Such a simple question... be nice if it had a simple answer eh?
Actually this is a very complacated issue, mainly due to the fact of there being almost no consistency between the various games & novels of the WC universe.
WC1 had a very simple, logical, realistic system for names and fighter orginization... all the fighters on the Claw were adminastratively assigned to Squadrons, all the fighters in a squadron were of the same class (all hornets in the killer bees squadron, all raptors in er.. whatever the heavy fighter squadron was called, I cant recall the name off the top of my head, and so on). Each squadron was commanded by an officer called the 'Squadron Commander', and all of the squadrons were under the general command of Col. Haylcon, although we're never told his actual title in the game, for now i'll just call him the 'Fighter Group Commander'.
Now squadrons rarely fight as one in combat however, for actual missions fighters are orginized in "wing"s (alpha wing, beta wing, etc.), a wing is usually 2-4 fighters (in the actual wc1 game almost always 2, due mainly to the limits of the game engine and computer hardware of the time), and the leader of the wing, is called the 'Wing Commander' (ie. YOU, the player), which is where the game gets its name.
In most modern western militarys, these are actually called "flight"s, but from a marketing perspective, 'Flight Commander' just doesnt have the same ring to it as 'Wing Commander' does.
The confusion arizes in the later games in the series, and especally in Forstchen's novels. In the WC3N for example Blair is called the Victory's 'Wing Commander', because thats the name of the game/book after all, and calling the lead character of a book named "Wing Commander", something like "CAG" or "Group Commander" just wouldnt make much sense would it? lol
Prophecy makes the situation even worse, the Midway is said to carry 3 squadrons of fighters, for a total of 252 fighters... this makes no sense whatsoever, as we know from the previous games squadrons are only a dozen or so fighters... (10-16 according to Forstchen depending on which book you're reading), but according to Prophecy, a single confed squadron is now 84 fighters and of various types and classes...
Prophecy also makes a number of other squadron related mistakes, giveing command of the Black Widows Squadron to Maniac (takeing it away from Hawk btw, right in front of the man too
), and then instructing him to support Casey, one of Maniac's own SUBORDINATE pilots, in the mission... Also later grounding Maniac and "his boys" (his squadron, of which Casey is a member of), but then allowing Casey to fly a mission anyway...
Prophecy also introduces the title of "CAG" (Commander, Air Group) to the WC universe, as the leader of all the fighters on the Midway... yet CAG Drake is appearently a NAVY?!? officer, not a Space Force officer as all the other pilots and fighter related personnel are... and a simple Navy Commander at that, which is a JUNIOR (lower ranking) officer to the Space Force Colonels which are her senior pilots, such as Hawk...
Man, did ANYBODY involved in writeing Prophecy know what the hell they were doing? lol
According to tradition, the leader of all the pilots on a carrier is called a "CAG", so Halycon in WC1, Angel in WC2, and Blair in WC3/4, as well as Bear in End Run, SHOULD have been called the "CAG", even though the term isnt actually heard in WC untill Prophecy.
(CAG, Commander Air Group, is a misnomer btw, in the post WW2 U.S. Navy there is no such thing as an "Air Group", all the aircraft on a carrier are organized in a unit called an "Air Wing", but the Air Wing Commanders didnt want to be called "CAW" (who would?), so the term CAG was kept, even though technically speaking there is no longer any such thing.
)
Boy... such a long answer to such a simple question huh? lol
