It's Friday. The only thing standing between me and the weekend is a 1600 instructor meeting. The two instructors in charge of us have called this bimonthly meeting to give feedback on how we, as instructors, are doing. As usual, the classroom is full of students so we congregate in the area right outside the classroom. I'm sure the noise we create is distracting to the students inside but we don't care. The quicker they get out, the quicker we get to start the weekend.
Walking around the room, it's possible to hear a variety of conversations. Some people are discussing their weekly plans. From the sound of it, it sounds like a bunch of guys are headed out to the bars tonight in hopes of drinking away the long work week. Others make contemptuous comments about this meeting. It's the only thing they had scheduled and really didn't want to come in. "Whatever man. It feels like I live in the simulators," one instructor snarled. After a long week, tempers were running a little thin.
Five minutes after the time our meeting was supposed to start, the door to the classroom bursts open and students file out. You can hear some of the more impatient instructors make sarcastic remarks under their breath. We all file in and take a seat. The room is nearly sterile. The plan white walls have a few posters hanging from them, most of which mean nothing to me. Just some blown up diagrams and random pictures. At the front of the classroom, a projector is being shut off but I can see the remnants of what looked to be a very dry PowerPoint presentation. Also at the front of the room is a whiteboard cluttered with drawings from an instructor too lazy to erase his work.
"Ok guys. First off, I want to thank you all for coming. Please sign the sign-in sheet that's being passed around so you can get credit for this meeting. As I'm sure you've noticed, we are still pretty short in terms of instructors. We are hoping a few more get hired next month but there aren't any promises. Just keep doing your best. Now, on to some more serious issues." This was the chief of training talking. As we've all been taught, it's always a shit-sandwich. Start with the good then give the bad. Follow it up with more good. Shit sandwich.
First up was paperwork. We all need to make sure we are documenting better. It seems that there have been some issues with the training reports. After a few minutes of gentle reminders, he moves on to the students. As it turns out, there have been quite a few trends in the evaluations. As it turns out, people keep messing up the same things and we get the famous rhetorical question, "you aren't teaching it this way, right?" Of course we aren't.
As he moves on to the last subject, the sign-in sheet comes to me. I print my name on the "official" piece of paper that was requisitioned from the community printer and pass it along. I turn back towards the front where a "white-boarding" session has started. It appears as if he's trying to explain to us how satellites work and I start to tune him out. I know this stuff. As my mind starts to wonder to something more pleasant, I feel myself picking up my pen and reaching to put it in my flight suit...
A chill runs down my spine as I look at my left arm and notice that I'm not wearing a flight suit but a simple white t-shirt. My skin goes cold and I shudder as I realize that I'm not sitting in a classroom at Malmstrom. This is Florida. I'm a flight instructor and we are talking about airplanes, GPS, and check rides. Our students are pilots, not missiliers. Our chief of training is an assistant chief flight instructor. I couldn't help but shake the feeling of deja vu for the rest of the meeting. It was eerily similar but at the same time nothing like my previous life. Much like seeing every girl with blonde hair or wearing pink shorts or whatever reminds you of an ex, I hope this feeling too will eventually fade away.
What a weird day.
Now that the story is over, I have great news! I have been assigned two students and will start their training this weekend or Monday. ATP was going to make me wait until April or later. It's the end of January and I'm diving right in. HUZZAH! Oh wait...disregard. Stop it!
(for those not exposed to missiles/USAFA, I hope this isn't too confusing!)
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