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Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.columbia,net.space
Subject: Re: Morton-Thiokol Engineering Claims
Message-ID: <6442@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 27-Feb-86 12:15:07 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.6442
Posted: Thu Feb 27 12:15:07 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 27-Feb-86 12:15:07 EST
References: <1301@decwrl.DEC.COM>, <758@ism780c.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 23

> This seems unfair to the MT engineers...
> If it didn't explode, they would probably lose their jobs.

The way they've been presenting it so far, they said "don't launch", argued
with management, management said "launch", at which point the engineers
quietly gave in.  They decided that it was not worth risking their jobs in
an attempt to avert [what they now claim was obviously] a major risk of
loss of a shuttle.

If any of them are licensed Professional Engineers, I trust their state
licensing boards will take notice of this gross dereliction of duty.

"A commander in chief cannot take as an excuse for his mistakes in warfare
an order given by his minister or his sovereign, when the person giving
the order is absent from the field of operations and is imperfectly aware
or wholly unaware of the latest state of affairs.  It follows that any
commander in chief who undertakes to carry out a plan which he considers
defective is at fault; he must put forward his reasons, insist on the plan
being changed, and finally TENDER HIS RESIGNATION rather than be the
instrument of his army's downfall."	- Napoleon [emphasis added]
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry