Geonosis: Attack of the Clones
My first day as a member of the 501st... it was hot, it was sandy, chaotic. Nothing at all like the simulations on Kamino. Of course that's pretty much the way it was for all of us, wasn't it? All that breeding, all those years of training... it doesn't really prepare you for all the screaming or the blood, does it? Frankly I'm still amazed we ever made it through the first hour, never-mind the first day.

Incredibly, the 501st survived the crucible of Geonosis, emerging battle-hardened, and ready for whatever the war and wind would throw at us.

Mygeeto: Amongst the Ruins
In the waning months of the Clone Wars, the 501st faced missions critical to the agenda of Chancellor Palpatine. When we arrived at the bombed out ruins of Mygeeto, our Jedi commander believed we had been sent to take out a droid energy collector. What Ki-Adi-Mundi didn't know however was that our unit of the 501st was really after an experimental Mygeetan power source, that the Chancellor wanted for his superlaser. Keeping Mundi in the dark wasn't easy; the Jedi had become increasingly wary of the Chancellor's doings, and was on the lookout for the slightest hint of treachery. Just like the rest of them though, he never caught whiff of what was really going on, until it was far too late.

The success of the mission on Mygeeto was something of a revelation for the men of the 501st. Suddenly, we realized that the Jedi could be fooled. And if they could be fooled, they could be killed.

Coruscant: A Desperate Rescue
As the Clone Wars progressed, more and more ground-based legions found themselves pressed into space combat, including the fighting forces of the 501st. For months, every hour of our downtime was spent in the simulator, preparing for the time we would face our enemies from the cockpit of a 170. Finally the day came to earn our wings. The CIS had staged a daring kidnapping of Chancellor Palpatine, and was being escorted from Coruscant by a fleet of Separatist ships. With only a few veteran pilots on-planet, many of the 501st were pressed into service to drive off the Seps, and buy time for a pair of Jedi Knights to rescue the Chancellor.

After disabling the final capital ship, General Kenobi and Skywalker took advantage of the opportunity we'd created and rescued the Chancellor. Took all the credit, too.

Felucia: Heart of Darkness
It's been said that the 501st got the best of the war. We also got the worst. On Felucia, the Seps dug their metal heels into the muck of that alien hellhole and dared the Republic to come in after them. So we did, only to be met with the month after month of flesh-eating diseases, shrieking nocturnal predators, and other sights that haunt me to this day. Cut off and for all we knew abandoned by our superiors, our only hope was Aayla Secura, our Jedi commander. Without her iron will, none of us would have come out of that mess with our sanity, or our lives. When her death came, I hope it was quick. She earned that much.

When the 501st was finally rotated out of Felucia, Aayla Secura made a point of seeing us off personally, calling us the bravest soldiers she had ever seen. It's a good thing we were wearing helmets, because none of us could bear to look her in the eye.