Tenn Graneet Tenn Graneet was a Human male Imperial gunner who was master chief gunnery officer in the Imperial Navy during the Galactic Civil War . In 0 BBY , Graneet was stationed aboard the " Imperial " - class Star Destroyer " Steel Talon " . He was killed on board the Death Star shortly afterwards during the Battle of Yavin . Biography . Graneet had served in the Navy for thirty years and had served in the Clone Wars as a gunner . Grannet was a lifelong military man , who enjoyed his career and was always eager to be placed in front of the largest gun available . At one point , Tenn sustained a muscular injury and , during the surgery , received a physical modification that increased the strength in his right arm by thirty percent . Tenn ' s nephew , Hora Graneet , was also a member of the Imperial Navy , and was killed onboard the Star Destroyer Battle Lance . As the Death Star neared completion , Graneet , being among those Imperial gunners who were the highest - ranking and best trained , was transferred to the superlaser gunnery crew . Graneet was initially thrilled with the new assignment , but as he familiarized himself with the new superweapon , he began to question whether any person was capable of wielding such power wisely . He rationalized his concerns with the mistaken belief that the Empire would not actually fire the weapon at full power on an inhabited planet , rather on uninhabited moons , planets , and other bodies . During the final months of construction , Graneet and his crew trained on a simulator of the main firing control chamber , familiarizing themselves with the firing sequence and working to shorten the firing sequence as much as possible . Graneet took pride in his abilities and his crew , and was glad to be the first to test the Death Star ' s superlaser . As the NCO IC of the superlaser ' s gunnery crew , it fell to Graneet to actually complete the firing sequence by pulling the firing lever . The first time he actually fired the weapon was against an old " Lucrehulk " - class battleship , " Fortressa " , that was being used by the Rebel Alliance . Even though the weapon was only at four percent power , it was more than enough to completely destroy the Rebel capital ship . Eventually he grew such a dislike of his job , he started to wonder about other possibilities , and stated that it was his dream to become a commander of a Super - class Star Destroyer . Graneet later fired the superlaser against the planet of Despayre . The destruction of Despayre took three shots to complete over the course of several hours . The first shot killed every living thing on the planet and cooked the surface of the planet . The second caused further tectonic stress to the planet , and the third shot finally blew the planet apart . After this , Graneet was highly shaken as he began to realize how much power the Death Star really had . He felt extremely guilty to have been the one to destroy Despayre , even though its main population had been that of convicted criminals . Later , Graneet was ordered to fire on the inhabited planet of Alderaan — killing nearly two billion sentients in the process . Following the destruction of Despayre and Alderaan , Graneet had a severe pang of conscience . Knowing that he had sent billions to their deaths , he soon came to see himself as the largest mass murderer in galactic history , and knew that if somehow the Rebel Alliance were to win the war , he would be tried and executed for his crimes . As news that it was Graneet who fired on Despayre and Alderaan spread throughout the Death Star ' s population , many of the people who Graneet encountered began reacting differently to him . He also seriously began to doubt if he would force himself to destroy another planet when ordered to , but worried that if he refused , someone else would simply pull the lever for him . He even began to doubt his own loyalty to the Empire , and began to hate them and himself for causing the death of so many innocent civilians . When given the order to fire the superlaser at the rebel base on Yavin 4 , Graneet froze , wracked with guilt and wishing desperately for something to save him from his dreadful duty . In desperation , he informed his gunnery crew and the overbridge to " stand by " and then repeated his order a few seconds later , until his wish was granted , as his few moments of hesitation were sufficient to allow Luke Skywalker to destroy the Death Star . Graneet died in the resulting explosion . Incidentally , his hesitation also allowed the Rebels to eliminate not only a significant force of manpower and materials fielded by the Empire , but also some of the most achieved and capable of the Empire ' s officer corps , including Grand Moff Tarkin . Behind the scenes . The gunner that mans the superlaser in was identified in the " Death Star " novel as Master Chief Gunnery Officer Tenn Graneet . Contrary to the nature of the character ' s responsibility , " Death Star " portrays Graneet as a morally conflicted individual who hated his actions but found himself forced to carry them out .