Sharon Caples McDougleInterviewed by Jennifer Ross-NazzalHouston, Texas – 9 July 2010

NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History ProjectEdited Oral History Transcript

Sharon Caples McDougleInterviewed by Jennifer Ross-NazzalHouston, Texas – 9 July 2010

Ross-Nazzal: Today is July 9th, 2010. This interview with Sharon McDougle is being conducted for the JSC Oral History Project in Houston, Texas. The interviewer is Jennifer Ross-Nazzal. Thanks again for taking time to meet with me.

It’s certainly appreciated.

McDougle: My pleasure, I’m excited.

Ross-Nazzal: I wanted to ask you about your career. Can you give me a brief summary of your career before you came to USA [United Space Alliance] and then afterwards?

McDougle: I graduated from Moss Point High School [Moss Point, Mississippi] in 1982 and went on to join the Air Force that same year. I was stationed at Beale Air Force Base in California for seven years. There I was an aerospace physiology technician, worked with the altitude chamber, the hyperbaric chamber (the dive chamber). We were part of the medical corps out there. Our other job, which got me here, was the work with the SR-71 and U-2 reconnaissance aircraft. Those crew members wore the same pressure suit as the astronauts. That’s actually where the astronauts got the suit, from the Air Force. The Air Force pressure suit was a gold color though.The reason the crew members wore the pressure suit was because the planes flew at such high altitudes and fast speeds. While I was stationed there I got to travel to different countries—Korea, England, Greece, Japan—to support the crew, because the planes would go there on detachments and fly. And we got to go with them, just like we go to Florida with the astronauts.After the [Space Shuttle] Challenger [STS 51-L] accident—at the time they weren’t wearing the pressure suits. They had stopped wearing them after STS-4 so that became a safety issue. They wanted to do as much safety-related items to try to make it better, so they started back wearing the pressure suits. I got out of the service [Air Force] January ’90. Boeing was looking for suit techs [technicians]. We’re already experienced working with pressure suits, doing the same thing, so they called around. They came out to the base to recruit people. I was still in at the time when they first started recruiting. After I had been out six months, a friend who was already working here as a suit tech called me and told me about the job opening—and actually today is my 20-year anniversary.

Ross-Nazzal: Oh! Happy anniversary!

McDougle: Thank you. There were a couple guys already out here that were stationed with me. That made it easier, because they were able to vouch for me. I interviewed over the phone with the supervisor at that time and was hired! I was told to come out when I’m ready. July 9th, 1990, is when I started work. We were Boeing Aerospace at the time. Then USA absorbed Boeing in 1998.I was a suit tech for 14 years and assigned to about 20 missions, but you work with a lot of them that you don’t actually go to a launch or landing. When we say assigned, that means you were with the crew member on that mission, you went down to launch with that crew member. Then I was promoted to manager of Crew Escape Equipment [CEE] in 2004, and that’s where I am now.

Ross-Nazzal: Did you have a learning curve when you came? Or was it pretty much you just stepped right in?

McDougle: No. A big difference was they did things a lot slower here. In the Air Force it was you learn it and you do it. If you break it, you fix it and you keep moving. Here you have the engineering team, you have quality inspectors. In the Air Force you were the inspector/engineer/tech. It was on you; when you put your initials on the paperwork it was all you, you were saying the equipment was good. Here you have other people who have to look over your work. That was a culture shock for me, because I was used to being the one, not having all these other people—it made me feel like they thought I didn’t know what I was doing. But I understood that wasn’t the case, it was just a whole different culture. I had to get used to it. It wasn’t a learning curve, but a culture change from military to civilian world. That was hard for me, but like I said, I got over it. It was just a lot slower pace than I was used to.In the Air Force we loaded the aircraft, we suited up the crew, we tested the crew. We strapped them in, we worked on the suits, we did everything. You didn’t just perform a portion of the task. When I got here I assumed we’d suit up the crew, load the Shuttle and strap them in. “No, you just work on the suits and suit up the crew members.” I was like, “I don’t go strap them in? I don’t load the Shuttle?” “No, you just do the suits.” You got to be jack-of-all-trades in the military. Lockheed [Martin] and NASA strapped them in at that time. We have that contract now of course, USA.