Where the hell is Loaf when you need him?
I was in Atlanta. But I'm back now.
Well two things, firstly, I don't think anyone who takes the Wing Commander movie seriously should be considered a Wing Commander fan,
You should be honored. I've been a 'Wing fan online for just longer than pretty much anyone here... and I've never, ever seen anyone say anything this stupid. That's right, good sir -- you've managed to out stupid an entire decade of internet use. You deserve a medal, a popsicle and a kick in the face.
(And no, I'm not saying this because I think the movie is excellent/great/good/poor/bad...)
and second, Sventlana died in the transport, seconds after it crashed. There is never any allusion in any Wing Commander novel that she died in anyway other then as a Marine. I don't know what books your reading, but they sure as hell aint' WC.
The novel he was reading was 'Wing Commander: False Colors', by William Forstchen and Andrew Keith. There is a scene in which Bondarevsky's inner dialogue refers to Svetlana 'dying in her cockpit'. It implies-but-does-not-state (which is exactly what the initial poster claimed) that she was a pilot and not a marine (interesting aside -- the original WCP press material also claimed that Dekker was a pilot and not a marine).
(But then, I suppose you don't think anyone who takes False Colors seriously should be considered a Wing Commander fan, though).
(Also, Wing Commanders 2, 4 and Prophecy are a bit iffy.)
More stupid issues that come up in this thread:
* Angel's comment in the Wing Commander movie that she's Blair's "Wing Commander" is not a claim that she commands the carrier's fighter wing (Halcyon does -- he appears in the novel, though the movie implies that Gerald may be the WC), nor is it a statement that she is his squadron commander (this comes from the WCP Guide and Pilgrim Stars)... it is simply more of the 'wing'/'element' confusion that has daunted the franchise since they decided that 'Element Commander' wouldn't look good on a game box.
* I have always found it interesting that people complain about the WC movie... which kills Bossman for, what, the fourth different way? We have him dying differently in Freedom Flight, the actual SM2 game and then
again in Super Wing Commander. But everyone likes these products, so we happily remained ignorant...
* There are probably dozens of branches of the Confederation military. The 'big' ones that we see in WC are the Terran Confederation Space Navy, the Terran Confederation Marine Corps and the Terran Confederation Space Force. Fleet Action implies that there is a fourth 'major' service, the Terran Confederation Army. We occasionally see references to smaller branches, like a 'Medical Corps' (SM2) or any of half a dozen independent intelligence and counter-intelligence agencies. These forces are grouped together into a single organization -- Terran Confederation Combined Forces (war era, the big red sword logo) or the Terran Confederation Unified Space Command (post-war, WC4/P shoulder logos). As best we can tell, all of these organizations have always existed -- the only thing at issue is *why* carriers sometimes have TCSN flight wings and sometimes have TCSF flight wings.
Don't post like everyone else, "IIRC in End Run..."
Give us a page number to back up your point.
Dude -- chill. 9 out of 10 people here are *not* walking Wing Commander encyclopedias, and they do not have every source at the tip of their fingers. We can't fault someone for not knowing a page number from a novel they read years earlier.