Wearing The Pants Now

[V'Roy 0]

Wearing the Pants Now

A V'Roy Personal Log

 

This has been a long time coming. In some ways it was inevitable since the sudden departure of First Lieutenant, now Lieutenant Commander, Terios and my brevet promotion to his old position. When a subordinate moves up to take the place of the boss it almost always creates conflict with former coworkers and colleagues. Such was the case a few minutes ago.

 

I held the same rank as Terios before his departure. In fact I was promoted to that rank by the Captain himself. Naturally I was the logical choice for Acting CAG until we could rebuild the 420th. When I approached the Captain with this some time ago he had to reluctantly agree.

 

Unfortunately not all of our pilots saw it that way, Lieutenant Angel in particular. He may have felt that his skills as a pilot qualified him for the position. He is a good pilot, and he has been on the Reaent as long as I have, but the CAG position is a lot more administrative. It takes more than simply being a skilled pilot. The CAG is responsible for setting maintenance schedules, billeting and pilot welfare, continuous training and development plans, mission planning, and effective use of fighter and pilot resources.

 

The only area where being the best pilot is relevant is training. Angel is a good trainer. I’m glad he took to training our new pilot Ensign Nansk without objection while I attended to other duties. However, when our mission orders came down, Angel wanted to take the shuttle mission for himself, citing his experience.

 

I had to think of the development and effective use sides of the equation. How would Nansk gain experience for himself if the senior pilots took every mission? This was to be a shuttle pilot mission, certainly not a large stretch for someone who was already a trained pilot. My own first mission on the Reaent was piloting a shuttle as well. Angel’s plan would have left Nansk alone in the squadron with nothing to do. Besides, it would be a waste of resources to turn a veteran pilot like Angel into a shuttle service.

 

Had it ended here then there would be no problem. It didn’t. Angel protested when I handed out everyone’s orders in the flight simulator room. He can do that with V’Roy. He can do that with the captain of his Highlander Guard. Even doing that with his supervisor behind doors would be considered acceptable. However, to do that with his CAG in front of a rookie pilot is unacceptable.

 

I share part of the blame. Things were more relaxed and informal when Terios was our CAG. It was “good buddy” this and “old buddy” that. Given our many missions, battles, and the virtual decimation of our squadron this was understandable. I let this attitude continue after my appointment.

 

For this I owe Angel an apology. However, this is not an excuse for Angel’s behavior. If I simply let it go then I am equally derelict. When my shift at Tactical is over I need to let a certain pilot know who is wearing the pants now.