John Grimmald (older brother)
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John Grimmald | |
|---|---|
| Personal | |
| Affiliation | Federated Commonwealth Grimmald's Grenadiers |
| Profile | |
| Rank | Leftenant Colonel |
| Profession | MechWarrior |
| Family | |
| Siblings | John Grimmald |
History[edit]
AFFC Years[edit]
John Grimmald entered a basic officer's course on Alcyone the day AFFS forces launched into the Draconis Combine during the War of 3039.
He won the Federated Commonwealth Star in 3044.
He served with distinction in the Capellan March during the Clan Invasion. By the time active hostilities broke out between the Steiner-Davion siblings, he was serving on Novaya Zemlya in a planning division. The death of his younger brother, Captain John Grimmald, in 3064 was the straw that pushed him into retirement. He had no taste for fighting against his former comrades in the AFFC. And neither did many of his comrades in arms.
John Grimmald had served with the AFFC for twenty-six years.[1]
Mercenary Years[edit]
In 3065, he arrived at Outreach with a cadre of officers. He had little to offer but the few men and 'Mechs he'd brought with him, as well as the reputation he'd built across the Capellan March. Within a month he was joined by a hundred other soldiers, corporals and leftenants and two captains, all of whom had retired from the AFFS, unwilling to fight in the civil war. They clustered around Grimmald, willing to follow him into combat. Dubbing his new mercenary unit Grimmald's Grenadiers, adopting the name from a memorable deployment with the First Kestrel Grenadiers, Grimmald began to recruit local mercenaries and shop for a new contract.
Before the Grenadiers could accept their first contract, they needed to shake themselves out into a combat organization. Grimmald had plenty of experience both as a small-unit commander and as a battalion commander, and several of the officers who'd chosen to follow him were excellent staff officers. In short order they had a rough roster sketched out, encompassing the soldiers who'd already joined, those in transit with time to arrive before the projected jump-off date, and the newly-hired mercenaries. What emerged was the bare bones of a combined-arms battalion. Grimmald could claim nine BattleMechs, seventeen combat vehicles and enough infantrymen to fill out two short platoons. Several aerospace pilots had been hired on Outreach, based on recommendations from officers Grimmald knew and respected, but they lacked aerospace fighters. Despite several lucrative offers, Grimmald had been rebuffed in his attempts to hire a regular DropShip.
The missions Grimmald intended for his new Grenadiers were offensive, short-term contracts. If he was going to lead soldiers, he was going to lead the best soldiers he could recruit. Nothing drew professional soldiers like successful contracts and a healthy reputation, and nothing built a mercenary's reputation like combat. There would be few, if any, garrison contracts for Grimmald's Grenadiers. While John Grimmald oversaw the training of his new short battalion, his staff officers negotiated the Grenadiers' first combat contract.
With the Federated Commonwealth Civil War raging, contracts were there for the picking. And John Grimmald picked. And with barely two months until the employer would provide transportation, the Grenadiers threw themselves into training on Outreach's practice fields.[1]
Traits[edit]
As a commander John Grimmald had built a reputation of calmness under fire, deadliness when pressed, and a regard for spending his men like a miser spends coins. Soldiers—good soldiers, soldiers who will keep their head under fire and follow orders and remain true to their contracts—are not afraid of dying. But they are afraid of being wasted. No man wants to feel he doesn't matter, and John Grimmald's gift was being able to make each man and woman under his command feel like they mattered.[1]