Sean Kelso (D26)

Commander Sean Kelso was born to Adrian and Lena Kelso on Tauron five years after the end of the First Cylon War

Early Life

Raised on Tauron, Sean carved out a niche for himself early amongst his peers often taking on the role as the class clown and an underachiever in spite of the fact that early standardized tests pegged him as exceptionally bright academically, especially in the fields of science and mathematics.

When he was 8, his father took Sean along to attend the annual veteran's reunion aboard the decommissioned Battlestar Pacifica. It was during this reunion that young Sean first became aware of just how important a role Adrian Kelso had played during the conflict. With the tales of father's bravery and steadfast leadership as recounted by other Pacifica veterans at the forefront of his mind, young Sean Kelso returned imbued with a newfound drive to succeed. With his academic scores now beginning to reflect his aptitudes, Sean nevertheless continued to display a touch of rebellious spirit, often seeking out unusual or unorthodox solutions to problems.

When he was in his mid teens, Sean Kelso's apptitude for engineering began to come to the forefront when, quite literally on a whim, he disassembled and then reassembled piece by piece the engine to an antique vehicle owned by his father. While initially incensed by the incident, Adrian nevertheless found to his suprise that Sean's impromptu mechanical work had actually improved the vehicle's performance.

 University Career 

As the son of an allumnist, as well as on the merits of his own scholastic achievements, Sean won a full academic scholarship to the Tauron Institure of Technology and Science. Graduating summa cum laude, he left with an advanced degree in aerospace enginnering and mechanics.

The only real marks against him during this time period came on the eve of commencement when Sean was implicated, but never arrested or charged, with participating in several incidents of vandalism and disorderly conduct on campus. The first incident involved several students of the institute managing to place a campus police cruiser inside the administration rotunda in spite of the fact that no entrances were wide enough to accomodate the vehicle. The second involved the dressing of at least a dozen statues dedicated to the gods in women's clothing and apparel. And lastly, a 'flash mob' of the graduating senior class aseembled in the campus quad, with all the participants arriving at that location completely nude.

Military Career

In spite of his apparent penchant for pranks, Sean was neverthless covetted by numerous civil aeronautics firms upon graduation. However, Sean Kelso surprised many, most especially his own father, by immediately applying for Officer Candidate School following commencement. While his performance in OCS was somewhat less stellar than his acadmic career, Sean Kelso nevertheless continued to demonstrate what his instructors generously termed 'asymetrical thinking' when confronted with problems and scenarios. Upon commissioning into the Colonial Fleet at the accelerated rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade, Sean Kelso was assigned to the engineering cadre at the Scorpion Shipyards.

With his career already on a fast track, Sean Kelso continued to work his way up the ranks, consistently demonstrating a steadfast attention to detail and work ethic that kept him in the attention of many of his superiors.

By the time of the Fall of the Twelve Colonies, Sean Kelso had earned a promotion to the rank of Commander and had been assigned as lead project manager on the ambitious Warstar project at the Capital Vessel Assembly Annex. Overseeing the vessel's assembly and fitting out, his keen attention to detail earned him citations of commendation as he kept the project both on time and on budget, important considerations in light of the politically controversial nature of the Warstar project itself.

On the eve of the Fall, Commander Sean Kelso was in temporary command of the new warship as she got underway for the first time on her own for a trial shakedown near the Colonial Capital Vessel Proving Grounds. In another example of his penchant for the unorthodox, Commander Sean Kelso invoked a little known regulation that had fallen into disuse following the Cylon War that afforded him the latitude to change the vessel's call sign from her commercial hull registry (normally used by vessels not yet in full commission) to Warstar Galactica, the ship's intended name once she entered full service. Although this raised more than a few eyebrows when the transmission was recieved at Picon Fleet Headquaters, events were about to transpire that shifted their attention away from the procedural idiosyncrasy.

Fall of the Twelve Colonies

As the Cylon attack began to sweep through Colonial territory, the Commander Sean Kelso and the skeleton crew of the Warstar Galactica were conducting the first series of tests on the new vessel's systems at a military testing range for new-built capital vessels. In spite of the ferocity of the Cylon assault, with the testing range well outside the normal intercolonial shipping lanes at a nominal distance of approximately one-light day from any colony, Commander Kelso and his crew were completely unaware that anything was taking place back on their homeworlds.

While conducting tests on the new ship's systems, several anomalies were detected in the Command Navigation Program software that prompted Commander Kelso to order the system taken offline and the shipwide network shutdown while his onboard computer experts attempted to discover the nature of the anomalies themselves.

By the time the Warstar Galactica and her crew recieved word of the Cylon attack, fully one day after the fact, the destruction wrought upon Colonial civilization was all but complete. In spite of the fact that the vessel had barely a skeleton crew aboard, few munitions and almost no aircraft, Commander Kelso nevertheless decided to take the new Galactica back into the combat zone in order to try and locate any possible survivors.