Japanniversary

I’ve been in Japan for a year now, and in some ways it’s gone really fast, and in others it feels like I’ve been out here for a decade now. All in all it’s been a good experience, the group of other pilots out here is pretty good, I’ve visited, and flown in, many countries that I probably wouldn’t have had a chance to visit and fly in otherwise. I’ve gotten to fly more than I would have being stationed anywhere else, and as a result have had some really good training come out of it. But above all I have consistently been learning lessons that will serve me well in life both in and out of the military. Here are Sam’s life lessons for one and all. If you have a job to do, don’t put it off until later, do it as soon as you can. 99 percent of the tasks that I get on a day to day basis are small, not difficult tasks without an immediate deadline. It is incredibly easy to say “I can do that later, I’d rather watch an entire season of The Walking Dead, I’ll have time to do that tomorrow”. This is a bad habit to get into, and a hard one to break. Doing these tasks sooner is good for a couple reasons. First, it gives you more time to make sure that you’ve done it right. Finishing something last minute before you hand it to the next person for review does little to guarantee that it will not be riddled with mistakes. Having done it earlier will afford you the time to make sure that it is a quality product. Second, it will let people above you know that you are someone who can be tasked, and who will get the job done soon. Often times things come up unscheduled, and when that happens you want to be sure that you are the one that people turn to. Don’t ignore the small things, in all things you do take as much care and effort to do it correctly no matter how seemingly unimportant it is. My very first flight back in Japan after deployment I was scheduled with one of the senior pilots and we were taxing out. In my head I was thinking over radio calls I would have to make, and course rules procedures to get out of the airspace, and he says to me “hey, man, when you taxi try to stay on the center of the line”. The taxi lines on base, or any airfield for that matter, get you from point A to point B, and I was over it, but not centered. Is it a big deal? Probably not. I would not have hit anything, and still would have gotten to the correct pad, but if there’s something worth doing you might as well do it to the best of your ability. If you see something that needs to be fixed, fix it. This one comes with a slight caveat. Through all phases of flight school I was a student, trying to take on more information than was really possible seeing what could stay in my head. My focus was learning, that is not my focus any more. I am now a member of a squadron; I am part of a group of people who should all be striving to make a quality of life better. It would not have been prudent for me to go around fixing things in my training squadrons. I was transient, and more important, not a subject matter expert. But the schooling, for the most part, is over. I am now a professional pilot who has the knowledge and rank to effect change if I see that it needs to happen. This not being a mindset that I had until recently made it difficult. When I was first here I would see something that I knew was wrong and just think, “Oh, someone else will fix that”. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t, but I always can. I’ve never worked in the real world, just this military Narnia land, so I can’t guarantee that these things will hold over, but I find it hard to believe that if you hold to these tenants in whatever you do, work, family, whatever, that you will find yourself to be incredibly successful. Sayonara