McDougle: No, first black woman. Another female suit tech was here when I got here. You can believe she was highly upset that she didn’t get crew chief over me. We weren’t wearing the uniform anymore so we said, “We’ll get matching shirts and put a little patch on those.” That was the crew. [Terence T.] Henricks was the commander. Usually the crew chief suits up the commander. That’s me working with him launch morning. That was when we were getting ready to fly the STA. He insisted on helping me put my boots on. We had a good time. I had to get a picture of the commander putting my boots on me.
Ross-Nazzal: So when they fly in the STA you get to fly with them?
McDougle: Yes, we have to fly with them in case they have any issues with their CEE gear. That was the actual photo shoot they did at Building 8. Of course we had to match. This is down at KSC, actual launch day. Delores [Abraham] was actually over the astronaut quarters at the time. We were real close. We’d have barbecues together while we’re down on travel.That was at Building 9 at one of the training events. They took a lot of pictures of this crew too.
Like I said we always tried to match. There’s the crew over by the Shuttle. Again, a lot of pictures of us [demonstrates]. The crew still talks about it. Rick [Richard M.] Linnehan (astronaut) asks when we’re having an all girl crew again. It was a fun crew. We had a good time with them. This is when they were walking out. We were standing over there high-fiving them and having a good time.That’s out at Banana Creek where the families view the launch. That’s where we were going to wait for the Shuttle to launch. Good times, good times. I got better with my pictures. Celebrating afterwards [shows photos]. And they flew the Olympic torch. At the postlanding party they were passing it around. Me and my baby Dominique took a picture with the torch [refer to photo]. She’s 15, about to be 16. This is a Boeing newspaper article about the women of Boeing. That was it for STS-78, the all-girl crew. That was another proud moment.
Ross-Nazzal: That’s a good detail. A lot of people say the same thing. I’ve never heard anyone say anything different.
McDougle: It’s awesome. I’m serious. I’ve just been treated good. I’m not going to say they gave me anything, because I earned my raises and promotions. But I don’t think they had to be as good as they have been to me. Very fair. And I try to do the same thing. I try to be very fair across the board. I think that’s one of the reasons I was promoted, because 20 people interviewed for the position after the manager left. I told them I bleed orange, and they knew I actually love what I do. I love Crew Escape. I felt I could make a difference, because I had been a technician, I knew everybody, and I’d grown with everybody. I felt like I could put together a better team and just really do a good job. Do right by the company and for the team, and of course, provide good support for the crew. So I was just very happy. That’s what I tell people. All that work from when I first got here up to this point is what got me in this office. If I had a bad history over that time they probably wouldn’t have even considered me, but because I had been so ethical and fair—as a crew chief, you’re managing a team of five people.
You have to make sure they’re doing what they’re supposed to do, and they’re at the training events and processing the gear. You report up to your manager. It was a big responsibility, but it never seemed like work because it was so much fun. Even as a crew chief I was still a suit tech. I was still suiting up the commander, enjoying myself, learning a lot along the way as far as people skills, because I could be pretty abrasive sometimes. In the military, I was always around a bunch of guys, so we always cut up, and used profanity. It was just normal and accepted. Then I came to the civilian world, “You can’t do that, you can’t say that.” “Why?” I wasn’t saying it to be mean, that’s just how we talked in the military. So I had to grow in that aspect also as far as really watching what I say. Having kids, of course, made me do that too. Once I had my babies I really watched how I acted, because now I have kids watching and emulating me. That was a big change. I was only 26 when I got here, so I was still a baby. I was 26 and brand-new, because I hadn’t worked as a civilian. I went right out of high school into the military, so that’s all I knew was the military way of life. The military was so much fun, oh my gosh. I don’t regret one second.I haven’t gotten my degree yet. I’m going to put that out there to let people know that you can still progress and do good without your degree. I have been taking a class here and there. I could kick myself because that’s why I went in the military—to go to school—but they gave me this awesome job where they were sending me somewhere every two months. I was like, “I’ll do it next year, next year, next year, next year,” but never did.
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