Rebel Crew Chief

"This R2 unit of yours seems a bit beat up. You want a new one?"

- Crew Chief, to Luke Skywalker

The Rebel Crew Chief was an engineer who worked at the Alliance to Restore the Republic's Great Temple base on Yavin 4. Initially an employee of the Fresia-based Incom Corporation, the nationalization of that company by the Galactic Empire forced the chief and his co-workers to join the Alliance. In his role with the Alliance, the chief spent many hours performing maintenance on T-65 X-wing starfighters and T-47 airspeeders.

Biography
The chief was initially an engineer working for the starship company Incom Corporation. During the Imperial era, the Galactic Empire nationalized the Fresia-based corporation, forcing many workers, such as the engineer, to flee and join the Alliance to Restore the Republic. Like his former co-workers, he spent many hours performing maintenance on T-65 X-wing starfighters and T-47 airspeeders in the Alliance's service. Both types of craft had initially been made by the Incom Corporation. The engineer was eventually given the role of crew chief, began work as a technician, and was assigned to the Alliance's Great Temple base. on Yavin IV.

In 0 BBY, technical readouts to the Empire's new Death Star battlestation were brought to the Yavin base by Princess Leia Organa, and General Jan Dodonna devised a plan of attack. The attack would involve the T-65s, and so the chief performed maintenance on at least one of them before the battle. The T-65's pilot, Luke Skywalker, intended to use the droid R2-D2 as his astromech for the upcoming battle, but the chief noted that the droid did not look to be in the best of shape. He asked Skywalker whether he wanted a replacement, but the pilot objected, claiming that he and R2-D2 had been "through a lot together." Finishing his maintenance, the chief cleared Skywalker for liftoff. Skywalker would later go on to destroy the Death Star.

Personality and traits
When the company he worked for was nationalized by the government, the chief refused to stand by and let the Empire continue to rule, and so began serving the major Rebellion movement. He was prone, at least on one occasion, to judge a droid merely by its appearance, rather than its performance.

Behind the scenes
The Rebel Crew Chief was portrayed by Shane Rimmer in George Lucas' Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, although technically his first appearance was in Alan Dean Foster's novelization of the film. He also featured in Brian Daley's 1981 radio adaptation, and the third issue of Bruce Jones' 1997 comic adaptation.

The character was featured in the "Special Edition Limited" set of the Star Wars Customizable Card Game in 1998, wherein he was identified as an "Incom Engineer." Later, in the "A New Hope" set of the Star Wars Trading Card Game, he was identified as a "Rebel Crew Chief."

Appearances

 * Star Wars radio drama
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope / novelization
 * Star Wars: A New Hope - The Special Edition 3