KAG's
Beginnings
As remembered by DaHar Master Kragtowl
I founded the IKV Devastator
in Hampton Roads, Virginia in 1989. When I
moved to Missouri in 1990 my crew promoted me to Admiral. I first heard
of the Klingon Assault Group after the move.
In Missouri I was a member of the Klingon Strike Force but they were
not
into dressing up and being Klingons, they were role-playing via snail
mail. Another member of KSF was “Kishin” (Sue Frank) who was also the
commander of KAG’s Force Recon. She became a long time friend.
Then
one day I received a letter from some guy by the name of John
Halvorson (Kris) asking me if I wanted to join the Klingon Assault
Group
and that I could keep my rank from my former group. Kris told me that I
had to recruit and create my own niche.
Since Navy, Marines and Force Recon were already taken, I created the
Imperial Guard, to be the personal guard of the emperor that maintained
the security of the empire while our Navy conquered the universe. A
distinguishing feature on our uniforms was a black battle sash denoting
that we already served the Black Fleet. Taken from FASA and John M.
Ford’s writings, the Black Fleet was like the Viking Valhalla.
I made my first appearance in full Klingon uniform at a convention in
St. Louis and had recruitment flyers on the freebie table. Being 6’
4” inches tall, I made an imposing figure, which had most of the
security
staff for the convention paranoid. I was stopped numerous
times to have
my photo taken, and by day's end not one flyer was left on the table.
After
that Kris wanted to meet me and we got together at the convention
Starbase Indy in Indianapolis, the local Federation organization’s main
meeting place. Kris and I discussed many things there and got to know
one another. He was dressed as a Human-Fusion Klingon and I as an
Imperial Klingon. The two of us and a young female Klingon by the name
of K’Tala (Jessica West) were the only Klingons there among many
Feddies. Kris and I sat in the back of the room at their meeting and
heckled. We weren't rude, but every time they cheered we stood up and
'Booed', which brought laughter to everyone.
Later at a con in Kansas city I got together with another KAG Admiral,
Lyle van Sciver, known as Blackie. He was head of KAG's Imperial
Intelligence Division. Melinda Snodgrass, former executive script
writer
for the Next Generation, was a guest. As I walked across the lobby a
very attractive lady stopped me, complimented my costume and said that
I
could walk on the set and they would not know the difference. I thanked
her and went on with the convention. Later I went to Melinda’s panel
and
to my surprise, the lady from before was her. Blackie and I competed in
the masquerade and took the Science Fiction category.
A few weeks later at a con in St. Louis, Blackie and I were joined by
Kathan (Steve Roberts) the KAG Admiral for the Navy. I had been busy
helping the locals refine their uniforms. By convention time we had
sixteen fully dressed Klingons ready to take the masquerade by force!
I had created a song 'I'm a Klingon and I'm OK' to the tune of the
Monty
Python song 'I’m a Lumberjack'. At the masquerade sixteen Klingons, all
singing the song, escorted one Federation prisoner on stage. Our
youngest Klingon had the Federation prisoner put his back to the crowd
and bend down to be executed. She had an axe and brought it down just
as
we finished the song and it looked as if we had killed the prisoner.
Well the crowd and the judges loved it, we took Best in Show and the
term 'Klingons are the Ninjas of the 90’s' was born. When I got back
home there was a letter from Kris and he was very pleased at the
numerous applications to KAG that he had recently received. During this
time in KAG’s history, Kris experimented with unique rank titles and he
gave me the rank of “Imperial Admiral” for my efforts.
I
attended the World Science Fiction convention (ChiCon) in Chicago in
September of '91, and continued to recruit for KAG at cons throughout
the midwest.
Our numbers increased. I also assisted in the coordination of one of
KAG’s
biggest wars with Starfleet International. It was called the Blood Feud
and it was developed for supporting the American Red Cross in
increasing
their blood supply. The catch phrase for this war was “Klingons are out
for blood!” and it was a big success as well as one of the best
recruiting concepts we ever used.
During KAG’s history there have been those who thought they could do
better. Former members of KAG splintered off to create
these groups. Kris’s philosophy at the time was if they were not happy
let them do their own thing. I have seen so many self-appointed Thought
Admirals which many no longer even participate in Klingon fandom. KAG
has always remained strong due to simply following rule number one:
Have
Fun!
In the following months Kris continued getting more applications to
KAG,
most of them for the 'Imperial Guard'. The Guard grew so large that I
took the concept of quadrants from FASA role-playing system and
developed quadrant commanders for the areas, which began the ground
work
for the present fleet system that is standard in KAG today.
KAG continued to grow but the Imperial Guard at one time had more ships
than Fleet and there was an uneasy rivalry between Fleet and Guard
individuals, with each side thinking they were better than the other.
So
Kris made a decision and the Imperial Guard was absorbed by the fleet.
Not one of our better moments as this did not go over well, but it was
done. Again playing with the rank titles, Kris bestowed on me the title
of 'Grand Admiral' and made me second-in-command of all of KAG. Not too
long after this, I was having financial difficulties and took a leave
of
absence from KAG to get my real life back on track.
KAG continued to grow and many of the present leaders of KAG began
their
rise in glory to become the guiding leadership of today.
