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Corinn Andrea Roderick Rank: Wing Commander Remarks: One of the youngest officers in the UEO to hold the rank of Wing Commander, she is also the only female to achieve it to date. This position has given her a celebrity status in the fleet. She is referred to as the "Queen of Aces" by the Macronesian Alliance, and is one of several high ranking UEO fighter pilots to have dossiers in the Alliance flight schools. Reckoned a firebrand as well as one of the UEO's finest pilots, Corinn Roderick also has the dubious distinction of being the pin-up girl of virtually every pilot in the UEO Second Fleet. Corinn Roderick was born in Dublin and raised in post-World War III Ireland. From a young age, she displayed an aptitude for the sciences, and was encouraged by her parents to follow more artistic pursuits - in particular, music. With strong family ties, she gained the nickname “Quinn” from a young niece who could never quite manage the correct pronunciation of “Corinn” and the name stuck there after. Throughout her later school years, Roderick learnt to fly light aircraft under the direction of her father, and her decision to join the UEO Naval Academy at age 17 came at odds with the wishes of her parents, who had discouraged the move at least once before when her brother, Patrick, joined the fleet two years earlier. Prior to the institution of Cape Cortez in 2029, the UEO had no professional fighter school, and pilots were trained on the merits of their own skills. Throughout her days at the naval academy, it became clear that she held a natural aptitude for flight, and despite the ocassional fiery incident with her classmates, she was a model student. In one heated incident, Roderick was threatened with expulsion from the academy after having struck a senior cadet following a minor altercation with another student, and her position in the academy's prestigious flight school came in to question. Reprimanded, she was forced to repeat her second year subjects during her final year of studies in 2030 (ironically raising her grade point average by a full point.) Roderick is noted to be especially proud of her heritage, and takes a certain amount of pride in having one of the fieriest tempers of any pilot in the service. This 'trait' is something which has continued throughout her career, and while kind-hearted, her first duty as a Wing Commander often involves disciplining pilots that she finds wanting, and to that end she continues to strictly maintain a professional detachment from those directly under her command. Roderick spent her final year at Cape Cortez; her grades being sufficiently high enough to grant her a place her in the UEO's new subfighter school. Upon graduating an ensign later that year, she was assigned to one of the few frontline fighter squadrons that enforced the Macronesian ‘no-fly' zone during the final months of 2030. Deemed "Operation Breakwater" as part of a larger UEO effort to blockade the alliance border, Her squadron, the VF-23 “Rogue Angels” frequently engaged mercenary forces that sailed under the flag of the Alliance, although Roderick herself never saw combat during the period. From 2031 until 2038, Roderick remained with “The Rogues” and fast-tracked a record that eclipsed her peers and saw her rapidly promoted to the rank of Commander by 2036. It was these six years of her career that Roderick established herself as one of the fleet's most respected flight officers.
On June 12, 2032, barely a year out of the academy, Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Roderick and three other pilots of VF-23 received a distress call from a civilian cargo hauler which had fallen under attack from mercenary fighters in the cold straits of the Bering Sea. The four Spectres of Roderick's flight found themselves outnumbered three to one and Roderick quickly took charge of the unit as the flight leader was shot down in the offset of the engagement. Roderick herself made five confirmed kills before the mercenaries retreated. An "Ace-in-a-Day," as the tradition went, she quickly became one of the most popular pilots of the squadron. Assigned to the Spruance later in the same year, Roderick again gained fame in the UEO's month-long campaign against the Chaodai Confederation in the far west Pacific. VF-63 saw more combat than virtually any other squadron in the battlegroup, and while more senior pilots continued to transfer out to other assignments, Roderick remained with the squadron and continued to garner much of the Fleet Command's attention. In the final week of the campaign, the Chaodai succeeded in sinking a UEO Titan-class cruiser and left an escorting SSN crippled and without power. Roderick, in charge of a small group of Spectres, ordered her flight to engage before the news had even reached the taskforce commander. By the time any orders had been issued to aid the damaged SSN, Roderick had succeeded in breaking the back of the Chaodai raid, destroying several of the attackers and forcing the survivors to retreat. She was awarded the Bronze Star for her actions, and was promoted to Lieutenant. In early 2035, VF-23 was assigned cover duty to a convoy of UEO transport submarines shipping supplies to a contested colony along the UEO-Macronesian border. Three Spectres from the squadron, again led by Roderick, escorted the transports for over 600 miles before they were jumped by two full squadrons of raider fighters that quickly hit the convoy, damaging several of the haulers before moving on to the UEO fighters. Using the Haulers as cover, Roderick ordered the trio of Spectres to break up and target as many of the attackers as they could. In a tactic which is still taught to academy students to this day, Roderick ordered the reminaing freighters to close formation and open fire blindly with their light defensive lasers. She used the cover provided by the defence screen to mask her own attacks and claimed a total of nine kills before the raiders broke away. Although one of her wingmen was killed in the engagement, she was awarded the Navy Cross and promoted again to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. The incident with the freighters made Roderick a recognised name in the months that followed. When VF-23 was assigned to the carrier Spruance, Roderick met Gabriel Hitchcock, who was already the Wing Commander of Tactical Fighter Group Three aboard the carrier Constellation - the flagship of Spruance's taskforce. Hitchcock would later note that Roderick's assignment to the taskforce had been noted by his squadron commanders within hours of VF-23s arrival, and he frequently made sure that the pilots of the Rogue Angels were paired with his own on combat patrols. The two officers crossed paths on numerous occassions during these missions, and Hitchcock began to mentor the young Lieutenant Commander as best as he could, beginning a friendship that would last many years to follow. In 2036, Roderick was promoted again to the rank of Commander, but retained only the position of Executive Officer within VF-23. Over
the next two years, Hitchcock evolved from being a mentor to a close
friend - and even rival. While not of the same squadrons or commands,
the two pilots continued to find themselves in the same theatres of
operations. Roderick's skills continued to develop as fast as her
reputation, and by 2037, a year after her promotion to Commander, she
had been given full command of the Rogue Angels. 2037 would see one of
the last major combat actions that Roderick would see as a member of
the 23rd Fighter Squadron, and in December of that year, she had again
made news headlines throughout the fleet by leading the squadron in to battle against Alliance forces
that had launched a raid against the UEO colony of Palau Ridge. Three
UEO squadrons engaged in the battle, and the engagement claimed the
life of the group Wing Commander as the UEO fighters arrived to relieve
the besieged colony. Roderick assumed command of the attack once more, and
completed the mission inside just ten minutes; the colony having been
liberated before the Alliance had even been given the chance to land
troops. Because of her actions, Roderick was awarded the Silver Stae
and a field pomotion to Wing Commander in January of the following
year; the only female - and at 28, the youngest ever - pilot to achieve
the rank. The position was made a full commission just one year later.
In 2038, Roderick's full promotion to Wing Commander came with new responsibilties, and she was forced to give up command of the Rogue Angels after a full eight years of service to the squadron. Her departure was one of the most emotional the crew of the UEO Spruance had seen, and many of the ship's officers had come to see her as being a lucky charm, and something akin to a 'little sister'. (This is reflected in her last year of her service aboard the carrier, she carried the call-sign "Shamrock") Roderick moved on to assume command of the VF-63 Dark Angels and the 8th
Carrier Sea Wing. At this point in its history, the squadron was
unremarkable and was filled with pilots who were widely unknown and
inexperienced. Under Roderick's leadership, this would eventually
change. Assigned to the carrier Lexington, VF-63's roster would last just one year when it was largely disbanded (much to Roderick's chagrin) amidst restructuring of the 8th Carrier
Battlegroup. Roderick was officially relieved of command of VF-63 in
October 2039. Shortly thereafter, she learnt that she was chosen to
join a select group of experienced test pilots for the UEO's next
generation subfighter; the SF-37 Raptor.
This new project, beginning in the early days of January 2040, inevitably had her cross paths once more with her old mentor, Wing Commander Gabriel Hitchcock, who had highly recommended her for the program as one of its head instructors. Roderick and Hitchcock would go through the next eight months together training the pilots of the test group at the UEO's school for advanced subfighter warfare at Cape Cortez. The program - called “RAFT” (Raptor Advanced Flight Training) - was considered an extension of the school's prestigious Fighter Weapons course; ‘Top Gun', and only graduates of this grueling course were even considered for it, in essence making every one of the test pilots a bona-fide 'ace'. Just
100 pilots were initially trained on the new fighter prototypes, and
all were chosen on the basis of extremely selective, specific skills.
The washout rate was high, and eventually the best 22 were formed in to
two elite units which were being created in response to the Navy's call
for pilots who would be capable of dealing with operations deemed too
risky, specialized or secretive for other squadrons in the service. In
essence, they were creating a small group of subfighter ‘special
forces'. While half of these 22 pilots formed the VF-107 Rapiers; a
unit that would rapidly become the UEO's flagship fighter squadron
under Commander Hitchcock himself, the remaining 11 were formed in to a
squadron under Roderick's own command. At Roderick's request, the Dark Angels were reformed and restructured as Fighter Squadron (VF) 115 in October 2040, and were assigned to the Aquarius DSV.
Corinn's
rapid return to prominence in the following month – a profile that came
with her equally prolific assignment – was underscored by a personal
tragedy. Corinn's brother Patrick was serving aboard the seaQuest DSV during
November of 2040 and was presumed killed in action when the submarine
was taken by Alliance forces. (Officially, he remains “MIA”, although
to date no trace has been found of any of the seaQuest's crew or her
escorting pilots) Despite being cleared in a subsequent psych
evaluation, Roderick continues to avoid the topic of her brother's
death sharply.
“Quinn” Roderick became the Commander of Carrier Sea Wing Two as soon as the Dark Angels were assigned to the Aquarius
just one month later. Her squadron, whom she had trained personally,
held the utmost of respect for her, and to date is one of the only
units of pilots she has ever maintained a level of personal
relationship with. The pilots of the Dark Angels look at Roderick like
a ‘big sister' (or in some cases ‘younger' sister) and are extremely
close and fiercely loyal to their Commander. Her call-sign of
“Archangel”, however, dubiously represents more than her charge of the
unit and her history of commanding 'Angels', and it has been common
throughout her career that her image has been particularly glamorous.
While meant in good humour, Roderick isn't naive to her own 'assets and
is more than willing to take advantage of it. She freely uses her
reputation as a “pinup” to keep the pilots under her command on a short
leash; playing down the image, feigning ignorance or lack of interest,
and often both.
In
May of 2041 Gabriel Hitchcock's retirement from combat duty to assume
command of Cape Cortez meant that the Atlantis was left without a Wing
Commander, and with the Aquarius requiring serious repairs
following the Battle of Pearl Harbor, Roderick took the position of
Wing Commander of the First Carrier Sea Wing aboard Atlantis, bringing the Dark Angels with her.
Her
initial tenure as the sea wing's new commanding officer began with a
rocky start less than two months later when on shore leave in the
south-east Pacific. At the time, Atlantis had
been assigned a patrol duty defending NSC convoys travelling around
Cape Horn. Wing Commander Roderick was reprimanded for her conduct
while on a leave pass. The details of the misdemeanor have remained
restricted to her personal files on the recommendation of Atlantis's
commanding officer, Mark Ainsley who filed the record, citing personal
conduct not befitting an officer of the UEO naval subfighter corps. She
remained in command of the sea wing, despite a brief, ordered leave of
absence by Captain Ainsley.
Roderick's
personal life is largely a private one - she is not known for
fraternizing with her peers or subordinates, and only very few officers
have her ear on issues of personal importance. For a
long time, she has shared a friendship with Wing Commander Gabriel
Hitchcock - her one-time mentor and teacher - and the new commander of
the VF-107 Rapiers, Commander Edward Richards. Her relationship with
her subordinate officers has always been strictly professional, as she
chooses to separate her personal life from her job in a world and line
of work where privacy is hard to find. At least one officer -
Lieutenant Commander Jane Roberts, of the VF-107 Rapiers - has cited
that her primary reason for this is her desire to maintain a rigid
respect from those under her command; the possibility of what she
perceives as "friendship" jeopardizing the professional judgment of a
fighter pilot. It is known that she retains at least some interest in
music, as given by the existence of a violin that has been seen in her
quarters aboard the Atlantis DSV.
Following the most recent events surrounding Atlantis's loss in the Hemmingway Trench, Roderick retained command of the Dark Angels and was transferred to the carrier Saratoga to assume command of the battlecruiser's sea wing. She remains at this post as of this writing. 1st Carrier Sea Wing Stats:
Assignment: VF-115 Dark Angels ("Bravo Squadron") United Earth Oceans Service Medals and Awards:
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