Jon Vander/Legends

"Red Leader, This is Gold Leader. We're starting our attack run."

- Jon "Dutch" Vander

Jon "Dutch" Vander was one of the senior pilots of the Rebel Alliance. He fought in the Battle of Yavin, where he was killed by Darth Vader.

Biography
"Loosen up!"

- Vander's last words before his death

He was trained at the Imperial Academy as a fighter pilot, but during one of his missions as a TIE Bomber pilot, he discovered the true nature of the Galactic Empire's ideals. He was ordered to bomb his home planet. He simulated a failure in his Bomber and aborted the mission. He managed to escape the Imperials and joined the Rebel Alliance. Jon got the nickname "Dutch" from his Rebel friends. He became Gold Leader and was assigned to a Y-wing, flying several campaigns for the Alliance with Gold Squadron.

Prior to the Battle of Yavin, he piloted Leia Organa to the Belassar system for a Rebel mission.

During the Rebel Pilot Briefing by Jan Dodonna Vander interrupted him by asking "Pardon me for asking sir. But what good are snub fighters going to be against that?" and then later gave Princess Leia a look of concern when Dodonna mentioned that the exhaust port was only two meters wide.

During the Battle of Yavin, he was one of the first groups who flew into the Death Star trench. Vander was on point, followed by Tiree (Gold Two) and Davish Krail (Gold Five), who formed a buffer against enemy fighters. Vander chose an extremely close formation for his pilots; this is typical for the much faster TIE Fighters, but the veteran Krail believed this to be a mistake. As Tiree was locking his target computer, Darth Vader shot him down. This caused Vander to panic; Krail tried to keep Vander calm but to no avail. A second later Vader fired into Vander's Y-wing, killing him instantly.

He had the emblem of the Specter Squadron on his helmet at the Battle of Yavin.

Behind the scenes
There is a controversy surrounding Jon Vander's nickname. Cards of Star Wars Customizable Card Game and Star Wars Trading Card Game as well as an official action figure of him name him "Dutch", while the actual line of Gold Five in both Episode IV DVD subtitles and Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays is spelled as "Hutch" (which is also what many fans claim to hear). Until further clarification the exact spelling remains unclear.

Jon Vander was played by Angus MacInnes.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Journal: Captive to Evil
 * Star Wars Journal: The Fight for Justice
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope novel
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope junior novel
 * Perfect Evil
 * Shield of Lies