GREY AREA

A Fair(er) Contribution

My husband is an electrical tradesman on the Chetak.  Over the years, having seen him sail, come late from work often—sometimes happy sometimes upset—and learnt about his work, what it means to him, about flight safety from our conversations I’ve come to the conclusion that we wives of naval airmen play a very important role in maintaining flight safety.

My husband is part of a small and dedicated team and has to shoulder many responsibilities.  The aircraft is complex; correct maintenance of each of the thousands of components is vital.  There are checks after the aircraft lands, checks before it takes off, servicing schedules in between... the job demands immense concentration.  Many-a-time an unscheduled problem needs them to work day and night, where the pressures of time and accuracy are immense.

At such times it is only natural that they will be fatigued, tired, irritable and less inclined to give us their time.  Granted, their apathy is prone to raise our anger, but arguments and accusations at such moments will only make things worse.  Imagine what the husband’s state would be if he walked in home tired and instead of a glass of water gets handed the ration list instead!  Or that we unload all our day’s frustrations on him when all he wants to do is put his feet up and wind down.  It’s bound to disturb him and increase his level of tension.

And god forbid, if we carry the anger forward the next morning.  He leaves for work in a muddled state of mind, may not be able to concentrate on the job at hand, and may end up making a mistake that results in an incident, accident, loss of an aircraft and maybe even loss of life.

That makes me as the wife of a naval airman equally responsible for maintaining flight safety.  Let’s stop and reflect on our roles a bit.  Let’s give our husbands love and extra care when they’re tired.  Let’s listen to them when they have something to share, instead of pouring out our own troubles instead.  Let’s be the sounding board when they want to ‘get it off their chest’.  Let’s be there for them when they need us.  As the saying goes: “Flight Safety is Everybody’s Business”.