Everett Stargher

Everett Stargher was a major politician in the 24th century. He was the 6th President of the Federated States.

Background
Everett Stargher was born in 2295 in the Mount Sijaheur Township of the Vanheim colony. His father was Captain Dennison "Denny" Stargher and his mother was Dr Abigail Stargher nee Landsberg. He is from a prestigious line of fleet officers: Everett Stargher was raised in the township and on the military base before his father was reassigned to Mars to serve as a flight instructor. Everett attended the Military Academy on Mars. His father died while he was just thirteen years old and the loss affected Everett.
 * His grandfather was Admiral Titus Stargher
 * His great-grandfather was Admiral Richard Stargher
 * His great-great-grandfather was the infamous Captain "Black" Jack Stargher

He has a younger brother, Tylon Stargher, who was a fleet officer before becoming a broker. Everett graduated from Military Academy and then attended Cambridge Trinity studying Military History. He also attended Flight School privately and was rated to fly the A-71 Buzzard. He attended Fleet Academy but his studies were temporarily stopped by the Karkouri Occupation. He was arrested and put under house arrest by the Provisional Government.

After the Occupation he was part of the accelerated class of 2322 and graduated with the rank of Ensign.

Fleet Officer
Everett Stargher was initially assigned as a shuttle pilot until 2323 when he was assigned as a helm officer aboard the cruiser FCS "Argo". He was promoted to Lieutenant and served aboard the Argo for two years. He was recalled to Mars base where he served as a flight instructor for a year. He met and married Bethany Marquez whilst based on Mars.

He was promoted to Lt-Cmdr and assigned to be XO aboard the frigate FCS "Helsinki". He won plaudits for his part in a hostage rescue and he was mentioned in dispatches. He finished a four year tour as XO on the Helsinki and was named as the commander of the new frigate FCS "Tycho". He was promoted to commander during his first tour of duty.

In 2331 he was reassigned to the general staff, serving under his mentor, Admiral Sati. He was promoted to the rank of Captain. When the Corporate War broke out, he got a combat command and was assigned the old cruiser FCS "Leopard". He fought in several actions and score several victories. He was given a Division command over three cruisers during one stage of the campaign.

His name was first mentioned for the rank of Admiral in 2335 at the age of just 40. The Senate Armed Services committee rejected the nomination on the basis that he didn't have enough command experience. Admiral Sati assigned him as chief of staff to Task Force Silver for two years. He was then put forward for a promotion to Admiral again and this time it was agreed by the committee.

Admiral
Everett Stargher was promoted to Admiral in 2338 at the age of 43. He became the youngest flag officer in the Fleet. Many inside the Fleet began to speak of him as a future Fleet Chief of Staff and it became an open secret that he was seen as Admiral Sati's protege and successor.

He took command of Task Force Gold and ran drills and organized the war games. In 2341 he was reassigned to the general staff and given the Operations brief but he lasted just sixteen months before asking for reassignment. He was given command of Task Force Gold again.

In 2344 Admiral Sati announced that he would retire. He stated that Admiral Jorrel Mays would be the Acting Chief of Staff. Privately he asked the President and the Senate to confirm Admiral Stargher as the new chief of staff.

In 2345 he was promoted from Rear Admiral to Vice Admiral and returned to the General Staff. In 2346 President Vessey put his name forward to succeed Admiral Mays as Chief of Staff and he was voted through the Senate Armed Services committee.

Fleet Chief of Staff
Admiral Stargher became Fleet Chief of Staff in 2347. He was also promoted to the rank of Admiral with a three star rating. He took up his new role with aplomb and began to reorganize the fleet and replace a number of older military assets.

He generally kept a low political profile, much as his mentor had. He was however very critical of the Vessey administration's use of the Fleet in Task Force Lancelot. At this time he began to privately explore running for President.

During his run as Chief of Staff he generally used Admiral Rebekkah Valane as his point-person and his trouble-shooter. However she retired from active duty in 2355 to become Director of FSI. He then began to lean on Admiral Etriager, the most senior Indirian in the fleet.

In 2358 a "Draft Stargher" movement began to take off and whilst Admiral Stargher distanced himself from it, it kept gaining traction.

In December of 2359 Admiral Stargher formally announced he would retire in March of 2360. He refused to rule out seeking the Presidency.

The 2360 Campaign
A "Draft Stargher" movement began to gather steam as early as 2356. However when Admiral Stargher stood down as Chief of Staff in 2360, he was seen as potential nominee. A huge amount of outside money flowed in and after informal talks with Senna Zavitz, Wake Lawford and Rebekkah Valane, he announced he would run as an Independent.

He announced in May of 2360 that Independent Senator Orton Schofield would be his running mate. His campaign got a huge influx of campaign donations, especially from the corporations.

After a close campaign where neither candidate bad mouthed the other, Admiral Stargher had won with 49% of the vote to President Rishi's 47%.

President of the Federated States
In June of 2360, Everett Stargher was sworn in as the 6th President of the Federated States.

His cabinet included: President Stargher's administration initially struggled as there was a lack of experience within their senior staff. A number of minor errors were made during the first year.
 * Orton Schofield (IND) as Vice President
 * Reese Gordwood (IND) as Secretary of State
 * Crait Valon (TPE) as Secretary of Defence
 * Senna Zavitz (IND) as Treasury Secretary
 * Bors Moatt (AIS) as Attorney General
 * Rebekkha Valane (EG) as Prime Minister
 * Cabbot Sullivan (TPE) as Director of FSI
 * Jost Kilward (IND) as Chief of Staff

President Stargher had to deal with the threat of Mars breaking away. After a near sixteen month negotiation, Mars was granted semi-independent status. Chief of Staff Jost Kilward resigned at this point and was replaced by retired marine Colonel Veet Khannan.

President Stargher was also forced to deal with further attempts to secede by New Corinth, Stark and Al Ahily. In the end only the Al Ahily colony declared itself fully independent.

President Stargher confirmed conservative appeals court judge Albion Culley to the supreme court to fill Justice Ennick's seat.

President Stargher's ruling coalition often struggled to find any point of agreement and could be quite inefficient, with the AIS often proving to be fractious and difficult to manage. The President also had a difficult relationship with his Vice President, Orton Schofield. He was, however, close with his Prime Minister Rebekkha Valane who was often his closest adviser.

In 2364, President Stargher announced that he intended to seek a second term as President of the Federated States

The 2365 Campaign
President Stargher appointed Veet Khanan as his campaign manager and he also consulted with former AIS campaign manager Marley Howard. President Stargher announced that he would be choosing a new Vice President, with former fleet intelligence officer Hailee Jander being his choice. She was a serving member of Earth-Guard had been their nominee for President in 2355.

The Stargher/Jander campaign began quite strongly but was rocked by the announcement from VANGUARD that they would be endorsing the Federalist ticket. Strong campaign attack ads authored by Miles Swofford Jr battered the Federalist ticket and did some real damage to Zinn's polling.

The Zinn campaign was boosted, however, by a huge amount of fund-raising which perturbed the Stargher administration. A complaint was put in around the source of this money but it was too late to stop the effect of the ads.

Going into the first ballot, things looked very close. However riots and chaos on the frontier saw the Senate suspend the election. President Stargher ordered the fleet and then the marine corps under Lt-General "Bull" Hammond to restore order.

When the votes were tallied, Stargher and Zinn emerged to the second ballot in a basic dead heat.

As the second ballot approached, there was no new money and no major movement aside from the lukewarm endorsement for the Federalist ticket by vice President Schofield. When the votes were finally in, Senator Zinn had won the Presidency.

President Stargher conceded the race and began to set up his transition.

Post Presidency
President Stargher exited office a sick man and he retired to the family estates near Athens. He kept a very low profile and some reported him to be in very poor health.

President Stargher died in 2366. He was eulogized by Admiral (ret) Rebekkah Valane.