Greetings Members of the Commando Division!

      The last time I personally addressed the Commando Division was my own retirement announcement from RSCD Commanding Officer in November of 2000. And two years later, the next commander moves on. Admiral Kaz Falcion’s retirement, however, does leave the RSCD in a precarious position. Brigadier General Isoldur "Dragon" Cauthon has explicitly expressed his wish to remain in a supporting role as RSCD Executive Officer. Because of this, I have taken measures to not only install stable leadership throughout the RSCD (which is presently lacking), but to revive and rebuild much of it in an effort to bring back the former activity levels and enjoyment experienced in the past.

      What am I talking about? Presently, the RSCD is experiencing low activity and enthusiasm and an extreme lack of growth because of the RSCD Undergrad’s continued mismanagement. Admiral Falcion did all he could to fix these problems, but he was largely on his own in such attempts. Therefore, I have enlisted the help of a number of RSCD veterans to help fix these problems and the Fleet. Not surprisingly, one of those veterans includes myself.

      Since the RSCD is in a dire state and because there is no obvious leadership available, I will be temporarily taking over command of the RSCD to direct a rebuilding process until at least the week of January 13th. With Kaz gone and as a former RSCD Commanding Officer myself, it has been pointed out to me (and I concur) that I alone have the experience necessary to lay down the foundations of a rebuilding process for this Fleet. For those of you that may be concerned that such an action may be in contradiction with the Bylaws, there is a precedent for such an event. As Fleet Commander, Fleet Admiral Dave Trebonius-Astoris temporarily took charge of the Redemption Fleet (a Fleet in which he was also a previous CO of) in a similar situation that lacked an obvious command replacement.

      Therefore, until the RSCD is in a more stable position and a suitable replacement is found and trained to take over the RSCD Commanding Officer job, I will temporarily serve as the Acting RSCD CO. For the next two weeks, I will also have the time to contribute to my Fleet Commander responsibilities because I do not resume classes again until Monday, January 13th. Time will not be a problem and I fully intend to yield to a trained replacement in no more than a month's time.

      With that said, planning for this RSCD rebuilding effort is already underway. To begin, I have enlisted the help of a core group of RSCD veterans and officers that will form the next generation command staff of the RSCD, as well as acquired some new help. Such members include Brigadier General Isoldur "Dragon" Cauthon, General Boid "Gambit" Reaves, Major General Patrick "Blaster" Blastfire, Major General Lamin Zykara, and Lieutenant General Richard Gross. We have already generally agreed that the RSCD should be brought back to the Fleet>Company>Squad structure and after a Fleet wide AWOL check will consolidate the Fleet into two Companies (Wings), Knight Company (the JO and JK players) and Katarn Company (DF players). Katarn Company will largely stay the same and be unaffected, however, two JO/JK Squads will be initially disbanded (Avenger and Avatar Squads) and Knight Company will then only house Dragon, Raven, Shadow, and Talon Squads. After the AWOL check, we wi!
ll redistribute the remaining JO/JK members into the former three Squads and Talon Squad will take shape as a training Squad for new members, which has been done in the past to help facilitate a new member’s growth in the RSCD.

      Also, changes will be made to the RSCD Undergrad/Recruitment Orientation Center, which will now be run by Major General Lamin Zykara. Hence, the lack of RSCD UG command has already been solved. Therefore, the restructuring of the RSCD is taking shape like this so far:

Acting RSCD CO: Admiral Rahj Tharen
RSCD XO: Brigadier General Isoldur "Dragon" Cauthon
RSCD SO: Major General Lamin Zykara

      Knight Company CO: General Boid "Gambit" Reaves
      Knight Company XO: Major General Patrick "Blaster" Blastfire

             Dragon Squad CO: Lieutenant General Richard Gross
             Raven Squad CO: Major General Patrick "Blaster" Blastfire
             Shadow Squad CO: TBA
             Talon Squad CO: TBA

      Katarn Company: All the same.

      RSCD Undergrad CO: Major General Lamin Zykara

      Therefore, consider this restructuring process in place. As the next step, you can expect an AWOL check to commence shortly and I am also taking applications for the other available positions. Thus, if anyone is interested in command opportunities in the RSCD, please email me (zeon3@aol.com) and the RSCD XO (Isoldur@aol.com).

      Once the above is completed, General Boid "Gambit" Reaves, Knight Company Commanding Officer, will begin implementing new events and ideas in Knight Company for the Jedi Outcast and Jedi Knight players, while the Fleet Command Staff and I attempt to work out many other issues such as providing a semblance of command stability (and training), as well as maintaining communication with a flow of Newsletters and announcements, among other objectives.

       A lot has to be fixed to increase activity and enthusiasm, but through these measures, the future of the RSCD looks bright because of the committed core group of veterans that have volunteered their services for this calling. For that, I want to thank all of them and I hope that the members of the Commando Division will follow in their example.

       With that said, any questions or suggestions should be directed to me.

":)
Admiral Rahj Tharen,
Acting Commando Division Commanding Officer
zeon3@aol.com