Skinkers: We also like Charlie Bass. He's all the really good NCOs we've known in real life plus what we'd like a good NCO to be rolled into one.
Owen is partly based on a real person but I'm not at liberty to tell you who that is, someone in the publishing business is all I will say. Think Locklear Owens, Olyn O'mol, A Block Owen, all characters in the books, and you'll see a certain similarity in all those names. Maybe you can guess who it really is? The person's real name is disguised in all those others.
Crap.
Now I know he becomes and ensign.
My favorites are Jack Daly, Bass and Dean. On that last character, I noticed a shift towards Claypool as a main character, rather than Dean who seemed to be one of the main two in the first book or two. Did you guys just like Claypool better?