The Right Stuff
“David King, director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., has awarded the Director’s Commendation to members of the Hurricane Gustav rideout crew at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans for their outstanding effort in planning and implementing emergency operations to protect the facility. As Hurricane Gustav approached the Gulf Coast, the 51-person rideout crew stayed on the Michoud site to secure the facility, monitor the hurricane and ride out the storm. Its members include NASA civil service, Lockheed Martin contractor employees and Coastal International Security personnel.”
Editor’s note: I was at MAF a matter of weeks after Katrina. I saw things in the faces of the people who worked there that I never expected to see. How and why they do things harkens back to another time. This is not the first time that these folks have taken significant personal risks to preserve critical aspects of America’s human space flight program. They do so in a no-nonsense fashion – and when you ask them why, as I did, they say things such as “because its my job, sir”. To those of you sitting behind desks at NASA: think of that later today when you stop what you are doing simply because your car pool is about to leave. During Katrina these people stayed on the job as their families and homes risked – or actually experienced – utter destruction. And then they lived at work for weeks sleeping on cots.