William Hof

William Hof (pilot call sign "Junior") is the First Officer of the USS Black Hawk (NCC-75004-A) and serves as the Officer-in-Charge of the 263rd Marine Strike Group. As of the Star Trek: Black Hawk episode "Swansong" he was still uncertain about remaining in Starfleet, even after a distinguished career.

Early Life
William was born to a working class family in the Chicago Metro region of the United States on the planet Earth in 2352. He was the second child of his father Henry and the first child of mother Louise. Because of the situation revolving around his parents’ nuptials and his conception, William has often been accused of being impulsive, listless, and a little too dependent on luck to get through life. While displaying exceptional scholastic ability in a generalized way, it was unfocused.

A veracious reader, he could devour a book or text in hours. However these books rarely had anything to do with his current studies; leading to constantly poor grades throughout primary and into secondary school. It wasn’t until his tenth grade year that he found any focus whatsoever. This focus stemmed from a close personal friendship with an upperclassman named Zacharias Edwards. Zacharias had always known that he was going to apply to Starfleet and somehow sensed that William would like to do the same thing. William, originally unconvinced that he could make it into Starfleet, followed Zacharias’s lead for no better reason then it was something to do.

As his secondary school career progressed, the influence of Zacharias became more and more prevalent in William’s everyday life. He began studying on a consistent basis, and the books he was devouring were school texts and study material. By the end of eleventh grade, William had become a nearly model student. However William never achieved scholastic success due to his propensity for procrastination and listlessness. When the time came to apply to Starfleet Academy, Zacharias forced William to sit in front of a terminal to fill it out.

Though William thought he lacked the school record to pass the first rounds of screening, he nevertheless completed the application. Much to his surprise, the Academy accepted his application. Though Zacharias was at the Academy himself during most of the acceptance process, William had been energized by his application even being considered. Working hard throughout his twelfth grade year, he had managed to raise his scholastic record to the level required by the Academy. When taking the entrance exams however, he stumbled at the pressure of the applied science and scholastic portions. Being on the cusp of failing; he managed to excel enough in the personality portions of the exam to raise his grade to passing.

The Academy and Dominion War
The following is the abbreviated history of William Hof, who is currently serving in the Starfleet Marine Corps instead of with Starfleet Fighter Corps as during the Dominion War. The unabridged version is found in the Ja'yawnes Interstellar Defense Review published anthology of the Dominion War, "Volume 8: The Starfleet Fighter Corps and their Aces".

Academy Career
Early on William Hof understood that he would never pass if he joined the theoretical science track or the technical operations track, he instead played to his strengths by joining the leadership oriented command track. Since this track incorporated scientific fields such as stellar cartography and astral physics, William still found himself at a disadvantage most of the time. Even though he studied constantly and read nearly all the time, he found exams daunting and term papers nearly impossible.

What William lacked in academic knowledge he more than made up in leadership and flying ability. He was constantly impressing upperclassmen and officers with his ability to adapt to changing situations and challenges. It was during these years that William developed his unique and highly unorthodox leadership style that blended crude humor, strict discipline, personal familiarity, unwavering standards, individual accountability, and joyful actions in nearly equal measures. While he constantly clashed with his cadet superiors, and even Company Officers, his subordinates and peers found him loyal and capable. During his second class year, William had even managed to earn the lifelong friendship of a plebe that had become his “whipping boy” while in Beast Barracks.

The one academic subject that William did excel in was Flight Dynamics. While he lacked the scholastic skill to be highly ranked in the class, he constantly bested his fellow midshipmen while on maneuvers. Described by Training Officers as unorthodox and displaying a tendency to bend regulations to the absolute maximum, he nevertheless aced every flight exam.

Because of his midrange academic record he had been denied entrance into the Academy’s elite flight team - Nova Squadron. However in 2368, after the entire team was removed because of the Lacarno Conspiracy, William was chosen as the Number Four pilot. This was due to the Academy’s desire to re-staff the Squadron with those cadets with outstanding personal integrity and leadership rather than pure academic achievement as had been the previous standard.

The Nova Squadron that William joined was in disarray - one cadet dead, one expelled from the academy, and three sentenced to repeat their academic years - the new members distressed at their duty. Because of the scandal, the governing body of competitive flight events had banned Nova Squadron for five years. Since they could not officially compete, the Squadron was regulated to non-competitive air shows and inter-collegiate duals. Duels are essentially showy dogfights between single fighters staged for the benefit of civilian audiences held at air shows. While not the Nova Squadron the five new members had dreamed of joining, they took their duty seriously and constantly impressed crowds with their flying ability.

Upon graduation, William was ranked in the middle of the class and achieved the rank of Midshipmen Lieutenant Junior Grade. While his grades were middle of the road, his flight tests and service on Nova Squadron was enough to earn him a place in Advanced Flight School. This school was dedicated to training officers in small craft and starship piloting. While the emphasis was on producing helmsmen for the newest line of escorts and light cruisers, every student was given training in the Peregrine class fighter as part of the curriculum. Half way through training however, the Dominion War exploded and Starfleet found itself woefully unprepared.

Battle of the Tyra System
Even though the abilities of the Jem'Hadar attack ships were well known by the outbreak of war, Starfleet was still woefully unprepared to field similar forces. As a result, Starfleet hastily rushed Peregrine class fighters into accelerated production and began to snatch any officer capable of piloting these craft into training. Within four months of graduation from the Academy, Ensign William Hof found himself in a squadron of Peregrines flying in support of the Seventh Fleet’s attack on the Tyra System.

Flying off the USS Gorkon- an Excelsior class ship retrofitted to carry 18 Peregrine fighters - Ensign Hof had little time to meet his squadron mates or practice flying with them before the attack. Although these factors, which were duplicated throughout the entire Seventh Fleet, were not the deciding factor to Starfleet’s loss in the Tyra system, they obviously didn’t help the situation. Of his 36 man squadron only William and his Electronic Systems Operator (ESO) survived.

The fighter pilots, while being exceptional in individual combat similar to Klingons, lacked many of the combat maneuvering skills that would be hard won by the end of the war. Within the first minutes of the battle the concepts of squadron attack and wingmen had been abandoned, mainly because of extreme losses; and the capital ships fared no better. Many of the senior officers, those surviving at least, felt themselves participating in a second Wolf 359. Fleet level strategy was lost as fast as the fighter doctrine was, and the battle degraded into despite fight for survival for every ship of the Seventh Fleet.

Having lost contact with or seen all his squadron mates destroyed, and unable to establish contact with any level of command, Ensign Hof fought desperately to survive. He didn’t even think of escape or breaking contact with the enemy. Instead he emptied his torpedo magazines at every capital ship he could find and engaged enemy fighters with his phasers. While William didn’t keep track of his effectiveness during the battle, he did keep a tally of how many different wingmen he paired with – a total of 8 – none of whom survived. It didn’t even occur to him that what remained of the Seventh Fleet had begun to retreat until he made contact with the USS T’Kumbra.

The T’Kumbra was a Nebula class Medium Cruiser that’s warp drive had been severely damaged in the battle and was trying to fallback the best it could at impulse speed. When Ensign Hof learned of the T’Kumbra’s situation and the fact that the Seventh Fleet was in retreat, he leaped to the starship’s defense. While the battle had lasted for less than an hour, William flew escort for the T’Kumbra for nearly twelve while her warp drive was being repaired. During that time he didn’t sleep and was continuously maneuvering to intercept Dominion or Cardassian patrols sent to destroy Starfleet stragglers.

When the USS T’Kumbra and Ensign Hof’s fighter finally made it back to what remained of the Seventh Fleet, the Captain of the T’Kumbra insisted that that the ship’s guardian angel dock and be treated to the grateful thanks of her crew. While William did indeed dock with the T’Kumbra, he and his ESO instead insisted on only a dark corner in which to pass out. As he slept, the records of the battle were compiled and Ensign Hof’s accomplishments were realized. During the battle itself, he had destroyed three enemy fighters and crippled a single Jem’Hadar Fast Attack Ship. However, during his defense of the USS T’Kumbra he had destroyed eight additional fighters, and drove off another twenty fighters and three capital ships including a Cardassian medium cruiser. In effect Ensign Hof had become a double ace-in-a-day with 11 confirmed kills; this accomplishment also put him on the short list for the tile of Starfleet’s “Ace of Aces”.

The Heart of War
While many congratulated the young Ensign for his accomplishments, William found himself conflicted and withdrawn after Tyra. His flying changed from the hard charging acrobatic style that had lead him to his 11 kills to a defensive and conservative style that resulted in only 4 kills in the following few months. His apparent regression in ability, and his steadfast insistence on being isolated from others when not on duty lead his new unit to dub him “Monk”, William’s first long term call sign.

The reason for Ensign Hof’s change in style wasn’t readily apparent, however many of his squadron-mates did recall him making frequent trips to the ship’s counselor during this time. Although no official report was ever filled, many of his superiors felt that the Ensign was suffering from a mild form of combat stress reaction or shell-shock. His change to a defensive flying style actually benefited his new ship – the Ambassador class USS Gandhi– due to her lack of maneuverability; however his non-flying personality wasn’t as helpful and was much more noticeable. When William eventually did start to make forays into public during non-duty hours his comrades were just as nervous as he was. The feeling amongst the squadron was to, half-jokingly, not to spook the Ace or he might run away again.

Operation Return
When it became obvious to everyone on the USS Gandhi that they would be participating in another major push into Dominion controlled space, Ensign Hof’s personality began to resurface from the shadow of Tyra. He began to socialize more with his squadron and the ship’s company at large. Also, his flying style began to revert to the more acrobatic which had originally made him a double ace. While it never returned to the carefree style that described his early fighting, it instead gained an almost wizened approach. He was mechanical yet fluidic in his technique, adhering to solid principles yet showing a flair for improvisation and feel for the stick that made him nearly unstoppable. While off-duty he was just as methodical with social interactions, cold but good company and a solid compatriot.

When Captain Sisko’s armada set out for Deep Space Nine and its wormhole, Ensign Hof was given the honor of being the leading craft of his squadron departing Starbase 375. The trip towards Deep Space Nine was uneventful yet filled with dread for the young, battle hardened fighter pilot. As was his way, William talked to himself (with his communications system muted of course). When they armada spotted the enemy fleet, all the horrible feelings that had haunted him since Tyra came back and in spades. The combined Cardassian and Dominion fleet numbered 1254 - or over twice the size of the Federation force.

When the order came for the fighters to engage the enemy’s capital ships, Ensign Hof expected the worst. But he was a soldier with orders, so he followed his leader into the fire. For three hours, Ensign Hof’s squadron tried to goad the Cardassians into battle but to no avail. In the process he had destroyed four more fighters and participated in the destruction of one or two enemy cruisers. Not without losses however; his squadron had lost four of their eighteen fighters. During this time, Ensign Hof actually had an increase in confidence despite the lack of movement and the loss of comrades. He had finally realized that the enemy was not invincible.

After four hours of the fighters’ constant hit-and-run attacks against the Cardassian cruisers, the lines finally broke. When the squadron began their return leg, Cardassian fighters began to give chase. Shortly after that, the Federation Fleet charged into the mouth of the enemy. Without realizing it, Ensign Hof succumbed to emotion with his communications system transmitting. William yelled, “This is for Tyra you sons of b**ches!” While Ensign Hof barley registered the loud and affirmative responses of his squadron mates, he did realize that they all formed on him and his squadron leader saying, “Everyone form on 'Monk'; he’s going for their heart. Help him rip it out.”

After eight hours of vicious fighting, Ensign Hof found himself as one of six members of his squadron to finally breakthrough the enemy fleet. While they had lost two-thirds of their numbers, the spirits of the squadron, and the young Ensign ace, were never higher. The surprise attack of the Klingons had turned the tables of a well fought but desperate battle. When the joint Klingon-Federation fleet reached Deep Space Nine, they found the Cardassian evacuation all but complete and no mission but to secure the immediate region. Although the Klingons and certain Federation ships began to harass the evacuation on its way towards Cardassian territory, there were no major engagements for the fighter corps.

During the battle, Ensign Hof had again distinguished himself. The final tally included 18 enemy fighters destroyed and another 28 possible. This brought his total to 33 kills, and again put the young Ensign on the short list for the title of “Ace of Aces”.

First Battle of Chin'toka
After Operation Return, the war resembled trench warfare. Fighting and skirmishes were constant all along the front lines, but territorial gains and large scale battles were uncommon. The USS Gandhi and her fighters had been made whole after the retaking of Deep Space Nine and settled into the near reality of the war. Engagement with the Dominion and the Cardassians was common, and Ensign Hof continued with his new style of precise and fluid style of flying; racking up another 10 kills in the next few months. When the Romulans finally joined the war, the USS Gandhi and her fighters had become a finely tuned fighting team.

Once the Romulans had been convinced to join with the Federation and Klingons in an attack into Cardassian territory, the course towards the Chin'toka system was set. The Chin’toka system was largely undefended because of recent Cardassian losses and lack of Dominion reinforcements from the Gamma Quadrant; however the battle would be fierce. Expecting to rely heavily on fighter forces, due to the Dominion defense being centered on Jem'Hadar attack ships, the entire fighter corps trained constantly.

The attack was immediately launched when Starfleet Intelligence detected that the Cardassian’s had deployed a large contingent of Orbital weapon platforms within the system, and that they would become operational within days. While on route, the battle plan was altered so that the armada’s fighters would be responsible for diverting the Dominion Attack Ships while the capital ships engaged the weapons platforms. This was a simple alteration to the original battle plan, but would require the fighter forces of the three allies to be separated into two different groups. Since the Klingons and the Romulans only cooperated with Federation supervision, it was decided to allow each group to be either Romulan or Klingon with Starfleet fighters split between the two.

Scheduled to fly with the Romulans, the squadron off the USS Gandhi was faced with an interesting dilemma. They were to fly the wing of a group that they had trained to attack for most of their careers. It wasn’t until a Tactics and Intelligence briefing that Ensign Hof lived up to his “Monk” callsign. When discussing how to fight with the Romulans instead of against them, William observed that their training was a two sided coin; one side was against the Romulans and the other with them. By explaining that the squadron already knew how the Romulans fight, so instead of using that knowledge to kill them they should use it to compliment them.

As the allied armada approached the Chin’toka system, the fighters moved to engage the Dominion Attack Ships. For the fighter groups the battle plan stayed intact, with a few of the Attack Ships ever being able to engage the larger fleet. Few Dominion fighters were present, but Ensign Hof still managed to destroy 3. As for the Attack Ships, William’s squadron either destroyed or crippled 8. As many would remark, William’s observation about flying with the Romulans was unbelievably accurate. Unfortunately the battle was not as smooth for the main battle fleet. The USS Gandhi succumbed to the fully operational orbital weapon platforms and was lost with all hands.

Partly due to the loss of the USS Gandhi and partly due to the constant Dominion and Cardassian attacks on the Chin’toka system, William’s squadron spent the next few months as orphans within the system. Migrating from ship to ship to ground based aerodromes they flew numerous and fluctuating missions. Acting as firemen – so to speak – they responded to any request for assistance; they even flew a few ground support missions for the Starfleet Marine Corps. Eventually the Squadron was rotated back to Earth for rest, refit, and reorganization with eventual assignment to another starship.

The Coming of the Breen


When the Breen launched their surprise attack on Starfleet Headquarters and Starfleet Academy to announce their entrance into the Dominion War, William was again in the middle of the action. Having recently returned from two weeks leave and enjoying his recent promotion to Lieutenant, Junior Grade; the new Lieutenant sprang into action. Having no battle station on the grounds and unwilling to retreat to a bunker, he instead ran for the Headquarters’ aerospace field.

Rather than trying to impose himself on an existing squadron, he headed for the repair and maintenance area. Finding a Senior Chief Petty Officer, he declared himself a pilot and demanded a craft. With a quick reference check, the besieged Senior Chief was glad to assist the young officer. Offering up a Peregrine fighter lacking warp coils, Lieutenant Hof sprinted to get her pre-flighted while the Chief rounded up a scratch ground crew. Within ten minutes of the attack, ‘Monk’ was announcing his presence with Space Defense Command.

Even before the controllers with Space Defense could even find Lieutenant Hof a unit to join, he began to engage Breen fighters. Lacking torpedo ordnance and even a wingman, William stayed in Earth’s atmosphere engaging stray fighters and attack ships. He left the heavy lifting of engaging the Breen capital ships to the alert squadrons and instead protected the civilian population. Eventually William linked up with a squadron of SFMC A-20 Harriers that had been given a similar mission.

Once these Marine pilots saw "Monk’s" skill they willingly let him take the lead in most engagements. Having been trained for mostly ground support, they lacked the experienced touch in air combat maneuvering that William had. Originally thinking the Marines were flying Peregrines, William was rather shocked to see that they had projectile weapons; which were used with surprising effectiveness. All of which William shared with them once the battle ended.

In the two hours that the attack lasted Lieutenant Hof managed to score 4 kills. One of these came while trying to escort a civilian shuttle through the thick of the battle. Once the battle had ended and the aerospace declared clear, he took leave of his adopted squadron and returned to the maintenance and repair yard from which he took the fighter. Needless to say, the Senior Chief that had allowed the “theft” was relieved that the Peregrine had been returned, but she was even more ecstatic that the Lieutenant had managed to do some good.

While the Senior Chief and Lieutenant Hof faced the seemingly irate grilling of the Officer-in-Charge of the Maintenance and Repair Yard, a quick review of the fighter’s sensor logs resulted in an unrecorded verbal reprimand for both. What surprised the Lieutenant the most, was when the Marine squadron that he flown with tracked him down to express their good opinion of his flying.

Unhappy Stalemate
It was a mixed blessing in many ways that Lieutenant Hof’s next assignment was with a squadron defending the Sol system. It caused him to miss the Second Battle of Chin’toka, during which every fighter in attendance was destroyed, but it also gave him a much needed break. William had been on the front lines since the beginning of the War, and was well aware that this made him part a true minority segment of Starfleet. However, even this assignment wouldn’t last too long, as the need for his type of experience and skill was needed more than ever.

When the Federation needed to withdrawl from the front lines because of the Breen’s energy-draining weaponry, Starfleet Command was far from idol. They pulled experienced fighter pilots and starship crews like Lieutenant Hof from their assignments and placed them in training billets. With the Klingons trying to defend the all three Allied powers, the Romulans and Federation put all their efforts into building up their fleets and the training the personnel to use them.

Lieutenant Hof found himself as the Chief Instructor at a hastily established advanced training center for fighter pilots. It was here that Starfleet expected William to impart his knowledge and skill to rookie pilots so that they could stand a greater chance of surviving battle. Knowing that the Fighter Corps was a meat grinder for both pilots and craft the Lieutenant never let his charges relax. Alerts came at all times of the day and night. Training rotations in flight basics and formation flying were routinely interrupted by “enemy” attacks. Despite his demand for perfection and insistence on nearly constant combat drills, William also pioneered a unique training aide.

Whenever a student was administratively killed in training, that student would be unable to interact with any of the other students until the he was able to survive a combat training exercise. According to records there were a record number of protests filled about this treatment, but the training center’s commanding officer, a combat fighter veteran herself, allowed the practice continue.

When an entire student squadron filled a protest about this treatment Lieutenant Hof delivered an impassioned explanation:

''“You think this a game? That somehow because you’re just in training there should be no consequences for failure? Listen to me very carefully, whenever you go into battle you will lose people. Friends and comrades will be blown out of the out of the sky meters from you; with a mild and temporary sensor echo the only thing to mark their passing.''

''“You won’t be able to talk to them ever again, never see them again, and certainly never have the opportunity to have them come back to life because they tried harder on the next mission. Get used to that. The price of failure in war isn’t being isolated from everyone, its death; and every last one of you needs to get used to that.''

''“What you are training for suffers about 50-80% casualty rates every time we’re in a fleet engagement. And it doesn’t matter how good you think you are or whether you aced training, when fate decides that you’re dead, you’re dead. No second chances, no tomorrow, no take backs. So get used to it. And when this war is over and the worst thing you have ever experienced is being isolated from everyone because you ‘died’ on a training mission, count yourself lucky.”''

The Final Drive
When Starfleet finally managed to create a countermeasure to the Breen’s energy-draining weapons the time spent on training and construction proved well spent. All the temporary training facilities were immediately closed and their instructor staffs reassigned to battle ready units. Lieutenant Hof, not exactly anxious to return to the line, was assigned to the Akira class Heavy Cruiser USS Thunderchild during the run-up to what would be known as the Battle of Cardassia.

Conflicted about his return to battle after so many months behind the lines, he fell back on the lessons he taught his students during the last lull in the war. Focusing on the fundamentals and instructing other he served as his squadron’s Training Officer and resident ace. His personality was guarded but his flying was nothing but. Lieutenant Hof had seemed to regress to his Academy days with an aerobatic style of flying, but this time it was infused with the mechanical precision hard won after nearly three years of war.

As the Allied Fleet lead by Admiral Ross approached Cardassia Lieutenant Hof was inside the body of the fleet, his squadron being recently relieved of their forward scouting duties. Then the Dominion Fleet came into view, and consensus amongst his squadron was this was going to be the largest fleet engagement in recorded history.

Like all the fleet engagements before, this one degraded into a melee of close-quarters battles fought between individual ships or small groups. For hours Lieutenant Hof and his squadron fought as fiercely as any, racking up individual kills and participating in squadron attacks on capital ships. With nether side willing to retreat or making serious mistakes in strategy, the battle was quickly turning into the all too familiar meat grinder.

By the midpoint of the battle Lieutenant Hof’s squadron had lost all but four of its fighters, but they stuck together all the more reliably because of it. Unlike the Battle of Tyra so many years ago, Lieutenant Hof kept his same wingman throughout the battle. And together they were able to eliminate nearly forty fighters and small ships; and even launch the death blows on a Galor class Cardassian Warship (which amazingly was credited to Lieutenant Hof as a full kill).

Near the end of the battle Lieutenant Hof had a Cardassian Hideki class attack ship in his sights when the ship began to engage Breen and Jem’Hadar fighters. With his finger paused above the firing trigger for a moment, he called Fleet Command in order to figure out what was going on. But even as the controller explained that the Cardassians had inexplicably changed sides, William could see the Cardassian ships engaging their former allies and even coming to the aid of their former enemies. In fact, instead of destroying the Hideki he formed up on its wing and was lead through five attacks on Jem’Hadar capital ships before his attention was needed elsewhere. Lieutenant Hof would later observe that it was the strangest experience of his life.

The War's End
With the Dominion War over, fantastically quick to some, Lieutenant, Junior Grade William Hof was left to count the cost along with the rest of the Federation. At final tally William had been defeated twice in combat, since neither came during a major fleet engagement he was able to survive each time. Shortly after the War the Starfleet Fighter Corps published a list of the Top 10 Fighter Pilots, organized by number of confirmed kills. At 162 confirmed kills, Lieutenant Hof was ranked sixth – although he amongst only three that survived the war, where he was number 2. He was however the only one on the list who was credited with full kill on a capital ship, and the only one to have killed a fighter from each member of the Dominion’s Alliance (Jem'Hadar, Cardassian, Breen, and Son'a).