Professional:
- Andrew Hauser, 9th USAF, fighter pilot
- professional soldier, enlisted before the war started when he got bored by his technical studies.
- shot down during a 'second wave', got incredibly lucky to survive, trapped in the cockpit of his plane while the world around him was set ablaze by napalm
- The experience left him scared of enclosed spaces. As this endagers his further career, he tries to force himself to endure (locking himself in, crouching in tight spaces), sometimes until he is dangerously close to a nervous breakdown.
- managed to get field hospital (his language skills being an immense help) physically a bit mangled but mentally devastated
- his 'Kraut' heritage made him a default scapegoat in his unit, and while there is little real animosity towards him, he ha precious few friends in the military, especially since the war started and the people he is serving with are constantly changing.
Personal:
- son of Wilhelm and Christine Hauser, German immigrants who came to the US during the Weimarer Hyperinflation, meeting up with a branch of the family that had come to the US much earlier
- his 'uncle', am member of said family branch and member of the OSS helped him stay in the military when the US joined the war against Germany
- US branch of the family kept contact to the german branch right until the start of the war, so Andrew is fluent in German and knows a bit of German culture
- Andrew has no wife or children. He was quite a rake, but the recent experience changed him (at least for now). He has a younger brother who joined the army and has been transferred to Europe, but he hasn't heard of him for a good chunk of time now and is getting worried.
