My YN1 and I just had our circuit-breaker moment.
Before I unpack that, a quick explanation of my current day-to-day:
I'm part of an organization that tracks, trains and sends
East Tennessee's finest Navy Reservists out the door. A large part of our
duties are administrative, but nevertheless I work with Sailors from all walks
of Naval service.
Term: YN1 is a Yoeman (secretary) First Class (E-6). She basically makes my office look good.
Now travel with me back to a time when my job included flying a 20,000-lb helicopter...
Starting up the SH-60B or MH-60R Seahawk was not a quick
flipping of switches and shaking out of the controls. It could take us anywhere from 20 min to an
hour from the time we strapped in to actually pulling the chocks.
During this extensive checklist and startup process, a great
maintenance department would have multiple troubleshooters standing by – and on
a perfect day, one of each rate:
AE (Electronics), AT (Avionics), AM (Structural & Hydraulic), AD (Engine), AO (Ordnance).
I think it’s safe to say that our AE’s and AT’s set the record for ‘most needed troubleshooter’ once systems were fired up and pilots were pushing buttons.
Friends, let me tell you, I have lost count of the number of times I have been that pilot – or witnessed that pilot – fuss and cuss and dig through checklists and system menus only to call in that AE or AT (sometimes both) to watch this exact scene unfold:
Troubleshooter: Arrives at cockpit door, opens it, leans in real close and shouts over the rotor wash, “Ma’am, what seems to be the problem?”
Pilot: “The flibbety-jibbet won’t flibbety jib. We’ve tried everything.”
Troubleshooter: Grinning so I can see every tooth, he or she places one foot on the door step, grabs the door frame with one hand, and dramatically reaches the other arm over my head, pointer finger extended, zeroes in on its goal…..
And pushes in a popped circuit breaker.
Fast forward to current day. I was without a YN1 for a while. It’s been a refreshing relief to watch our new arrival get settled, set up her work space, and train me on her office flow.
One day she enters my office,
“Ma’am, could you do something for me today? Will you change the greeting on your voicemail? It’s… the last guy.”
I laugh because she is not the first person to tell me this, and give her my standard answer, “Do you know how to do that on these phones?”
If you could be so kind, please pause at this moment in the story and remind yourself that I am a competent human doing competent work on most days.
What YN1 does not know is that earlier that morning I accidentally dropped this monstrosity of an office phone on the floor and broke off the stand. So it’s sitting in a jalopy on my corner desk when she arrives and takes in the troubleshooting situation.
I see her eyes crinkle under her mask and her shoulders start shaking.
“Well, Ma’am, first of all, is this red light always
on? That means you have a voicemail.”
Me: “That light has been on since I took this job four months ago.”
More shoulder shaking. They’re really starting bob up and down now. Her face begins to flush.
“So, you want to press this button that looks like an
envelope in order to hear the voice mail.”
Male Siri rats me out: “43 … messages.”
Her eyes are starting to tear up a little.
Then this poor girl watches me scroll through unheard messages spanning four months and systematically delete each of them, one at a time. Her eye crinkles turn to wide open horror at my audacity.
I respond, “There’s no way these are still problems. I’m sure they found me on e-mail.”
We get through the recording of the outgoing greeting and
recover. But I will never forget her
moment: leaning over me, pointer finger extended, then patiently, practically explaining
that the ‘envelope button right here’ will allow me to listen to my voicemails,
indicated by the flashing red light.
There are days when I know that the end of this duty station
is when I need to leave the Navy. But
then there are days when it is alive and well: When the enlisted expert gets
the best of the commanding officer just by doing her job. Respect and tact remained in place, we all
had a good laugh, and the playing field was leveled once again.
Welcome to 'Snippets'. I have many little blog entry
ideas with no common theme, and I’m not getting paid to write a column, so I'll
try putting them here.
Somewhere, sometime, what I have to say is going to make a
difference for someone else - whether it's a relatable moment, a good laugh, or
just an interesting story. As always, I welcome any good conversation
that comes from this exchange!
Hats off to those who have the attention span to write a
novel! I am not among your numbers...
