Ready room

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A ready room is a compartment on an aircraft carrier where aircrew conduct much of their pre-flight and post-flight briefs. Each flight squadron has its own individual ready room, and it is common for the squadron's "Maintenance Control" office to be located next to or near the ready room. Maintenance Control is where pilots review possible existing problems with an aircraft, and it is where they officially sign for the aircraft. This is also where air crews can get "Maintenance Action Forms" post-flight to report any new problems.

Squadron pilots in the Second World War considered the ready room to be a clubroom. A pilot who served during World War II stated that, in his personal view:^[1]

The funny thing about a ready room is that you get attached to the hole. As much as you are attached to the ship. It's more than sentiment. It's an urge for protection. The loneliest feeling in the whole of a carrier pilot's world is when he's at sea with the gas running low, and he can't see his carrier. You think of the ready room then, and the noisy guys who make it the most desirable place in the world. It's your office, you live in it, it is the big thing in your life. [...] You sweat and worry in it, and grouse and argue, and you get mad at it when you can't hear yourself speak because everyone is yelling at once, but you're deeply attached to the place.

— Tommy Booth, "Wildcats" Over Casablanca^[1]