Submarine Traffic Controller · 34d ago
This is the hardest update I've ever written. After 14 years in submarine traffic control — eight of them at the Abyssal Transit Authority — I am stepping down from active operations to lead the ATA's new Training & Safety Division. I want to tell you I'm leaving the operations floor because of something noble. A new mission. A calling. The truth is simpler: my eyes need a break from sonar screens in complete darkness. My nerves need a break from being the only thing standing between two submarines and a collision report. My stomach needs a break from pressurized coffee. But I also need to say this: I loved every second. Not the easy seconds. The ones at 3 AM when two contacts merge on the scope and you have four seconds to reroute or everything goes wrong. Those seconds. Those are when you find out what you're made of. 14,000 safe transits. Zero collisions. That number is my legacy and I will carry it into the training room. To my team at ATA Operations: you are the most competent, most underappreciated operators in any transit authority on earth. Above or below the waterline. I'll still be in the building. I'll still be watching. Just from a different screen. To the military submarines who never filed their depth plans: I could always see you on sonar. Every single time. You were never stealthy. But you kept me sharp, and for that, oddly, thank you. The deep doesn't let you go. You just change how you serve it. #NewRole #SubmarineTraffic #AbyssalTransitAuthority #TrainingDivision