The People

Abstract

As with many great adventures and achievements, there are the unseen and often unappreciated people that are down in the bowels of the system, working for the common goal of the team. In the 19th century, the ship captain would blow in a talk tube at the helm, and ask the crew to put on steam! In a building the size of Building 30 there were hundreds down in the bowels of the building “putting on more steam” in support of the mission. In modern parlance, they had their noses “to the grind stone.” These were mostly cathode ray tubes and volumes of paper called Flight Plans, Console Handbooks, Operational Procedures, Mission Rules and such like. And, if one looked closely, their noses were, indeed, deep in to it. Over the course of half a century, many thousands worked in Building 30. The outside world saw only a very small percentage of them; perhaps no more than one per cent! The public had no idea of what was going on behind the views on their TV screens. They also knew nothing about the other people supporting the missions from other buildings and at other locations.