0500	The alarm clock rings and another long day in a pilots life starts. We are off to duty at the same time as the StormTroopers. Everything else you might have heard about this are just bad rumors and prejudices. Now it's time to leave the bed and washing, teeth brushing and putting on the uniform are due. The next step consists of taking a look after the equipment. There are survival rations, respirator, compass, penknife and so on. This equipment can make the difference between life and death, you know why. Then it's time for roll call in front of the quarters of the Flight Leader, first waiting for him. I am a member of Flight Group One, the leader is Ltn Desmoquatro. His nickname is Desmo and everybody here uses this short name. Once he shows up, it's time for Flight Group One to march in the hangar, together we are 5 pilots and the Flight Leader (FL).
0600	The official duty starts after the arrival in the hangar. The whole squad is here and it's time for the Flight Leaders to inspect the equipment of every pilot. They rarely find anything to criticize, though, every soldier (doesn't matter if Pilot or StormTrooper) knows how extremely important this equipment is. Everyone can be shot down and in that case the equipment is the key to survival. The inspection takes half an hour. Some sports are used for really waking us up, but nothing like: "eyelids up and down", more like working out the muscles and condition training. This is not as hard as in the StormTroops, though it's not as easy as you might think.
0700	Time to go to the cantina for breakfast. Foods in the army are a story on their own, as you know. But our food is exactly as terrible the one as you have there. Normal here is a croissant and a small roll with a little portion of butter and jam. Here is a lot of joking around, unlike in the StormTroops, you are always that serious there. This is a big difference between those two units.
0800	Now it is time for the squad to go back to the hangar. The high-ranking officers join us there. There are the Squadron Leader Commander (CMa) Stele and the Executive Officer Lieutenant (Ltn) Rookie. Stele holds his everyday speech about duty, honor and morale. It is very important to remember these values because we are the ones who represent the Empire here in the zone. The following point is up to Ltn Rookie. The first step is outlining the daily orders; this is normally training and patrol duty. Second, his duty is to manage the whole organizational stuff. For example this means Training Wars and Reports and so on. This closes the official part and it is time for the FLs to instruct every one of their pilots.
0900	For one of the Flight Groups it is now time to check in for patrol duty. This is truly boring but necessary. The check in procedure doesn't take too long; every pilot is asked if he is ready for duty and then you get the responsibility of a ship. The Tie Fighter is normally used for patrolling. The other part of the squad has no free time now (unlike supposed by many people), for them it is time to train. The fitness room needs the whole attention because it is necessary to stand the hard stress of efforts on planet atmospheres and long battles. Every pilot needs 3 hours here to train his powers, you see this is similar to the procedures in the StormTroops. Until 1200 everyone is surely busy with improving strength and vitality.
1200	It is lunchtime. After all this is a little break in the stressing day of a pilot. Actually the food is better than in the StormTroops. In fact there is an undefinable soup on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, but the rest of the week it's ok. Fish day is on Fridays, on Sundays there is a little schnitzel. The food is variable on Tuesdays and on Thursdays. You can only dream of such meals, as I know. I hope I can make you jealous. As you see I am still trying to convince you to join the Imperial Navy. After the lunch there is a new Squadron Meeting again. Now it is time to check out if the daily orders have changed. This meeting is in the cantina; this is easier for all, because we all are already there, even the SL and the XO. In the Navy it is very normal that officers and pilots have close contact. This is why we have a better feeling of us being a team, compared to the StormTroops.
1300	The second part of the training starts, it's simulator time. Here are some rules too: every pilot has the duty to fly one hour of combat training each day. It is the job of the XO to supervise this order. Ltn Rookie has a hard job with this; he also has to make up the schedule for this, more specifically at what time which pilot can use the simulator. In former times there was a real battle for the simulator places. This has turned out for the better through the reform and the XO has a new job. But not only the XO has to work now, also the SL and is not doing an easy job. This is the time he usually checks the work of the mechanical personal. Stele is on his way to the hangar. Some technicians are not ready yet and this means trouble. It wouldn't be comfortable to fly in a battle with a ship not fully operational. You may be dead before the battle starts. But a pilot may get a reproach too, when he isn't careful in handling his ship.
1500	The next flight group is up to patrol. So, the patrolling time for each Flight Group is 6 hours as you see. These are 6 long hours, very long hours. There are full 4 times to patrol each day. It was organized this way because every squad has to fly every time-period once. No Flight group has a reason to feel disadvantaged this way. It is practical, too, because the patrolling Flight Groups are not able to do their normal duties in these times. They do the other duties then on their left time. The "El Pollo Diablo" is not able to survive a battle for a long time without a shield of patrolling crafts around it; this is why the patrol has to be done the whole day. This is exactly the same way in your unit when you have to protect a weapons depot. The other pilots have a little bit of free time now, about one hour. Most of the pilots are reading, some are writing letters (like I am doing now) and the others are playing cards (especially poker) or are sleeping. Surely you are wondering now, because you know that gambling is forbidden in the army. Our SL closes his eyes for that as long as nobody fails his duty and the war is on.
1600	Now it is time to go back to the cantina. All are assembling in a slack round to drink coffee and eat cakes. We discuss the news of the war, possible strategies and changes in Squadrons life. Stele and Rookie use to come around here, too. This is extremely important for the whole Squadron. In the StormTroops I have missed those dialogues between the officers and the soldiers. Please do not think that we are disobeying the orders of our superiors. All of them are followed in a strict way and without any questions. We just talk about these things here and everyone is gaining more faith in the skills of our superior officers. We have to stand together as a team against the rebels, otherwise we are lost in space. This is why nobody here is too snobby.
1800	Now it is time for dinner. This is exactly the same lousy one as the breakfast. It is a very sad part of a pilot's life and so I decide to not bother you with that. We soldiers have very small needs, just good equipment and enough food. That is all we want, but you know about this, too.
1900	The recapitulation meeting is located in the hangar again and the official part of our duty is nearly over. Stele and Rookie summarize the events of the day, announce the training results of the simulator practices and give hints for improving the flying style of each pilot. All in all this is highly official. These meetings do not take a long time and then the FLs dismiss the pilots to their quarters. Now the official duty is over and everyone is free to do everything he wants to. Most of the pilots make a bit of a party now; there is a lot of alcohol flowing. Until 2100 the pilots have time to party on, then it has to be stopped. The FLs check the sleeping times very strictly. Stele himself looks for the pilots, who still have to go for patrolling. For these pilots it is not allowed to celebrate with the others.
2100	The "El Pollo Diablo" is becoming quiet now, every pilot is falling deadly tired into his bed. Only the poor guys who have night shift and the patrolling group are awake. These pilots have a very hard task; they have to pay high attention because now it is the most dangerous time that the rebel dogs may attack our ship. It takes a little bit longer for the other flight groups to be able to assist the patrol group. Our frigate has to be secured by those few patrolling pilots on all costs in the first part of a battle. The patrol group who has to do their duty from 0300-0900 has of course the same hard mission. Personally, I think the night duty is the hardest job to do, here is deadly silence and you have to fight against the sleep. If the rebel scum starts an attack you have to be wide awaken immediately. This needs a lot of concentration, but we all are absolute professionals. Finally, another long day is over.

Author: CP Steeler

Editors: Ltn Rookie & CMa Stele

The Author and Editors have done their best to ensure the accuracy and currency of all information in Steeler's Letter. All information is current to 17/6/99 and we can accept no responsibility for any loss or inconvenience sustained by any reader as a result of its information or advice.