Bren Derlin Bren Derlin was a male human officer of the Rebel Alliance . Bearing the rank of Major , Derlin served as the operations and security chief at Echo Base , the Alliance headquarters on the planet Hoth , under the command of General Carlist Rieekan . In that post , Derlin had to order the closing of the base door to avoid putting the whole base in risk . By doing so , however , he risked the lives of Luke Skywalker and Han Solo , two valuable Rebels . Soon after that event , Derlin served during the Battle of Hoth , and later during the Battle of Endor . Biography . A male human from the planet Tiisheraan , Bren Derlin was part of the Rebel Alliance , a resistance group who opposed the dictatorial Galactic Empire . He and his team were acquainted with fellow Alliance operative Nakari Kelen , who taught them how to better handle a sniper rifle . Mission to Omereth . Following the Battle of Yavin , Derlin was part of the mission to rescue Givin slicer Drusil Bephorin and her family from the Empire . He was ordered to escort her family to Omereth to await Lieutenant Luke Skywalker ' s arrival with Bephorin . While extracting the family after receiving word that Skywalker had rescued Bephorin , Derlin and his team were discovered by bounty hunter s who had been attracted by a bounty placed by the Empire for the return of Bephorin and her family . Derlin and his team fought off the hunters and fled to Omereth in their ship , but three members of his team were killed and the hunters followed them to the water y world . The bounty hunters trapped the Rebels into a stalemate at their rendezvous point , jammed their communications , and waited for Skywalker to arrive with Bephorin . Derlin and his team were unable to break free from the siege and were forced to place their hopes in Skywalker being able to defeat the hunters when he arrived . Derlin ' s hopes were well - placed , as Skywalker was able to eliminate the bounty hunters upon his arrival . After Skywalker landed at the rendezvouses point , Derlin explained to him what had happened and was saddened to hear that Kelen , who had been working with Skywalker , had been killed during the fight against the bounty hunters . Derlin then set up a dead drop site for Bephorin to contact the Alliance at and departed Omereth with his team and Skywalker to return Kelen ' s body to her father on Pasher before rejoining the Alliance Fleet . Echo Base . Around three years later , the Alliance chose to have a presence on the frozen planet Hoth , where they established Echo Base . Derlin was assigned there . One day , Skywalker , now a Commander , and Captain Han Solo went on a patrol and failed to return to the base before the night . Derlin had to close the main doors of the Base , to protect the other people there from the cold night temperature — but at the same time , that meant leaving Skywalker and Solo outside for the night , with almost no chance of surviving . He waited at the main door , near Prince ss Leia Organa , an important dignitary of the base and close friend to both Skywalker and Solo . The young deck lieutenant of the base reported to Derlin that Skywalker and Solo had failed to return . Derlin had the unenviable task to report Organa about the need of closing the doors . He waited for Organa to acknowledge his words , and then ordered the Deck Lieutenant to close the doors . The following day , Skywalker and Solo were rescued by the airspeeder searchers . Shortly thereafter , the Empire discovered Echo Base and organized a ground attack against it . Imperial General Maximillian Veers commanded several highly - armored AT - ATs to raid the base . The commanders of the base assigned snowspeeders to the available pilots so that they could oppose the walker s , while the Alliance evacuated the planet in transport s . Organa and Derlin briefed the pilot s with their instructions , and they were quick to obey . The Endor Moon . Six months after the Hoth debacle , Derlin was tasked to lead a commando team in the ground portion of the Battle of Endor . Behind the scenes . Major Bren Derlin first appeared in the 1980 movie " " , where he was played by John Ratzenberger . While not named in the film dialogue , he was identified as " Major Derlin " in the movie ' s credits .