Travis Long

Travis Uriah Long was a Manticoran citizen and an officer of the Royal Manticoran Navy. He was a "mustang", an officer promoted from the enlisted ranks.
== Biography ==
Born in 1512 PDHe was seventeen T-years old in 1529 PD., he was the son of Melisande Vellacott Long and her second husband. His father died when he was young, and he never grew close with his mother or his older half-brother, Gavin. (MA1)
One of his high school teachers noted how his name (with the middle shortened to an initial) sounded somewhat like Travis Oolong, an Old Earth brand of tea. This earned him the nickname "Travis Tea", which soon started the tradition of calling him "a travesty" of all kinds. He joined the Royal Navy as a young adult, with the expressed goal of protecting the Star Kingdom.
In 1529 PD, he enlisted in the Royal Manticoran Navy, attending boot camp at the Casey-Rosewood Instructional Center. While attending Casey-Rosewood, he discovered that at least half of his impeller training class was cheating and reported it to his senior officer, Lieutenant William Cyrus. Instead of dealing with the issue however, Cyrus arranged for Long to be accused of cheating and transferred to a different training class. ()
Holding the rank of Lieutenant (senior grade), he served aboard the destroyer HMS Phoenix. When he wanted to write up Fenton Locatelli, who was the nephew of Admiral Carlton Locatelli, for sloppy work, his captain and executive officer refused and soon had him transferred to the light cruiser HMS Casey.
He later fought in the battle against the Volsung Mercenaries, who had been sent to conquer Manticore by the Axelrod Corporation. During the fight, he noticed a weakness in one of the enemy ships' autocannon defenses, which Commodore Rudolph Heissman used for a maneuver that left the Volsung flagship, Odin, seriously damaged. He was also instrumental in the destruction of the Volsung battlecruiser Tyr with his idea of running a training missile parallel to Casey and blocking Tyrs energy attack with its wedge while Casey was able to fire its energy torpedoes.
After the battle, Long was nominated for the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal, but Admiral Locatelli used his family's influence to keep the Admiralty from awarding it. () 
In 1543 PD, three weeks after the Battle of Manticore, he was called before a parliamentary committee to testify about the loss of the corvette HMS Hercules and the death of Crown Prince Richard Winton in the battle. His testimony was interrupted however by the arrival of a force from the Free Duchy of Barca, hired by the Axelrod Corporation to complete the invasion and occupation of Manticore that the Volsung Mercenaries were supposed to have completed. Due to Casey being under repair, Long instead deployed on HMS Damocles as the destroyer's acting ATODamocles' original ATO had been reassigned to the battlecruiser HMS Vanguard, but no replacement had been assigned by the time of the Barcans arrival.. () 
In 1544 PD, he proposed to Lisa Donnelly and they were married the following year. (, ) 
In 1546 PD, he received the Orden von Tischendorf from Emperor Gustav II for his role in saving SMS Friedrich der Grosse during the Battle of Tomlinson and overall gallantry in the face of the enemy following Kapitänin der Sterne Florence Hansen's attempted coup. He also received a first printing copy of Sternenkrieg, a book by Gustav I, as a personal "thank you" from Andrew Anderman, Gustav I's son and successor. ()
== Service Record ==
=== Promotions ===
* Spacer Third Class (since 1529 PD)
* Spacer First Class (in 1532 PD)
* Petty Officer Third Class (in 1533 PD)
* Lieutenant (JG) (since 1539 PD)
* Lieutenant (SG) (in 1543 PD)
* Lieutenant Commander (1544 PD)
=== Posts ===
* Gravitics Technician, HMS Vanguard (1529-1532 PD)
* Gravitics Technician, HMS Guardian (1532-1533 PD)
* detached as a college studentA degree in astrophysics. (since 1533 PD)
* Officer Candidate, Officer Candidate School (until 1538 PD)
* a first junior officer post, HMS Thorson
* recruitment officer, a recruitment station in Landing (in 1539 PD)
* Assistant Tactical Officer, HMS Phoenix (DD-08) (1540-1543 PD)
* Assistant Tactical Officer, HMS Casey (CL-01) (1543-1544 PD)
* Tactical Officer, HMS Casey (CL-01) (1544-1545 PD)
* SIS agent (1544-1545 PD)
* Observer, SMS Friedrich der Grosse (1546 PD)
=== Decorations ===
* Royal Unit Citation for Gallantry
* Monarch's Thanks
* Orden von Tischendorf
== Legacy ==
The Long Maneuver, a tactical maneuver of the Royal Manticoran Navy, was named in his honor.
Long Hall, housing the Advanced Tactical Course, was named in his honor. (EH1)
== References ==
== External links ==
* Post on the David Weber Forum including Zahn's original announcement
Long, Travis Uriah
Long, Travis Uriah
Long, Travis Uriah
Long, Travis Uriah
Long, Travis Uriah