SovCOM Report 1, RA Proton reporting

Brotherhood of Sovereign flag officers,

Hey, I'm the new SovCOM and I'm looking forward to having a lot of fun with all of you and everyone in your wings. Of course I have an impossible job ahead of me in following the great Fleet Admiral Kramer, but, hey, I am going to take it on anyway.

**Reflexively looks around, imaging the sounds of skittering scorpions**

So, a few things just to get us rolling ...

Please review the existing Sovereign Policy below, and give me your ideas for any modifications or additions. I think it is great and has served us very well, but it's time to give it a good scrubbing behind the ears. Even if we don't change anything, it is a good reminder exercise for us all:

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SSSD SOVEREIGN POLICY

This document, signed by the Flag Officers of the SSSD Sovereign, was written to give Squadron Commanders and WCs some general information about the way things are done here aboard the SSSD Sovereign, to help them become better CMDRs, and to inform them a bit more about what their Flag Officers expect of them. As such, it is our official policy on the diverse questions that could arise during one's stay as CMDR.

We hope that this document will prove useful to you, that you will enjoy it, and that it will help you create a more enjoyable TIE Corps for all your pilots - and make the command experience more fun and more involving for yourself!

1) The objective: The goal is to have FUN! Your job as CMDRs is simply to make sure that your pilots enjoy being in the Emperor's Hammer as much as possible! (and that they stay within the rules to make sure that everyone else can enjoy it too.) We're not in the Emperor's Hammer to get promoted. We're definitely not here primarily to show off, or to boost our egos. (Don't misunderstand us - a healthy ego can be funny once in a while... just as long as you don't promote yourself through bashing others...)

2) Priority: Keep your pilots in; keep your pilots interested; keep your pilots happy. The thing to avoid at all costs as a CMDR is to have pilots going AWOL due to lack of interest. As CMDR, the author watched manning numbers more than anything else. The idea here is not to always push your pilots to be active - if they didn't want to be active up to some point, they wouldn't have joined the Emperor's Hammer. The idea here is to give them a wide range of activities that suit their interests - which doesn't always mean flying, by the way - and to keep them very well informed about all those activities and how they can participate. Simple, eh? It takes is time, a good sense of observation, and dedication - but put that in and the results will come.

3) Promotions: A promotion is not a reward, but a pledge of continued service, to your Squadron, to your Ship and to the Empire as a whole. And two months is the minimum delay for going from LT to LCM. It doesn't mean that people will automatically get promoted after two months. Don't ever promise anyone a promotion - you never know whether it will be denied. Don't be surprised if it takes twice the minimum delay before a Wing Commander clears a promotion. Don't be surprised if the Wing Commander never clears one, either.

Also, one thing: If a pilot comes up to his leader and says "I want a promotion, dammit," it usually tends to severely decrease his chances... :)

4) Decorations: An Imperial Security Medal is not something to be taken lightly. A pilot who gets such a decoration must have shown exceptional dedication and loyalty to his squadron over a continued period of time. It is a Ship Standing Order aboard the SSSD Sovereign that all medals must be cleared by the Wing Commander before they can go through - even if you have the option of awarding the ISM on the tiecorps.org page, don't do it until the Wing Commander's approved it.

Another thing is that medals in the TIE Corps are solely worth the pride you get out of them - and that if you don't deserve a medal, you can't feel good about it. To get his first ISM, one pilot we know (as an example) had to fly about 10 battles, become a Flight Leader, and get an Emperor's Hammer Site of the Week on a web site he'd taken care of for a couple of months. This strictness is good - because how happy do you think it makes him when he gets a Bronze Star of the Empire? Very happy indeed! Medals must never lose their meaning through over-awarding.

And finally, a medal which you already know you're going to get is not as fun as a medal that suddenly drops out of the blue because you've been a great pilot all along. A good rule of thumb is this: if you would not be ready to pull that medal you're awarding off of your own uniform, don't award it.

5) Honour: Quote from GN Wolly: "We Sovereign vets are proud to serve aboard the Sovereign... we love our job and we love it to be part of the TIE Corps. We don't really need decorations so we won't award them so easily." It's true, boys and girls. Ultimately, we do our jobs because we care for our people and for our friends, and we know that it's more fun when people play it fair. We aren't six years old. We know that a win we deserve and accept humbly is more satisfying than a win we steal and then shove in everyone's faces. We play it straight, we play it cool, we take it all in good humor. Despite opposition from many places, we just keep rocking on. The best Wings in the TIE Corps are not made up of a bunch of unknowns in a rat race for promotion - they're friends who love the fun place they've created.

6) Worth fighting for: What is worth fighting for? A few letters you add at the bottom of certain messages? No. Friendship? Honour? Pride, fun, and glory? Yes. Vodka? Absolutely! We want to move towards Wings where people are rewarded by the fun atmosphere of the whole place - for collective achievement; rather than Wings where people are rewarded by medals - for individual efforts. Fly because flying makes your squadron a strong squadron, something you can be proud of. Not because you might get a medal for it. Have good intra-squadron communication, a lively Cantina, lots of non-flight activity - because flight and non-flight activity complement each other and having strength in one increases the likelihood of having strength in the other. People who just have fun, make it fun for others, and have a good attitude - those people are rewarded by their very work, and they also tend to get a lot of medals naturally, almost as an afterthought... while those embittered ones who work super hard, but do it solely to attract recognition to themselves, may get a few medals too - but not more than the others, and those medals will pretty much be the only so-called reward they'll ever get.
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Also, just to give you all some flavor for what I am about and where I usually will be coming from, here is an excerpt from what I told FA Priyum in applying for SovCOM:

This is how I would go about the SovCOM job in the near term:

Most pilots will be thinking, "OK, who is this guy who thinks he can replace FA Kramer?" The most important thing for me to do will be to communicate with the flags and all ship personnel, let them know I am someone who does not have a big ego and simply plans to work hard, be creative and help continue the amazing tradition of fun and excitement aboard the flagship. Kramer cannot be replaced, but he can be followed by someone who will advance his foundation and strive to make the Sov better, always.

The most important short-term operational goal will be to name excellent replacements for departing WC(s). If this is done right, a trickle-down effect will continue, and the best FLs will become CMDRs, etc. This will put the Sovereign on a path toward increasing quality, strength and effectiveness.

I will be frequently seen on the hangar deck, cheering our pilots to victory and helping them make the most of their time on the Sov. The WCs will know that I will always be there for them in times of problem, crisis and success, in a manner similar to how FA Kramer has always been a great safety net for WCs.

Long-term, I would like to establish regular ship contests where all members of the wing will get a shot at glory, medals and activity. This will foster even better rivalries among the wings, and will be done to support both TIE and XWA pilots. I would also like to work closely with the commanders of other ships so we can plan competitions together, get our WCs working together, etc. I would do this in a manner in which ship-bashing would be stamped out, but healthy competition would be engendered. We need more togetherness and community of purpose in the TC, and I would slave to help create such an environment.

In thinking of how to answer your question of what new aspect of command I would bring to the Sov, I keep going back to all the things that made FA Kramer so successful: Keen sense of fairness, a great sense of humor, a lack of arrogance, a willingness to support and defend his pilots in good times and bad. In short, he was the best friend of the Sovereign. I would be a fool not to at least try to continue in those footsteps.

This is not "new," but my feeling is that I have plenty of personal glory and accomplishment already, and now it is time to devote more of my energies in the EH to ensuring the fun and success of all the cadets, FMs, FLs, CMDRs and WCs on the flagship. This is their club, and they need and deserve a best friend, a mentor, a leader. I won't be afraid to pound the heads of miscreants and wayward talents (just ask Wing V) but I'll never be abusive or unfair to them, as much as is humanely possible.
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Finally, I'd like to get some ideas from you all for possible ship comps.

Thanks for staying on through this long-winded welcome. I promise, my reports and diatribes won't all be so laborious ;)

::SALUTE::

COM/RA Proton/SSSD Sovereign
SS/BS/IS-SW/PC/ISMx2/OV [FUSL] {IWATS-SM/2, Rebellion}
SBM (Sith)/QUA/Tridens of Tarentum
www.imperialmight.com