Jon Vander / Legends Jon " Dutch " Vander was a Human male and a senior pilot who joined the Rebel Alliance during the Galactic Civil War . He fought in the Battle of Yavin , flying a BTL Y - wing starfighter as Gold Leader , but was shot down by Darth Vader . Biography . He was trained at the Imperial Academy as a fighter pilot , but during one of his missions as a TIE Bomber pilot , he discovered the true nature of the Galactic Empire ' s ideals . He was ordered to bomb his home planet . He simulated a failure in his bomber and aborted the mission . He managed to escape the Imperials and joined the Rebel Alliance . Jon got the nickname " Dutch " from his Rebel friends . He became Gold Leader and was assigned to a Y - wing , flying several campaigns for the Alliance with Gold Squadron . Prior to the Battle of Yavin , he piloted Leia Organa to the Belassar system for a Rebel mission . During the Rebel Pilot Briefing by Jan Dodonna Vander interrupted him by asking " Pardon me for asking sir . But what good are snub fighters going to be against that ? " and then later gave Princess Leia a look of concern when Dodonna mentioned that the exhaust port was only two meters wide . During the Battle of Yavin , he was one of the first groups who flew into the Death Star trench . Vander was on point , followed by Tiree ( Gold Two ) and Davish Krail ( Gold Five ) , who formed a buffer against enemy fighters . Vander chose an extremely close formation for his pilots ; this is typical for the much faster TIE Fighters , but the veteran Krail believed this to be a mistake . As Tiree was locking his target computer , Darth Vader shot him down . Vander lost composure as Krail stubbornly refused to loosen formation , maintaining his lock on the target at the cost of Vander being able to maneuver away . Moments later Vader fired into Vander ' s Y - wing , killing him instantly . He had the emblem of the Specter Squadron on his helmet at the Battle of Yavin . Behind the scenes . In , Angus MacInnes plays the pilot identified as Gold Leader . One of his wingmen , Gold Five , has a line mentioning squadron mates named Tiree and either Hutch or Dutch — the enunciation is unclear . Gold Five is referring to Gold Leader and Gold Two , but the film provides no way to determine which call sign is Tiree and which is Dutch / Hutch . This pilot first appears in the . In this version of the Battle of Yavin , the Y - wing squadron is Red Squadron rather than Gold . Red Five , identified only as " Pops , " speaks of a pilot named Dutch , but — as in the film — it is ambiguous whether he means Red Leader or Two . The film ' s screenplay , as it appears in the original 1979 edition of " The Art of Star Wars " , uses the Gold Squadron designation for the Y - wings . Here , too , Gold Five mentions Dutch , who could be either Gold Leader or Two . The 1984 " A Guide to the Star Wars Universe " clarified that Dutch was Gold Leader and Tiree was Gold Two . In 1995 , the " Star Wars " Customizable Card Game was the first source to indicate that " Dutch " was a nickname and that his full name was Jon Vander . Most other sources over the years , such as the " Star Wars Encyclopedia " , " The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia " , the Star Wars Trading Card Game , an official action figure , and the current Databank entry , give this pilot ' s name or nickname as Dutch . However , the version of the screenplay in the 1997 book " " gives his name as " Hutch . " This variant was also used in the subtitles of the DVD of the film a decade later .