Ace Pilots of the One Year War

(TL Note: EB39 is written from a in-universe perspective, from about UC0120 or so.)

Introduction: Ace pilot requirements

What is an ace?

The word 'ace', from old French, means 'one who excels', which was later applied during the early days of aerial combat to indicate 'one who has shot down 5 planes'.  This requirement of 5 planes or occasionally the pilot to score the first kill in an engagement were not particularly strictly defined at the time.

However, after some time, the usage of this word to denote a pilot who has shot down five planes would become common parlance.

Johnny Ridden

Military ID Number: PM056330279A

Affiliation: Mobile Assault Corps

Biography:

Born UC0056, as a third generation of the first colony immigrants. Johnny Ridden's family immigrated to space from the former Australia, though he was of American ancestry, unusual within Zeon.

Ramba Ral

A man who belonged to the battlefield, one of Zeon’s leading warriors.

Rank at the end of the One Year War: Captain (O-3)

One Year War Duty Assignment: Zeon Military, Space Attack Corps

Birth Year, Place: Unknown, Side 3

Career accomplishments: Participated in the Battle of Loum in January 0079, where he was credited with sinking six ships, making him one of Zeon’s top ‘Ship Aces’ at the time.   On October 6th, 0079, he assembled a special strike force to suppress the White Base, and dropped to Earth.   This force engaged the White Base several times, and after forming a guerilla force under his ‘M3 operation’, was able to get close to the White Base, but after sustaining wounds inside the enemy ship, determined his own fate.

‘The Blue Giant’ was this Zeon Soldier’s alternate name, highly skilled in commanding Guerilla operations, and Mobile Suit Piloting, where he piloted his MS-07B Gouf against the White Base’s Ace, Amuro Ray in his RX-78-2 Gundam, ultimately fighting the Gundam to an even match in combat.

VF-1 Valkyrie Cockpit Layout

The VF-1 series cockpit design is an excellent result of the merging of OTM and Human Technology to create a superior man-machine interface system.  Previous fighter cockpits were dogged with concepts such as ‘creating high degree of control’ and ‘reducing pilot workload’, while attempting to emphasize ‘minimizing human error’ over all other issues.

Shin Matsunaga

Military ID Number: PM05576744-S

Affiliation: Space Attack Corps

Biography:

Born in U.C. 0055 as the eldest son of the Side 3 Matsunaga family, a prominent family comparable to the Federation’s Yashima family.  As suggested by the name, the family was of mixed Eastern and Western blood, and Shin Matsunaga was the only member of this family to enter the military.