Got the ready room together yesterday to discuss everyone's experience and lessons learned from our squadron mishap back in June.

***Disclaimer: I will not discuss any particulars of the mishap.
A big part of what has made my time as an XO/CO has been the "been there, done that" aspect. Most things that come into my office I have experience with, so not too much catches me off guard (COVID-19 on the TR is a whole 'nother conversation).
I had never been in a squadron that had a mishap. I recognized it as a hole in my experience backstop. I have had plenty of training, but a mishap is probably one of the most emotionally charged events with a lot of confusion that can occur in a ready room. /3
So the night of the mishap, I had just gotten back from a FAC(A) flight and was filling out my post flight paperwork.
SDO gets a call that one of our aircraft on deck request a representative on the radio. A very common occurrence, so I sent down one of my department heads. /4
A couple minutes later, the DH calls the ready room to talk to me. He tells me there are some emergency indications from one of our aircraft and no one can get a hold of them on the radio.

"Under react to everything."

So what did I do? I said "Roger" and hung up the phone. /5
I hung up the phone and continued to do my paperwork. There could be many things going on: The jet is comm out, an electrical glitch on their squawk, flipped the wrong switch, etc.
A couple minutes later the SDO gets a call from another person who relays similar info to me. /6
Again, I say "roger" and hang up the phone. At this point I am not really paying attention to logging my flight, so I finish, get up and walk down to CATCC where my DH was talking to the jet on deck on the radio. At this point, multiple aircraft have tried calling my guys. /7
This is the point I am pretty sure I have a jet in the water. I walk down to inform CAG. I run into him coming from CVIC confirming the info I have.

The next 15 minutes has been the worst 15 minutes of my life. I lost a jet, and I have no clue if my guys are alive. /8
So I head down to the ready room to get the mishap response plan in motion.

It was a good thing it was dark on the ship, because I am in tears at this point. /9
I collect myself, walk into the ready room and tell everyone we just lost a jet.

I pointed at a couple of senior JO's to stay in and help the SDO run the mishap response plan and kicked everyone else out of the ready room. /10
Good lessons learned from the SDO that night in talking yesterday.
He was roommates with both aircrew. At this point he doesn't know if his buddies are alive at this point. The first half-hour of trying to run the mishap binder he was unable to fully concentrate. /11
We talk a lot about compartmentalizing for flights if we have outside stressors. But that applies to other aspects of our job.
SDO has to be able to do his job, even as he is worried about his friends.
I have to coordinate with the air wing not knowing if my guys are alive. /12
This is the same theme of my previous thread. You may have to quickly shift on the emotional spectrum, and if you are operating at one extreme, you may not be prepared to react properly on the other end of the spectrum.

Stay even, stay calm. /13 https://twitter.com/FarvaPrice/status/1306058539081711616
I left the ready room and headed down to CVIC to check in on the recovery effort. A couple minutes after getting there, we started getting communication from the aircrew and that they were both OK. Things got mentally easier for everyone as I kept the ready room updated. /14
The rest of the process went awesome. The helos and other aircraft airborne were on-station providing information flow back to the ship. The watch stations were receiving other information. The SAR helo squadron got airborne and picked them up. Everybody crushed it. /15
I was up on the flight deck when the helo landed. They both walked off they f**king owned the place. It was awesome. Giving those guys hugs will be my most memorable moment in command.
I had my worst moment and best moment within an hour and a half of each other. /16
After my guys were safe on deck, it just became a paperwork drill.

The pilot completed his division (4-plane) lead syllabus while we were in Fallon. I got to fly in the event, and it was one of the best flights I have had in the squadron. /17
So yesterday I had the mishap aircrew talk about there memory of the events. Had the SDO go through his lessons learned. Talked about my thought process and my endorsement of the mishap report.

It was great discussion for the ready room, especially those not on deployment. /18
I wanted to fill in that experience backstop I was lacking coming into this role.

Ultimately this job is about OJT. I am teaching the JO's how to be DH's. I am teaching the DH's how to be an XO. I am teaching the XO how to be a CO.

I teach by doing and let them watch me. /19
So my lesson's learned:

1. Emotional flexibility is a thing. Know your limits and capabilities.
2. Fall back on training. In a crisis it will be the training we revert to.
3. Consider other people's emotions when making decisions.

These aren't learned, just reaffirmed. /fin
You can follow @FarvaPrice.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: