House of Steel The Honorverse Companion - By David Weber Page 0,194

publicly acknowledged the successful defense of the Yeltsin’s Star System as his personal Test and has been quoted in the ’faxes as saying, “God will let me know when it’s time for me to go. Probably when my heart stops beating.”

Doctrine and Training Command

Rear Admiral Michael Reston

Doctrine and Training Command (DTC) works closely with the Office of Personnel and has been instrumental in keeping pace with the rapidly evolving theory of warfare in the Alliance as a whole and GSN in particular.

For the first decade after Grayson joined the Manticoran Alliance, all GSN officers attended the RMN Academy on Saganami Island, and the majority of them continue to do so. In 1920, however, the revamped Isaiah Mackenzie Naval Academy, the traditional source of the GSN’s officer corps, reopened with a thoroughly modernized curriculum and up-to-date training facilities. DTC has been deeply involved with coursework design for Saganami Island from the very first, and was instrumental in designing the new Mackenzie curriculum and in recruiting visiting Manticoran professors. In addition, DTC bears primary responsibility for local enlisted personnel training, and it has also been instrumental in some of the changes in command and control structure on Grayson warships, rippling down from flag staff to individual bridge crews.

Systems Command

Vice Admiral Thomas Albert

Systems Command has been the Navy’s research and development shop since long before the Alliance. All of the home-grown technology updates the Navy had put into place before the first Masadan attack after the Exile were developed here. Systems Command provided the original work on the improved compensators and fission reactors and has worked very closely with the RMN’s Weapons Development Board on many aspects of Alliance technology.

The original intention was to replace Systems Command with the Office of Technology once the influx of new tech from Manticore grew from a trickle into a flood, but High Admiral Matthews, with the firm support of the Protector, overruled the decision. He argued that Grayson must not rely on foreign efforts to develop new technology and should continue its own development, incorporating but not slavishly following Manticoran tech and practice. Thus, Systems Command retains its research and development role while coordinating closely with the Office of Technology to screen for useful ideas from across the human galaxy.

Special Warfare Command

Lieutenant General Gerald White

Special Warfare Command (SpecWar) is the smallest Command in the GSN and also one of the older ones. The hyperdrive, and exposure to the rest of humanity, brought both the GSN and their Masadan opponents a limited ability to conduct covert operations in each other’s star systems. SpecWar was the organization that grew out of the Office of Intelligence unit tasked with covert operations in either star system. As such, it gathered a substantial amount of information for the Alliance forces that occupied Masada.

Protector’s Own Squadron

Protector Benjamin Mayhew IX established the Protector’s Own in 1914 PD, using as its core the warships and volunteers of the Elysian Space Navy. The crews of the Elysian Space Navy were former State Security prisoners of war who escaped the Cerberus System under the command of Admiral Harrington. Every member was offered a position in the Protector’s Own, and nearly one hundred sixty thousand accepted. Like service members in the Grayson Space Navy, members of the Protector’s Own are entitled to Grayson citizenship following six years of honorable service. While the initial service members of the Protector’s Own were foreign, and in some cases decades out of practice in the art and science of space combat, that core group and the Grayson-born members who have joined it have become the most skilled force in the already elite Grayson service.

The Protector’s Own is personally financed by the Protector of Grayson. The squadron’s new ships are built in Grayson Space Navy yards. The Protector’s Own Squadron, currently nearer to a fleet in size, generally shares doctrine, training, maintenance, and upkeep facilities with the GSN. Service members of the Protector’s Own are uniformed in the Mayhew gold and maroon. They are paid on a scale set by the Protector. As of 1921 PD, that rate is 115 percent of GSN pay for the same grade.

In recognition of Fleet Admiral Harrington, its commanding officer, the emblem of the Protector’s Own is a flame-enshrouded salamander. Because of her other duties, Admiral Harrington relies on her second-in-command, Admiral Alfredo Yu, to serve as the acting commanding officer in her absence. Though many of the members of the Protector’s Own are foreign born, service is open to all spacers (foreign or steaders) who