Wookieepedia:Featured article queue/Week 5, 2012/0

"If you had your way, you'd continue flying snubfighters and commanding fighter squadrons until you were a century old."

- Ackbar, to Wedge Antilles

Wedge Antilles, a Human male, was a famed Corellian pilot and general, known as a hero of the Rebel Alliance and New Republic. Orphaned at age seventeen, he joined the Rebellion after Imperial forces killed his girlfriend, Mala. A standout starfighter pilot, he was one of the few to survive the Battle of Yavin, after which he founded Rogue Squadron with his friend Luke Skywalker. Antilles and Skywalker built Rogue Squadron into a renowned unit, and after the Battle of Hoth, Antilles took command. He flew as Red Leader in the Battle of Endor, striking the blow that destroyed the second Death Star alongside Lando Calrissian and becoming the only pilot to survive both Death Star runs.

As the Rebel Alliance became the New Republic, Antilles continued to serve, gaining a reputation as a consummate soldier and the New Republic's greatest pilot. He led Rogue Squadron in a covert mission to bring down Coruscant's shields, allowing the New Republic to capture the galactic capital planet. When denied permission to remove Imperial leader Ysanne Isard from power over Thyferra, he resigned with his squadron and led a private guerrilla war that successfully toppled Isard. Accepted back into the New Republic, he formed Wraith Squadron as a commando unit and led it in operations against the Imperial Warlord Zsinj.

In 9 ABY, Antilles accepted the promotion to general that his friend, Supreme Commander Ackbar, had long desired for him. As a general, he reluctantly moved out of the cockpit and into a role in fleet operations, frequently commanding the Star Dreadnought Lusankya. During a mission to the planet Adumar in 13 ABY, he ignited a romance with Iella Wessiri, a friend in whom he had been interested for several years, and married her after the mission's conclusion. They had two daughters, Syal and Myri, as Antilles became Chief of Staff of New Republic Starfighter Command and then finally returned to command Rogue Squadron in 18 ABY. In 19 ABY, after peace was achieved with the Imperial Remnant, Antilles retired with more than twenty years of service to the Alliance and New Republic, ten as a general.

When the Yuuzhan Vong invaded the galaxy in 25 ABY, Antilles emerged from retirement, becoming the commander of New Republic Fleet Group Three. He participated in the failed defense of Coruscant, then retreated to Borleias. There he made a stand against heavy opposition for several months longer than expected and defeated the famed ex-Warmaster Czulkang Lah, inspiring hope across the New Republic that the war against the invaders could be won. In 29 ABY, Antilles was one of the commanders in the recapture of Coruscant that ended the war.

He returned to retirement, but after being imprisoned by the Galactic Alliance, the New Republic's successor state, in the run-up to the Second Galactic Civil War, Antilles escaped. He joined the forces of his homeworld, Corellia, as it revolted against the galactic government, reluctantly taking a side against his best friend, General Tycho Celchu, and his own daughter Syal, who had become a Galactic Alliance pilot. He served as the Supreme Commander of the Corellian Defense Force, but he came to believe that the Corellian regime was itself corrupt and immoral. He resigned and instead offered his services to the New Jedi Order, led by his lifelong friend Luke Skywalker. Skywalker formed a Jedi Coalition and, with Antilles's help, destroyed the Centerpoint superweapon controlled by the Corellian Confederation, then went on to defeat the Galactic Alliance's Sith leader, Darth Caedus, and end the war. Afterward, Antilles retired for the third time, hoping to finally be able to live quietly with his family.