Jackson Spencer
the CAG called Dipper
Major Jackson "Dipper" Spencer was a Colonial Fleet officer who served as Galactica's Commander, Air Group on the eve of her decommissioning, and who was killed leading his Vipers away from the ship when the Cylon attack began.
Major Jackson "Dipper" Spencer was an officer in the Colonial Fleet who served as Commander, Air Group aboard the battlestar Galactica in the period leading up to her decommissioning. He commanded the ship's Viper wing during the ceremonial fly-past that marked the occasion, and was killed in the opening moments of the Cylon assault on the Twelve Colonies when his squadron lost power within weapons range of the enemy.
Service aboard Galactica#
Spencer held the rank of Major and served as Galactica's Commander, Air Group, the officer responsible for the battlestar's complement of fighter pilots. He was carrying out this role in the late 10s before the Cylon holocaust, as the aging warship was being prepared for decommissioning.
On the morning of the decommissioning, Spencer found himself stepping between his own people. When Colonel Saul Tigh came to blows with Lieutenant Kara Thrace over a Triad game, Spencer held the colonel back. With Thrace confined to the brig as a result, he reassigned her place in the planned ceremonial fly-past to Lieutenant Samuel Anders.
The fly-past and the Fall#
The decommissioning display saw twenty Mark VII Vipers and a single Mark II Viper pass over Galactica's starboard flight pod. Once the fly-past was complete, Spencer led the Mark VIIs away from the ship to be reassigned elsewhere in the Fleet.
During the transit, reports came in of a massive Cylon strike against Colonial defenses, marking the beginning of the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. When the accompanying Raptor detected two Cylon Raiders, Spencer's squadron moved to engage. The Cylons had succeeded in cracking the Command Navigation Program, software installed in the Mark VII Vipers, and as a result every Viper in the squadron lost power before it could close to weapons range. Defenseless, Spencer was killed by a missile impact.
Frequently asked questions
- Who was Jackson Spencer?
- Major Jackson "Dipper" Spencer was a Colonial Fleet officer who served as Commander, Air Group aboard the battlestar Galactica in the period leading up to her decommissioning. He was responsible for the battlestar's complement of fighter pilots.
- What was Jackson Spencer's call sign and rank?
- Spencer held the rank of Major and used the call sign "Dipper". He served as Galactica's CAG, the Commander, Air Group.
- Why did Jackson Spencer reassign Kara Thrace's place in the fly-past?
- When Colonel Saul Tigh came to blows with Lieutenant Kara Thrace over a Triad game, Spencer held the colonel back. With Thrace confined to the brig as a result, he reassigned her place in the planned ceremonial fly-past to Lieutenant Samuel Anders.
- How did Jackson Spencer die?
- After leading the Mark VII Vipers away from Galactica for reassignment, Spencer's squadron moved to engage Cylon Raiders during the Fall. The Cylons had cracked the Command Navigation Program installed in the Mark VII Vipers, so every Viper lost power before reaching weapons range, and Spencer was killed by a missile impact.
Sources
- WikiJackson Spencer — Battlestar Wiki entry
- WikiMajor — Battlestar Wiki entry
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Related entries
Kara Thrace
Kara "Starbuck" Thrace was the finest Viper pilot in the Colonial Fleet, a gifted and self-destructive officer whose attitude often thwarted her own advancement. After her death over a gas giant, a figure bearing her identity returned to guide humanity to its new home.
Saul Tigh
Colonel Saul Tigh was the executive officer of the battlestar Galactica and William Adama's oldest friend, a hard-drinking and embittered soldier who later discovered he was one of the Final Five Cylons yet never stopped thinking of himself as a Colonial officer.
Colonial Fleet
The Colonial Fleet was the naval arm of the military of the United Colonies of Kobol, founded during the Cylon War to unite the forces of the Twelve Worlds. At its height it numbered some 120 battlestars, yet a single Cylon exploit reduced it to two ships in the opening minutes of the Fall.
Cylon Raider
The Raider was the Cylons' space superiority fighter, a living organism fused to a metallic exoskeleton. Sentient, capable of resurrection, and eventually capable of refusing orders, the Raider was the counterpart to the Colonial Viper across both Cylon wars.
Cylon
The Cylons were a race of sentient machines created as military robots by Graystone Industries on Caprica. Built from research into artificial consciousness, they rebelled against their human masters, fought a decades long war, and forty years later returned to annihilate humanity.
Fall of the Twelve Colonies
The Fall of the Twelve Colonies, also called the Second Cylon War, was a single-day Cylon campaign of total annihilation against Colonial space. It wiped out almost the entire human population of over twenty nine billion and left barely fifty thousand survivors in a fleeing refugee fleet.
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