SD 241905.19 || On Your Toes

Posted on 19 May 2019 @ 7:14pm by Chief Petty Officer William Rhodes

246 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Thought & Memory
Location: Fighter Bay, USS Odin

ON:

"Get ready for a quick turn around," Bill "Country" Rhodes told his fighter captains. "I don't want any of those fighters on the deck one second longer than necessary."

The Odin's first combat launch had gone off without a hitch, and now Bill had to endure the bane of fighter maintenance specialists everywhere: watching the fighters that you worked tirelessly to keep at their peak efficiency go out to get chunks blown out of them. If you were good at your job, you got attached to the fighters you worked on. You knew their idiosyncrasies, the way their pilots treated them, and even knew how to "tweak" them so that they performed best for the pilot assigned to them. That kind of "mechanical intimacy" took time to acquire, of course, but Bill had confidence in the men and women assigned to him on the Odin. In due time, they'd have that kind of bond with the fighters they worked on.

And they'd feel that pang every time "their" fighters went into combat. Logically, of course, Bill recognized that if there wasn't combat for those fighters to fly into, there'd be no need for fighters or fighter maintenance specialist. But even Vulcan maintenance specialists realized logic didn't apply in this case.

Bill set aside that conflicting philosophy for the moment, monitoring the combat and making sure his group was ready to respond when called upon.

OFF:

Chief William "Country" Rhodes
Chief Fighter Maintenance Specialist
USS Odin

 

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