Searching for Columbia...
This was posted in another forum I frequent and I'm re-posting it here. I don't know this person, but I know the story will be of interest to many. First, the intro someone else had for it:
The following is an email from a friend of mine who worked in the space program (and may be back now). She left to go to Africa in the Peace Corps and has returned. She worked with the astronauts who passed away because she was a trainer on the Canada Arm. I know she wouldn't mind me sharing it and I hope that you enjoy her story.
And now, the message itself:
Hello All,
I just got back from Houston and I have great stories to tell. I had the privelege to join the Columbia Search and Recovery team this weekend in Nacogdoches, Tx. This helped me a lot. It was the most physically, mentally, and emotionally demanding weekend I have ever had. I'd like to tell you a bit about it.
There are several S/R teams from all over the US there already. FEMA is running the show, as this is labeled a national disaster site. You can tell by their setup they have, unfortunatly, done this many times before. We even got to talk to some of the guys who worked the WTC.
They have several large tents set up at the community center in town. All the searchers/volunteers meet at 5 am for breakfast. At 6 there is the day's briefing, then into the field by 7. We dont get finished until about 6 or so at night, then they have dinner ready for us. Very smooth organization and setup.
There were 30 NASA volunteers, and they kept us together. This was the first weekend they were letting people other than forest service or other govt organization into the search, so we were really happy to be there. They kept us all together, I think they were afraid of us slowing down the experienced teams, but that was ok, as we were all there for the same reason and bonded really quickly because of it.
We had a grid to cover, and it took us most of the weekend to do it. We started out in a straight line and would guide off the lead person, so we were always in a line. We stayed 10 feet apart and just scanned the ground. We found lots of tile and bits of aluminum this way. The first day everyone on the team found something. It was amazing. The sad part for us was on saturday morning when they gave us each two ziplock sandwich baggies to put debris in. We realized we werent expected to find anything very large.
Over the 2 days we had 4 'significant discoveries'. The first day we found a 4 foot by 1 foot section of the payload bay doors, and also what we think was part of the crew cabin. The second day, we found part of the underside of the orbiter, and I was lucky to find a 3 foot section of piping, probably out of the engine compartment. We didnt have a bag big enough to hold it, so our team boss let me carry it out. That was a great honor to me.
It was a productive weekend I think. 13 hours in the forest and brush both days earned me the nickname Rabbit because I prefered to crawl under brush instead of trying to beat my way through it. I spent most of saturday on my hands and knees. It was a somber start, but morale picked up as we started finding stuff. We probably found 200 pieces of tile just between the 30 of us. It felt good to be doing something to help.
I'm home now, but wish I could be back doing more. There were a lot of men who have been there from the start, and they look exhausted already, but their determination to find everything possible keeps them going. It was fantastic to see all the people working there. I am so happy to have been a part of it.
Thanks all for listening. It helps me to talk about it to you, my friends. I love you all. Take care!
Karen