Born on the planet Norval II, Horton Salm was a long-serving member of the Rebel Alliance, and later New Republic, Starfighter Corps. He preferred to use the Y-wing starfighter.
Salm’s first major engagement was the Battle of Endor, where he served as Gray Leader. His Y-wing was among the handful of fighters to make the run through the second Death Star.
Nine months later, Salm led the Aggressor Wing. This unit, along with Wedge Antilles‘ Rogue Squadron, fought in the Battle of Brentaal IV. Although several of the Aggressor’s Y-wings were destroyed, and Salm’s own fighter took heavy damage, he managed to take down Baron Soontir Fel, who would later be captured by – and ultimately defect to – the New Republic. Salm and the Aggressors would again aid Antilles’ Rogues at the Battle of Ciutric IV.
Some time later, Salm was the leader of the newly formed Defender Wing, which was stationed at the same base as a reformed Rogue Squadron. Salm had several personality conflicts with Antilles over their different training styles, as well as Antilles’ insistence on including his friend Tycho Celchu (who was believed to be an Imperial sleeper agent after he had been captured on a mission to Coruscant) in his squadron. Although the Defenders and Rogues worked together on several missions, Salm’s fears regarding seemed to have been realized when Rogue Squadron pilot Corran Horn was apparently killed during the battle to retake Coruscant from the Empire. Celchu was court-martialed for Horn’s murder, with Salm serving as a judge, but the trial came to an abrupt end when Horn arrived alive and unharmed, having escaped Ysanne Isard‘s Lusankya prison.
Five years after the Battle of Endor, Salm led a group of B-wing starfighters at the Battle of Liinade III, during the New Republic’s campaign against warlord Admiral Delak Krennel‘s Ciutric Hegemony.