Finding “It” Again
This is a bit of a check-in from a previous blog post about transitioning from active duty to civilian life (click here to read if you haven’t already!).
Having a ready room, a tribe, a team, a knitting circle, a rock band, an underwater ballet squad – you name it, is a critical component of our lives. We need them.
Lemoore Tigers Baseball Club, one of our ready rooms
They give us an identity. These trusted circles imprint values, security, and stability. We feel so compelled by this idea that we named our non-profit The Ready Room Project!
Function over Form
Objectively, a ready room is a physical location. It’s normally a large room with a variety of chairs (if we are talking about the Navy they are probably broken), desks, dry erase boards (chalkboards for your old goats), telephones and radios being manned by the squadron duty officer (SDO).
Historically ready rooms were used by aviation units to brief and debrief missions.
Oh, but they are so much more than that.
A nearly empty ready room…it’s clean. It’s ready for action
In Between the Lines
When briefing and debrief isn’t going on, the ready room morphs into a character of its own.
My memories go something like this:
1 / Strong coffee
When in doubt, always add more coffee beans. If a ready room does not have ready-to-drink, scalding hot coffee it is considered offensive. The coffee maker should never be deeply cleaned. A slightly browned, translucent stain layer is a sign of respect. The appropriate vessel for drinking coffee is a squadron mug – also stained.
2 / Music
The SDO is the DJ, and his/her taste in music will be ruthlessly scrutinized. The volume needs to be constantly adjusted to reflect the context and mood of the patrons. Quiet professionals or rowdy children, the SDO shall have a finger on the pulse.
3 / Cleanliness
Want to get the Executive Officer (XO) upset? Leave your stuff and trash lying around. When guests walk in the ready room, the impression they get will form their opinion about your entire command. Keep it tight.
4 / Games
Highly dependent on the unit/squadron. I remember playing a lot of Acey Duecy (a backgammon derivative). Cribbage was another popular go to, and some squadrons swore by spades.
If you didn’t know how to play, you needed to learn...quickly! Even if it meant you were going to get bludgeoned for a few months, you really needed to have some chops to participate in your squadron’s preferred entertainment.
5 / Food
I could write an entire passage surrounding the subculture on this topic, but I’ll keep it simple.
While on land (not deployed on an aircraft carrier) the ready room is where you eat lunch and listen to stories from the previous weekend or forecasted shenanigans.
When deployed at sea, the ready room is the departure station for the “chow train”. You typically meet your squadronmates in the ready room and then file through the guts of the ship until you get to the wardroom (where the food is served and consumed).
A common verbal announcement in a ready room at sea: “Chow train’s pushing in 5.”
Spirited Acey Duecy contest. That is CRIB celebrating a W (one of many).
It’s Really Really Fun.
Just writing the above list makes me happy.
I was honored to be a part of some great ready rooms. They were all unique. They had their own personalities, traditions, and characters.
I felt like I belonged there. I was proud. We all were, families included. So much so that we put our squadron mascots on our jackets, put stickers on our cars, and put yard signs in front of the house etc.
We were living our life with friends that had become our family. The fun didn’t stop when we left the squadron and went home. Many times it carried over to our house for dinner and late into the night, maybe there was some singing, there was probably some singing.
Without knowing it, the Navy, and more intimately the ready room, filled my emotional cup.
It gave me a noble cause and group of people that I could call my own. I never had to think about it. I was always so proud to be as Argonaut, Black Knight, or TOPGUN Bro.
My work gave me almost everything I needed. I could be myself at the highest volume. I had people I could lean on. And I did. People could and did depend on me.
We gave our time unconditionally to each other. We prepared and executed tough missions. We hung out together. Our families hung out together.
We lived our lives together and frankly we loved it.
VFA-147 Thanksgiving - We are thankful to have served with a full heart.
I took it for granted.
I am retired now. It’s been over a year and a half since my official retirement date. To be honest, I have struggled to find my next ready room. I have incredible friends here in my hometown.
We can still generate some racket and we enjoy each other’s company.
I have a great job. It is challenging and rewarding in its own way. It has taken some time to start to find “it”.
The happiness and magic of a ready room has appeared in pockets for short periods of time as a burst of energy and lightness.
Ready rooms can be small…it’s where you can be a total cheeseball
Service continued…
What I am finding is that the community we have created here with The Ready Room Project is filling my cup.
We may not be flying fighter jets, but we have a mission and we are doing something noble, worthwhile, and bigger than ourselves.
We are doing whatever we can to say thank you to our military kids and spouses. We are bringing our own brand of “happy help”!
We are getting them to camps, we are getting them resources for awesome enrichment programs and funding support events. We think that is cool.
Not to mention we laugh at ourselves - a lot. We sing off key and we talk about coffee. We share our big dreams and talk a lot about making a big difference.
And that feels like a ready room.