Kendal Ozzel

Kendal Ozzel was a male Human born into a wealthy Caridan family. After studying at multiple Core World military institutes, Ozzel graduated as a Captain of the Line but was relegated to teaching positions because his superiors had doubts about his ability to serve as an effective field commander. Nonetheless, at the advent of the Clone Wars between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, Ozzel was commissioned as a captain in the Grand Army of the Republic by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and went on to serve with the clone forces in multiple engagements. He continued to serve under now-Emperor Palpatine when the Republic was reorganized into the Galactic Empire and the Confederacy was crushed.

Ozzel was eventually assigned as the captain of the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Reprisal, but he longed for a promotion to admiral. As commanding officer of the Reprisal, he oversaw campaigns against the Rebel Alliance in the Shelsha sector; on one such mission, Captain Ozzel became involved in a plot to kill Emperor's Hand Mara Jade when he erroneously believed her arrival aboard the Star Destroyer was part of a high-level investigation into the desertion of a group of stormtroopers. Jade became suspicious of the captain, finding him to be either disloyal or dim-witted, and recommended that the Supreme Commander, Darth Vader, keep an eye on him. Naval command ultimately agreed with the move, promoting Ozzel to Fleet Admiral and placing him in command of Vader's flagship, the Star Dreadnought Executor, believing that the man would not be foolish enough to butt heads with the cyborg warlord.

His goals having come to fruition, the Admiral was charged with leading the Dark Lord's Death Squadron in the search for the headquarters of the Rebel Alliance. Some saw Ozzel as Vader's quasi-equal, but in actuality, he was nothing more than a figurehead—the true power rested in the hands of Palpatine's lieutenant. Admiral Ozzel's personality more than often put him at odds with both Lord Vader and his immediate subordinate Captain Firmus Piett, who both considered him inept. Thus, when a probe droid relayed data of a settlement on the supposedly-uninhabited planet Hoth, Ozzel disagreed with Vader's assertion that they had found the Rebel base. The Dark Lord overruled the admiral in favor of Piett's judgement and ordered the Executor and Death Squadron to the Hoth system. Ozzel attempted to surprise the Alliance by bringing the fleet out of hyperspace near Hoth rather than approach from the system's outskirts, but the tactical blunder only alerted the Alliance and bought them time to raise their base's energy shield and evacuate the world. Having tired of the admiral's incompetence, Vader Force choked Ozzel to death.

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