Garven Dreis

Garven "Dave" Dreis was the commander of Red Squadron as a T-65 X-wing starfighter pilot for the Alliance to Restore the Republic. The favorite pilot of his homeworld Virujansi, Dreis served with its Rarefied Air Cavalry during the Clone Wars of 22 BBY–19 BBY. He battled Separatists alongside the Republic hero Anakin Skywalker, whose superior piloting skills in Virujansi's borecrawler caves gained Dreis' awe and respect. In the wake of the war and the subsequent founding of the Galactic Empire, Dreis joined the Rebellion after seeing the Imperial regime commit atrocities on his homeworld.

Dreis served the Alliance in numerous battles, adopting an almost fatherly approach to commanding his men and supervising the instruction of new recruits personally. He was posted at the Alliance's base on Dantooine, leading Dantooine Squadron before being transferred to Yavin 4's Great Temple. Placed in command of Red Squadron, Dreis took the call sign "Red Leader." In 0 BBY, he inducted bush pilot Luke Skywalker into the squadron, and soon afterward a joint force of Dreis' Red Squadron X-wings and Jon Vander's Gold Squadron Y-wings launched a desperate attack on the Empire's Death Star superweapon, which was moving to destroy the Alliance base.

As per General Jan Dodonna's instructions, Dreis' "Red Boys" provided cover fire for Gold Squadron, who mounted an attack run on the battle station's vulnerable thermal exhaust port. Despite the pilots' efforts to watch out for each other, many X-wings fell victim to laser fire from the station surface and enemy TIE fighters during dogfights. Nevertheless, Dreis' guidance helped reassure the newcomer Luke Skywalker.

When the Y-wings were eliminated by Imperial defenses during their attack run, Dreis was forced to make his own attempt. Assisted by a targeting computer, his proton torpedoes almost entered the Death Star's exhaust port, but they fell short of a precise hit. Red Leader was then shot down by the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Vader; accepting his fate, Dreis instructed Luke Skywalker to lead Wedge Antilles and Biggs Darklighter on a final attack run, which successfully obliterated the Death Star.

Text and facts from the “Garven Dreis/Legends” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.