry on Red Squadron is not helpful in clearing this up, stating, "Red Seven: Elyhek Rue or Harb Binli" in the Red Squadron entry. However, Rogue One and associated sources have established that Binli flew Red 7 at Scarif, and his Wookieepedia entry states that he survived that battle, and then died later at Yavin. Meanwhile, Elyhek Rue's entry states that he was grounded on Yavin 4. So it would seem, after a bit of digging, that "Duty Roster" is a more accurate source, so that's what we're going with. Wanna fight about it?

One other note of interest: "Duty Roster" actually clarifies the four "flights" that were arranged for battle, and who took lead for each. The only one that was ever 100% clear from the film was the Luke/Biggs/Wedge flight. We also knew from the EU that Dreis, Nett, and Naeco formed up the other flight that made the trench run.



First Flight:
Red Leader: Garven Dreis (Point) - on screen death
Red Ten: Theron Nett (Wingman) - on screen death
Red Twelve: Puck Naeco (Wingman) - on screen death

Second Flight:
Red Eleven: Ralo Surrel (Point) - off screen death
Red Four: John D. Branon (Wingman) - on screen death
Red Seven: Harb Binli (Wingman) - off screen death

Third Flight:
Red Eight: Zal Dinnes (Point) - off screen death
Red Six: Jek Tono Porkins (Wingman) - on screen death
Red Nine: Nozzo Naytaan (Wingman) - off screen death

Fourth Flight:
Red Five: Luke Skywalker (Point) - Survived
Red Two: Wedge Antilles (Wingman) - Survived
Red Three: Biggs Darklighter (Wingman) - on screen death

So, it's not clear to me as to why a few of the pilots were changed for the new canon. For whatever reason, several of the pilots from Rogue One were carried forward to Yavin. For Red Squadron, it's not that big of a deal, since the 3 pilots who were omitted had blink and you'll miss 'em appearances, and had neither onscreen spoken lines nor cockpit time in battle. It's just one of those things that might rub you the wrong way if you're a hardcore EU fan.

A few last notes:

Production gaffes are rampant throughout the battle. One of my favorites is after Gold Squadron fails in the trench, Gold Five (Davish "Pops" Krail) tells Red Leader that they've lost Tiree and Dutch. Dreis responds with "Copy, Gold Leader." Was that an editing oversight, or was Dreis,correct in calling out Krail as the new squadron leader in the wake of Vander's death? Either way, Krail was dead about 4 seconds later.

Despite opportunities to clean up the editing, there are still at least 3 times that Luke appears to be flying the X-wing with Red Two markings. What's up with that?

[UPDATED 11/11/22]: Learned something interesting about Wedge Antilles. The story that many fans already know is that "Fake Wedge", played by Colin Higgins, was meant by Lucas to be Wedge Antilles, but the actor flubbed his lines during his first day of filming, and was replaced by Denis Lawson. What I never knew was that due to their English accents, a third actor, Californian David Ankrum, recorded the lines for both Higgins and Lawson. It wasn't until The Empire Strikes Back that Lawson's actual voice can be heard, after he apparently improved his American accent. But wait, there's more! Although unseen during the Battle of Scarif (The identity of Red 2 is not identified by any source), Wookieepedia lists Wedge Antilles as appearing in Rogue One. After the ground battle is underway, and the Alliance is scrambling crews in the Yavin hangar, there is a voice heard over the PA system advising all flight personnel to report to their commanders. Although uncredited, IMBD lists this voice as belonging to Wedge Antilles, and is portrayed by...David Ankrum. So officially, Wedge was at Yavin, but it sounds like he didn't fly at Scarif, and was instead performing duties as the "Rebel Announcer" (according to closed captioning from Rogue One). Wookieepedia states that Wedge was intentionally left out of the battle, so that he wouldn't have seen the Death Star until A New Hope, therefore preventing a continuity error when he later exclaims, "Look at the size of that thing," presumably laying eyes on it for the first time at Yavin.

That's Wedge making announcements regarding the Scarif mission...

Next, we'll take a look at Hasbro's figures and toys of Red Squadron...

PART III: Figures and Toys of Red Squadron

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