A fitting subject for what will be my last post here for some time to come.

I had the TV in the Electrical Shack tuned to the launch, while going in and out I’d keep track of it.
I had to go upstructure to deal with a problem setting a J-box. When I came down there were several hands standing outside the shack, one of them told me what had happened.

The crowd got bigger, I took the set outside where we all could watch, work stopped as the word spread. I couldn’t believe it even knowing the risks, it was NASA for God’s sake. American launches just didn’t blow up!

The range of emotions I felt were just like most people.

There is one memory that has stayed with me, anyone who has ever spent much time with construction workers know what most of them are like. Big burly guys who are by no means given to showing deeper emotions in public. Steelworkers are the epitome of the breed, as a rule they’re tough, loudmouthed, profane politically incorrect guys, they have short patience with “sissy bullsh*t”.

Mark, the High Steel foreman we had was the poster child for the lot, a knuckle dragging, bar-brawler who could peel paint with profanity, when he was in a good mood.

I watched him stare at the TV while tears ran down his face, one of the Pipefitters made a smart remark to him about it. I expected Mark to get up and punch the guy out. Instead he looked the guy up and down and told him. “You just don’t f****ng get it do you.”

We shut the site down, nothing was going to get done anyway.