Don't feel too bad about it, Mr. Klink.
In every serious campaign, I have what I call "New Campaign Bad Luck". It takes my whole fleet to pull me out of it!! LOL!!
For some reason, every time I enter a new campaign, I cannot fly a single mission successfully. Even if I'm in there alone with not enemy force!! Now, that's bad!!
I usually end up in a shuttle with absolutely no prestige. Oh, the horror of it all!!!
It got so bad in one campaign the "live" enemy players I encountered wouldn't even kill me. Boy, my Admirals had fun ragging me about that one!!! Hehe!!
In fact, I think the AIs started rewriting the scripts bacause they got bored with me.
So keep your chin up!!
Good luck!