Joseph Lankenau

Personal
Also known as	Joseph Lankenau
Decanted	3117
Death	Battle of Yorii
Affiliation	Clan Wolf 19^th Wolf Striker Beta Galaxy
Career
Rank	Star Colonel
Profession	MechWarrior

Joseph Lankenau was the commander of the 19^th Wolf Striker, from early 3145 until his death at the Battle of Yorii. While quite good at managing his unit, Star Colonel Lankenau was never the best pilot or the most aggressive one, preferring to assist more influential officers in their operations. The best example of this is his action on Skye, where he and Alaric Ward worked together to destroy the Turkina Keshik.

Battle of Terra

Through most of the Battle of Terra, Joseph Lankenau acted in support of the rest of Beta Galaxy. During the ilClan Trial itself, Beta Galaxy supported the 8^th Glacial Fang, led by Star Colonel Ichaerus Ward, in assisting the fire fighters. The 19^th Striker losses throughout the Battle of Terra were close to 85%.

Recovery period

Joseph Lankenau took his bloodribbon with pride and started on rebuilding his unit as fast as possible. To recover in terms of troops, he accepted a large number of Republican officers as abtakha. Only soldiers ready to swear allegiance to the new Star League were accepted, but it allowed the 19^th Wolf Striker to get back into decent numbers, at least in terms of soldiers. Beta Galaxy was one of the units getting priority for new equipment, leading them to have a large number of new “corporately-funded” machines, ranging from old IIC machines, new IIC machines and Renault-Peugeot/Ford’s new BattleMechs.

Battle of Yorii

Beta Galaxy, led by Alaric Ward, was the first one to be bid in the Battle of Yorii. Joseph Lankenau’s cluster requested to be allowed to act as a “bodyguard” cluster to Alaric’s Silver Keshik. However, Alaric requested they serve as a counter to raids and attacks against supply depots. While viewing this as a bit of a downgrade from his previous role, the Star Colonel understood the importance of his mission with a lack of regular Provisional units being deployed on Yorii.

The 11^th Mechanized Cavalry, under the command of Susannah Hawker (internal), led a raid against a massive supply distribution point defended by the 19^th Striker in the last days of the Battle of Yorii. While the Hell’s Horses managed to capture a large quantity of supplies and kill Joseph Lankenau, the losses caused by the defense in depth strategy of Lankenau prevented the 11^th Mechanized from capitalizing on those gains.