Don't Tread on Me

United States Navy jack. Proudly waving at our locations and on the USS Defiant, now the Fleet's oldest serving ship. (*)

"Don't tread on me."
An open letter from Captain Asra Kron.

I made my thoughts about the accusations and statements recently made as a response to my "In the Navy" letter clear to the officers in my command in Third Fleet. In spite of those notions that were floated with a muddy motive, they are still committed to their duties and that is all I need to know and care about. To be honest, those directly involved in the situations described know the truth. The others are left with second hand stories and out of context dialogues, so they can only make decisions based on the knowledge they have of the parties concerned. Do they know me? Some do. Those who do not will carry on choosing to believe what they are told, and to those nothing I can say matters. Those who do know me have understood what happened and decided according to their conscience.

Third Fleet will remain constant in its role of portraying the United States Navy. In Second Life. It will do so to those who serve in it today and those who will join tomorrow. We will continue to role play the second life we chose freely to live and in doing so we will keep honoring those who serve in real life. The challenges ahead are not to be taken lightly and as we move forward we will find ways to replace what was lost according to our needs and our capacity. We will continue to provide the best possible experience to those who enjoy the Navy life, in particular those with a passion for naval aviation, and seek to make that dream come true in Second Life. And we will make room for new ideas when they improve what is in place and make it better, but will reject any that will push us in another direction.

In the end, it is all about like minded individuals that pull together for a common goal in a way that will make the path to achieve it as smooth as possible. Pulling together means just that. A common effort that is applied in the same direction, as opposed to diverse efforts applied with the same orientation. Think of it as a three aircraft flight, all oriented on a South-North axis. One stays on a 360 heading, the others take 025 and 345 headings. The orientation is the same but they are in reality taking different directions, and when enough time as passed they will lose sight of each other and be flying alone. We will stay the course in Third Fleet to the best of our abilities, and keep the true North as our guide.

Is there a viable future for Third Fleet? Is there one for any other fleet? The answer is yes if you work with what you have, focus on what you can do and create conditions to move forward and, possibly, expand. A group is only as strong as the resolve of its members, and in that sense we are pretty strong. It is also defined by its purpose and it is that purpose that makes possible the universe it belongs to. In our case, the United States Navy. In Second Life. There have always been and will always be United States Navy inspired groups in Second Life. Some have 3 members, some have hundreds, some have a couple of dozen people. Some are active, some are not, some are pulling together, some apart, but in the end, it is the relation established between those active amongst them what truly creates a Navy. It never hurts to experiment with associations dedicated to aggregate those active groups, but no matter how those experiments work out, succeed or fail, at the end of the day the Navy will remain even if they don't. Because the Navy is an ideal and a way of (second) life, not a group. In that sense, we will seek cooperation with similarly inspired groups in order to expand our experience and materialize as best we can the ideal of a United States Navy. In Second Life.

A lot has been said about the way I view this process and how I embrace it personally. I can't say I know any real life active or retired naval senior officers in the real world or in Second Life, I would imagine they already had that experience for real, so why relive it? Like other folk with military experience, some in the actual USN, I am here to make my dream come true and in so doing engage with people who have similar objectives. From my experience in role play communities, the best way to deal with a role play environment is... to role play. When you stop being in character and are still in the role play environment all sorts of things will start happening, the main being confusion and the inevitable slippery slope to out of character interactions while in the role play itself. So here is how I do it, so everyone understands how I avoid this: if I am at NAS Miramar or any other Navy location, be it Third Fleet or not, I may be on duty or off duty, but I am still and always in character. If I am away from any Navy location and not in uniform and not wearing an on duty group tag, then I am out of character, in which case I may be doing any of the silly wonderful things we all do in Second Life for whatever reason we do it.

Being able to live the "Navy Life" in Second Life is to me a wonderful thing. I live near Miramar and walk, cycle or swim to work. I am always engaged in some aspect of this amazing role play, be it helping new officers or organizing events and procedures or - when my duties allow - flying. I am thus very close to 90% of my time in Second Life living "in character". That is my choice. So when I have a disagreement with someone about Navy procedures, when there is a Navy policy matter that I have differences with someone about, when I address someone about a Navy problem, it is all done as part of my second life as a naval officer. Those who can't remain confined to that fact that is inalienable from role play, that all matters concerning role play need to be addressed as part of it or else the role play will stop, and live a military role play based on out of character feelings rather than in character hard facts need to search those feelings and find a more adequate avenue to their out of character dreams and aspirations. I am not interested in out of character discussions or arguments about the Navy - that is called real life and not what I am looking for as a naval officer in Second life. I am living the dream with many others, and will not allow anyone to look down on it with their illusions of out of character reasoning in an environment where that makes no sense.

Let us live the dream. Go Navy! Hooyah!

CAPT. Asra "Cougar" Kron
NASMCO / TFCOM

(*) Note on the USN jack:
Traditionally flown in real life on the longest serving vessel of the Navy, for many years the USS Kitty Hawk, the navy jack is flown at it's full size on the longest serving ship in each Second Life Fleet that wishes to keep that tradition. On Third Fleet that is now the USS Defiant, a Dauntless class frigate. Small size jacks are flown on fast boats as a matter of pride, and ashore it is present on every Third Fleet location. On May 22, 2002, the U.S. Navy ordered all ships to display the First Navy Jack during the War on Terrorism, which means in theory any USN vessel may fly the jack in Second Life.
More on the Navy jack here.