Odyssey of a Taishan American
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CHAPTER 13 NASA On October 14, 1965, at the NASA employment office, I was told that my title would be an aerospace technologist, like all the workers with college degrees. There were no engineers, scientists, etc. Those without a college degree were technicians. I was taken to a medium-sized building and a medium-sized room, to a corner with an empty desk. I was left there without any explanation except that I was the project officer for the intercom system. All the other people remained at their desks. It was not explained to me but I later realized that for maximum security reasons, there would be no idle talk. The “Operational Intercom System,” or OIS for short, was designed by a company in Dallas to meet the special needs at NASA Space Center. It was capable of being connected to 600 locations, but only 112 channels were initially used. The instrument had two versions. One was a panel mounted on top of a desk. The other was a box attached to a wall. Both units had a speaker to exchange communications. It was a state-of-the-art system designed and built for NASA’s application. Because the units were almost everywhere, my I.D. badge allowed me to go almost everywhere. The only exception was the astronaut training room. All system or project managers were required to attend a “Configuration Control Board” meeting once a month to resolve a space or location problem between different systems. When it involved an OIS panel mounted on a wall where another system needed the space, the OIS panel was usually relocated to another wall. It was a simple process for our contracting office to send a message to the manufacturer for their technicians to make the move. I didn’t get involved. Apparently NASA had a maintenance contract with the OIS manufacturer. I had a title but no responsibility. My desk remained empty. I had no correspondence to answer, no reports to write. My immediate boss was a man named Bob Lupo. I didn’t know where his office was. I only saw him when he came by to hand me a copy of my monthly performance report. We never talked to each other.
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About the Book
The use of coaching books systematically deceived the American immigration system during the years following the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Follow Jim’s life as an eight-year-old immigrant from Taishan whose diligent memorization of false identities, dates and places erased all memories of his boyhood in China. After facing language difficulties and isolation during assimilation and education, he eventually achieves academic success. But then he must overcome the institutional racism of the 1950s, and reaches the plateau of middle class America during the Cold War. He finds himself oddly suited to the silence and secrecy shrouding his work with the military and NASA. But despite having lived the American Dream, he sees the world as a Chinese American in a racist society. Mr. Eng completed this memoir at the age of 95. He attributes his health, long life, and success to his beautiful wife Lan.
About the Author
James Leigh Eng worked for the U.S. Government during the Cold War as an electronic engineer in many civil service assignments like the secret Stanely R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex near Minot, ND, and at NASA as an aerospace technologist during the Apollo project.