An engineer worked at the Alliance to Restore the Republic's Great Temple base on Yavin 4 during the Galactic Civil War, serving as a crew chief. Initially an employee of the Fresia-based Incom Corporation, the nationalization of that company by the Galactic Empire prompted the chief and his co-workers to join the Rebellion. In his role with the Alliance, the chief spent many hours performing maintenance on T-65 X-wing starfighters and T-47 airspeeders.
The chief was initially an engineer working for Incom Corporation, a starship company based on the planet Fresia. During the Imperial Period, the Galactic Empire nationalized the corporation, prompting many workers, such as the engineer, to flee and join the Alliance to Restore the Republic. Like his former co-workers, he spent many hours performing maintenance on T-65 X-wing starfighters and T-47 airspeeders in the Alliance's service; both types of craft had initially been made by Incom. The engineer was eventually given the role of crew chief, began work as a technician, and was assigned to the Alliance's Great Temple base on the moon Yavin 4.
The crew chief and Luke Skywalker
In 0 BBY, technical readouts for the Empire's new Death Star battlestation were brought to the Yavin base by Princess Leia Organa, and General Jan Dodonna devised a plan of attack. The attack would involve the T-65s, and so the chief performed maintenance on at least one of them before the battle. The T-65's pilot, Luke Skywalker, intended to use the droid R2-D2 as his astromech for the upcoming battle, but the chief noted that the droid did not look to be in the best of shape. He asked Skywalker whether he wanted a replacement, but the pilot declined, claiming that he and R2-D2 had been "through a lot together." Finishing his maintenance, the chief cleared Skywalker for liftoff. Skywalker would go on to destroy the Death Star.
The chief had a tan-colored suit.
The crew chief was portrayed by Shane Rimmer in the 1977 original trilogy film, Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, although his first appearance was in Alan Dean Foster's 1976 novelization of the film. Some inconsistencies exist between the crew chief's film appearance and various adaptations. The crew chief has slightly different dialogue in the film's novelization, along with the November 5, 1977 fifth issue of Marvel Comics' Star Wars comic-book series, Brian Daley's 1981 radio adaptation, the 1994 Star Wars: The National Public Radio Dramatization, which contains the radio drama's script, and the March 5, 1997 third issue of Bruce Jones' comic adaptation. In Star Wars 5, he says an earlier line to Skywalker before a different version of his film line is delivered, while both the radio drama and its script contain additional dialogue with him responding to Skywalker's lines in the film.
- Star Wars: The National Public Radio Dramatization
- Star Wars Customizable Card Game — Special Edition Limited
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, Vol. III