Wg Cdr Madhukar Kapoor

Wg Cdr Suhas Shukla

Wgr Cdr Pranay Garg

Gp Capt(Retd) Anil Kumar Nair

Air-crew Room : An Institution

Wg Cdr S M Shukla ( Rtd )

 

 

I served with the Indian Air Force in the flying branch for over 27 years and majority of my tenure was with flying squadrons ;  thankfully very little of chair-borne job . When I look back nostalgically; now that I am a senior citizen, I have all the right to indulge in nostalgia. I am reminded of my crew-room ( Air-crew room ) days . Rather I miss my crew-room days .

 

An Air-crew room ( Crew-room , as it is commonly known ) is an essential part of a flying unit, it’s a rest-room for the flying crew , waiting their turn to go for an air-sortie. Every flying branch officer; including all the senior officers of the Air Force, even the grand old-man of the Air Force, Marshal of the Air Force Arjan Singh has had their crew-room days . A flying branch officer for that matter gets baptised  in the crew-room .

 

My first crew-room was in a BASHA ( a bamboo hut ) in Assam , whilst I was with a Dakota Squadron in late sixties . Every crew-room has minimum furniture for the crew to relax and also to keep their flying gear . Further addition to these is left to the imaginations of the officers of the squadron . Crew-rooms of our days were decorated with nice pin-ups ( I still remember the first ever pin-up of an Indian heroin – Sharmila Tagore ) . I wonder how the things are with induction of the fair-sex in the flying branch .Incidentally the crew-room was cleaned up and made sterile for inspections of senior officers and annual visit of the unit families . However, some times some senior officers, with a twinkle in their eyes, did wonder where all the pin-ups had disappeared .

 

 An essential part of crew-room in our days was a small canteen – which regularly fed tea, coffee, snacks etc to the crew. With introduction of pre-flight meals in early eighties, each crew-room now has a full-fledged cafeteria.

 

 A crew-room also has a number of in-door games to keep the crew busy like chess , carom , spell-o-fun etc ( cards  strictly no ) . These days the crew-rooms are air-conditioned, but in our days even dessert-coolers were introduced much later ( at times these were provided from squadron funds ) . Then there is a library having professional and general reading material .

 

However , what makes the crew-rooms an institution is the general environment prevailing there . The environment is best described as bohemian, a club-house kind of environment . The crew-rooms are alive with humour- no holds barred kind of humour , to which no body takes offence despite of rank difference . Most of it is what these days is called HIGH-CAL humour ; once again with induction of the fair-sex in the flying

 branch I do not know how things are these days . No offence was taken to any joke on account of  seniority , caste , creed , religion etc .

 

The crew-room is also a place for junior officers to grow professionally, personally, and also socially. In our days seniors took pains to groom the juniors in the crew-room by giving them tips, pieces of advise and even sermons both on the professional and also social front . It was a place to share anxieties , sorrows and also joy . It was like a big joint-family affair .

 

Crew-rooms are also famous for “ crew-room gupshup “ ( gossip ) . In certain ways it would compete with Ladies-club in the matter of gossip .

The grape-vine of the crew-room is active both on official and social front . It was always wondered whether the grape-vine of the crew-room is faster and more active than the one of the Ladies-club.

 

During war-time (and also after a fatal accident) the environment in the crew-room does tend to get tensed up. But the seniors and matured persons of the unit do their best to ensure that the moral of the unit does not go down. With this the flying crew are able to control their grief and undertake their mission sorties with full “josh” to defend the motherland. The show must go on; regardless of what has happened.

 

Incidentally, I had an opportunity to be in the crew-room of No 6 Squadron of the Royal Air Force in United Kingdom. We were there for one month for some training. Their crew-rooms are in no way different than our crew-rooms, same bohemian environment prevails there also.

 

Crew-room matures you both professionally and socially. The bonds created there are life long. It teaches you to relax even in tensed moments and prepare for the forthcoming mission with a cool and calculated mind.

I learnt a lot from my crew-room days, specially whilst dealing with the juniors; a strong lesson in man-management.

 

Crew-room is unique to the Air Force (also to the Navy’s and Army’s Aviation Wing. In any case these officers do get their initial training with the Air Force ) .  Commercial Airlines do not have the concept of a crew-room . Crew-room of the Air Force is a unique institution and in my next birth I shall definitely like to go through the crew-room experience once again. In the mean-while I hope Air Force guys reading this article invite me ( often ) to visit their crew-room and indulge in nostalgia.