Next Chapter of Orion, as promised.
CHAPTER 2 – PERSONNEL ISSUES
2 Jun 1970
Lieutenant Colonel (Lt Col) Stephen Edwards, Commander of the Orion looked around the briefing room and took a deep breath. He had thought these days were over, these round table discussions where rank, fluffing and puffing, economics and personal need often trumped engineering, necessity and common sense. Here we go. Again.
Launch day could not come too soon for him. He exhaled silently and called the assembled multitude to order, nodding respectfully towards the ranking person at the table, Colonel Ira Asner, who also happened to lead the USAF’s Interplanetary Expeditionary Force’s (IEF) Orion team. The Colonel called for a moment of silence in recognition of the sacrifice of the five Orion technical personnel, of Captain White, who had been the Orion’s designated Communications and Radar Officer and the so-far nameless crew of N13403. He offered that the cause of the crash, while unofficially obvious and awaiting official investigation by the NTSB was not on the table. He did offer that NTSB involvement had been unavoidable in this case, due to wide-spread public knowledge of the Orion’s existence, its mission and its imminent departure.
Once that absolute necessity was over, the discussion turned to the impact of all this on Orion. Captain White and the others, all Tech Sergeants, had been returning from a training course on the radar and special purpose communication systems used on Orion. Their knowledge was replaceable of course; the systems, with some few exceptions, had been in use for years. Their bodies however, were not. They had been selected almost a year before and had broken the bonds of Earth – meaning they had settled family and personal issues – or in other words, had committed to the mission, been trained on the unique challenges of space travel and were ready to go.
That Captain White was double-hatted as Edward’s Executive Officer and had thus been chosen to be second in command complicated things a bit. That he had been a personal acquaintance did it further. Captain White had served on an aircraft carrier, two in fact and was familiar with the way things were done on Navy ships, something most airmen were not. Potentially valuable things had been learned. And while it was never formally discussed, everyone in the room and especially him had realized that the size of the ship, its organisation and in some ways the very mission itself was more in keeping with Navy ways and means than the USAF’s. But this was the IEF. This was new. To everyone.
They moved on at Colonel Asner’s pace and direction. He summarised their situation: the mission was due to lift off in less than 30 days. Delay was possible, but each day of delay increased the number of bombs required and therefore reduced the already questionable safety margin. The options were therefore simple: go or stay.
Heads nodded. Everyone in this room knew that plans were afoot over at NASA that would dissemble the USAF’s IEF space program and by extension, Orion. It had always been a longshot. The price of delay could not be underestimated nor ignored.
Point made, they, or rather Colonel Asner moved on. He asked if there were any others on the radar course. No, it turned out, there had just been their group and some Canucks, three or four, maybe. Were other qualified personnel available and ready to assume their positions?
“No. There are not,” someone offered.
“Wait,” someone else suggested. “Yes, there are. Some back-ups are still available, working in the Area’s workshops. Not our first choice, but they’ll do. We’ll have to go through it with them, though.”
Someone else advised, “But not enough to fill all the positions. And there is no one available to replace Captain White.”
The inevitable point arose from all the others, yet remained unspoken: surely an officer could be replaced by an enlisted person who was skilled in the technical side of things, and maybe would or could in the end, be of more help?
“Yes, perhaps,” Asner replied. All around heads nodded in agreement until it came to Edwards.
“I need an Exec.” A plain and simple statement, but not well received by this mixed bag.
The inevitable point arose, this time from a chorus of voices, “Why?”
“You have a skilled crew.”
“Yes. There’s no need for a co-pilot here.” Other’s nodded, quickly assenting.
Colonel Asner’s head nodded slowly in something Edwards hopefully reflected was other than agreement. No mystery there, he thought, to himself.
The inevitable answer was given by Edwards in a calm, leadership-styled voice mode that belied the outrage he actually felt at this intrusion, this rather late intrusion.
“The C of C. I need a 2IC. And if it was up to me, as you well know, I’d have at least one more technical officer. But we’ve already beaten that to a dry pulp.” He paused, hopeful the Colonel would end this. Nope
“So we need an Exec. And he is to be a communication and radar specialist, hopefully with a degree in electronic computational systems.”
Heads nodded sagely. Yes. It sunk in. Finally. Yes, but you never knew when.
Colonel Asner looked down and then away towards the door.
“That’s it for now,” the Colonel announced. “Carry on as per the schedule. I’ll make a few calls and see if I can shake someone free. Meanwhile dig up those back-ups and keep things moving. Gentlemen.” A dramatic pause followed, “We are getting out of here. Make it so.”
As the others left he looked at Edwards from across the table. He shrugged his shoulders, tipped his head and lifted an ear and one eyebrow in succession. Not a good sign.
Edwards sat back down. The meeting had been brief and to the point. Maybe a little too brief and too much avoiding the point for his liking, but done was duty.