Second Anniversary Thoughts
"Memoirs of Captain Stele"

SUBMITTED BY: CP Stele / SCS-CO / VSD Striker
HOLONET REGISTRATION: <TBomb737@aol.com> 
SUBMITTED ON: 2000.01.10

    I recall a time when the GE was merely 19 officers strong. Of those 19 there were perhaps 5 that were actually active in keeping the organization alive. I was there (as an EN) when GA Daemon beta tested a fleet wide IRC meeting. In fact other than the GA himself I was the only person there.

    As time progressed we began growing. The new recruits had all the ambition a single person could possibly contain. But they didn't contain it. It overflowed into mission creation, graphic design, and fictional writing.

    The GE had become a tight efficiently run military organization poised at the brink of reclaiming the systems lost to the rebellion after the Battle of Endor. The betrayal of one young LT brought and number of bright young officers down. With them came the ambitions of many others, yet the GE survived. Respect and dignity remained in those men whose loyalty could not be swayed.

    I've seen may new changes in the GE in my year and a half within her ranks. Many new branches have become available to make  us even greater in strength and quality. Yet, the latter of these two seems to have been neglected. It seems with the expansion of our size has come the loss of some of the respect that this IS a MILITARY sim group and higher ranking officers DO deserve the respect of their positions. A busy RL schedule has kept me away from most IRC meetings but it seems that the salute has become all but extinct. It is the very men who merit the salute who seem to be taken for granted. It goes overlooked that we were once Ensigns in a fighter squadron ourselves. We hold positions of command now because we've busted our asses to gain them.

    I'm not asking for any drastic change in the fleet. But gentlemen, give your superiors the respect they deserve. We were and still are naval officers. Respecting your superiors should be an understood duty upon your commissioning. Let us keep that alive for if we lose our roleplaying aspect and all become equals, we are no different and certainly no greater than any other sim group in existence today.

- Captain Maarek Stele