In a Hollywood movie, this would be done as the new commanding officer meets his(her) pilots.
You might consider revising to bring the details in as the calm before the storm. Your central character can be the new commander, forced to fly also because of a lack of pilots.
That would be kind of hard to do since my story is peaceful for the first 10 pages and then bam! attacks start happening and before the characters know it, war is upon them. Just like real wars start lol.