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This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. If an article link referred you here, you might want to go back and fix it to point directly to the intended page. Also, if you wanted to search for the term "Air", click here.
Airlocks serve as the entrance and exits to spaceships, whether it is docking with another ship or for extravehicular activity (EVA), without compromising the atmosphere of a spaceship. They consist of a hyperbaric chamber with a pair of airtight doors, one allowing access to the ship's interior and the other to the vacuum of space. The chamber can be pressurized and depressurized in a controlled fashion. A Viperlaunch tube constitutes a form of airlock with additional features for the rapid deployment of Vipers.
Airlocks on Galactica have at multiple configurations, including one featuring an observation booth from where a depressurized airlock can be safely monitored by personnel. Some airlocks feature shared layouts as a launch tube's control room.
Cally and Galen Tyrol were trapped in airlock 12 on deck 14, after Galactica's computer automatically seals its blast doors due to pressure loss. In order to affect a rescue, the two had to be "airlocked" when the bulkhead was blown and the two crewmembers were summarily recovered via a nearby Raptor. Both survive the brief exposure, although Cally was seriously injured during the decompression (TRS: "A Day in the Life").
During Gaeta's Mutiny, Galen Tyrol directs Lee Adama, Kara Thrace, Laura Roslin and Gaius Baltar to the Secondary Storage Bay, so that Admiral William Adama and Colonel Saul Tigh may escape capture by Felix Gaeta's mutineers via a Raptor dispatched by the Rebel basestar. Tyrol recalls that the location possesses an abandoned and forgotten airlock damaged in the Battle of New Caprica, but brought back online by Tyrol for his plans. Roslin and Baltar abscond via the Raptor, while Tigh and Admiral Adama stay behind to defend the airlock and give Tyrol, Lee, and Thrace time to use the vents to escape into the bowels of Galactica (TRS: "The Oath", "Blood on the Scales").
Ejecting a person from an airlock or launch tube is a common and easy execution method (TRS: "Flesh and Bone", "Collaborators") and the phrase "throwing someone out of an airlock" has gained some notoriety due to Laura Roslin's preference for spacing Cylon agents in this manner (TRS: "Flesh and Bone", "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"). Much to Gaius Baltar's dismay, Roslin suggested throwing Hera out an airlock, in order to prevent the Cylons from obtaining the hybrid (TRS: "Downloaded"). Although seen as a quick execution, whether it qualified as humane is open for debate given Adama's comment that human survival is possible for up to a minute in a vacuum (TRS: "A Day in the Life").
The airlock set seen in "A Day in the Life" is a reuse of the launch tube set, as denoted by the doors and control station which Seelix mans in this episode.
The Commander, Air Group (CAG) is the senior pilot aboard a battlestar, responsible for Air Wing operations and personnel. The billet is filled by the senior flight officer with a rank of captain or higher.
CAGs have normally been captains throughout the series, but always senior to all other pilots. Captain Lee Adama is initially appointed CAG by virtue of his rank, and eventually is promoted to major with several captains serving under him as squadron commanders. Subsequent CAGs (Kara Thrace, George Birch, Louanne Katraine) are captains when appointed. In Thrace's case in "Pegasus," Lee Adama is demoted to Lieutenant under her.
"CAG" is a US Navy term that has gained widespread recognition through films and television series such as "Top Gun" and "JAG". The term "CAG" is obsolete as Air Groups are now known as Air Wings and the position is "Commander, Air Wing" (CAW), but it is still used, especially on an informal level. The term "Air Wing" is also used on Battlestar Galactica (TRS: "Pegasus").
The CAG's rank and place in the ship's hierarchy is one area where Battlestar Galactica diverges from the US Navy. In the real world, the CAG is a captain (O-6) of equal seniority to the ship's captain (or skipper), with both under the command of an admiral who commands the Carrier Strike Group. Battlestar Galactica places the CAG under the ship's commander, and at major or even captain he or she holds a relatively low rank.
Numerous squadron insignia[1] are visible on the walls of the pilots' ready room on Galactica. The squadrons can contain both Viper and Raptor pilots, which comprise its air wing,[2] the sum of all Viper squadrons, Raptors and support ships assigned to a battlestar.
An air wing is commanded by the battlestar's senior pilot, the Commander, Air Group, or "CAG". The term air group is only used in the title of the CAG, as in practice the Viper and Raptor force is called "air wing" (TRS: "Pegasus") [3].
Squadrons are purely organizational in nature and probably also a matter of generating esprit de corps (positive morale) in a group of pilots. In combat, Viper squadrons are color-coded, i.e. Blue Squadron and Red Squadron, depending on the mission parameters.
An organizational chart in the episode "The Passage" shows that Galactica operates four squadrons with 10 to 16 pilots each. Each squadron has a mix of Viper and Raptor pilots [4]. The known squadron leaders at that time are Kara Thrace, Louanne Katraine and Ricky Richardson. After Thrace is presumed dead, Agathon rises to squadron leader as well (TRS: "The Son Also Rises").
Not all squadrons listed in this article are in active service. This is supported by the low number of Vipers on Galactica, as well as the availability of a single hangar deck and flight pod for missions. Together with the low number of pilots, this makes it probable that many squadron patches shown represent those that served on Galactica in its past, but have since been assigned elsewhere or disbanded. This is likely the case with Primus squadron, which served in the first Cylon War and whose patches might have been kept for historical or nostalgic reasons. Squadron 2 was a Raptor squadron that served in the first Cylon War (Razor Flashbacks, Episode 1).
The squadron patches are numbered in sequence beginning with 1 (Primus). The exception is the Viper Weapons School patch, a golden version of the standard Viper patch.
Known squadron names are:
Fighter Squadron 1 Primus
Raptor Squadron 2 Strike Fighters
Fighter Squadron 3 Vigilantes
Fighter Squadron 4 Demons
Fighter Squadron 5 Prowlers
Fighter Squadron 6 Vampires
Raptor Squadron 7 Battleaxe
Fighter Squadron 8 Red Aces - Aces N' Eights
Fighter Squadron 9 Headhunters
Raptor Squadron 10 Raptors
Of note, the standard Raptor patch is labeled "Fighter Squadron 10 Raptors".
The Primus patch is visible in this old photo of William Adama.
Primus is the name of Galactica's 1st Viper Squadron.
William Adama was a member of this fighter group, in addition to other pilots from the Cylon War era such as Raymond Lai. The logo of this group is adorned prominently on the nose of many restored Viper Mark II fighters that were to occupy the Galactica Museum.
A photo of a younger William Adama and his two boys, Zak and Lee, shows the Primus logo on his jumpsuit and his old fighter, Viper 7242.
Vigilantes squadron crest in Colonel Tigh's quarters (TRS: "Miniseries").
The Vigilantes, 3rd Viper Squadron, is a long-established unit in the Colonial Fleet before the Cylon attack. Given that the squadron's logo adorns a wall in the quarters of Colonel Tigh (a commanding officer long removed from pilot service), it is likely that Tigh served as a member of the Vigilantes as a Viper pilot in the first Cylon War.
Jackson Spencer, the former CAG of Galactica and "Jolly" Anders were also members of the Vigilantes. They were destroyed along with most of the squadron by Cylon Raiders during the Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies. The only known survivors at this time are Thrace, who was in the brig for striking a superior officer, and the crew of the Raptor supporting the squadron, Sharon Valerii and Karl Agathon (TRS: "Miniseries"). It is unknown if the Raptor crew was part of the squadron or just assigned to support it, although a Squadron 7 Battleaxe crest in Agathon's quarters seems to suggest that he was once a member of that group (TRS: "Rapture").
It is possible that some of these insignia actually belong to larger units, such as wings, which are composed of several squadrons in turn (with 12-24 planes each). In many real-world air forces wings have own insignia and names, but no evidence exists as to whether the Colonial Fleet is structured in the same way. Since the Raptor patch is labeled "Fighter Squadron 10," Battlestar Wiki chooses to treat all of them as squadrons. There is also a "7th Raptor Squadron - Battleaxe" patch.
↑Admiral Helena Cain in "Pegasus" uses the term in context: "I'm going to integrate the crews. And I'm starting by reassigning Captain Adama to the Pegasus air wing."
↑The term "air group" is technically obsolete in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy as air groups are now known as air wings. While the senior pilot title is officially Commander, Air Wing (CAW), the term of "CAG" is still used informally as a portmanteau. Battlestar Galactica reflects the same informality.
↑It is unknown how accurately the writers follow this chart. Flight operations depicted in other episodes might differ from it in details. For example both Louanne Katraine and Karl Agathon lead Blue Squadron/Blue Team some time, but are shown to be in different squadrons on the chart. Since the names are on magnetic cards, the roster may also be in flux from an in-universe point of view.
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