Inside the Fighting 501st

As more and more garrisons formed, Johnson contacted Head of Fan Relations at Lucasfilm Steve Sansweet in 1999 to let him know that the 501st were ready for action. "We finally met at DragonCon in Atlanta where I expressed the club's willingness to work in whatever capacity that Lucasfilm could use us," Johnson says. "I made it clear that we were not for-profit, we could perform professionally, and we respected the Lucasfilm's property. When Episode I came out there were a few small events that we were asked to help with: DVD releases, toy releases, and commercial appearances -- nothing big. But our persistence paid off when Attack of the Clones came out."

Celebration II was scheduled to take place only a few weeks prior to the premiere of the movie, and was a very big priority for Lucasfilm," Johnson continues. "Steve Sansweet and Lucasfilm Event Coordinator Mary Franklin asked me and my XO at the time, Tim Knapp, to organize an army of volunteers to appear in costume throughout the convention and help entertain the crowds. That was a huge responsibility and implied an enormous amount of trust in us on their part. I remember working the phones and email for months leading up to Celebration II, organizing every conceivable detail of how to deploy our people. For the four days of Celebration II, I don't think any of our command staff slept or ate properly, and our volunteers worked themselves ragged. But our performance transformed Celebration II into an interactive experience for the fans, allowing them to see and touch and talk to characters that brought the entire event to life for them. Since then Lucasfilm has put their trust in us to represent them in every major event related to Star Wars. And so far, we seem to be doing a good job."

Tours of duty for Garrison members include the MTV TRL Skywalker Episode III screening, Cannes Film Festival, Celebration II & III, Science of Star Wars museum openings, Disney Star Wars Weekends, LucasArts gaming events and of course for one of the largest unified representation of the 501st -- marching as part of the Star Wars Spectacular in the 2007 Rose Parade.

In 2004, the 501st were made part of the Star Wars galaxy with their inclusion in Timothy Zahn's novel, Survivor's Quest. And in 2005, their missions became the foundation of the single-player experience of the smash hit, Star Wars Battlefront II, in which they were featured. The 501st also became the subject for the indie film documentary Heart of an Empire, which is scheduled for release in 2007.

The 501st members became so popular with fans at events that they were often asked for their autographs. "At Celebration II we noticed a lot of kids were collecting autographs from our troopers," Johnson says. "We thought it would be a nice novelty item to offer trading cards of our members featured in-character. Scott Will, our club Merchandise Officer, has created a line of trading cards featuring pictures of our members and some of the celebrities who are Honorary Members. There are also cards featuring events in 501st history or items used by the Empire. We are now working on series seven of the cards and they are very popular with the kids. You can view the current cards on our website here."

The Legion has also created embroidered patches to represent their Garrisons, Squads, Detachments and Outposts. "It's just a nod to how the military and law enforcement units have patches," Johnson says. "We've seen a wide array of cool insignia and logos pop up and the patches look very cool. Of course, they're all offered at-cost and only to 501st members. You can view many of the patches on TK118's website here.