Have you ever been a U.S. government contractor?

[JayUtah]

For a Clavius article I'm developing I would like to hear from people who have worked on significant government contracts. I would like people who can characterize their experience working with their government supervisors. You can either respond here for discussion, or privately to webmaster@clavius.org .

What was the schedule and budget of your project?

Which agency or department of the government did you contract to?

Would you characterize your supervisors as technically competent? Mangerially competent?

Was the tone of your working relationship cordial? Condescending? Adversarial?

I'm not looking for "horror" stories, but anecdotes that you believe to be representative of your experience and of government contracting as a whole will be appreciated.

[SaturnV]

That is a really strange question. I'll reply however that I don't see how this applies to the moon hoax. What does a government contract have to do with the moon. Especially if the contract is on waste disposal.

[JayUtah]

I will reveal the purpose of the question when I accumulate enough answers. I can't really delve into it right now without tainting the results.

As for the applicability, who do you think built all that wonderful Apollo hardware? Do you think NASA built it? No -- it was built by contractors such as North American
Aviation, Grumman Aerospace, Boeing, and many others. These corporations acquired and held the expertise for making space vehicles. Their work is central and indispensable to the space program.

[GrapesOfWrath]

I used to work for Lockheed. How would I be tainted? I mean, other than I am now?

[JayUtah]

By "tainted" I mean that if I say too much about how I intend to use the answers, people will give me answers tailored to that use. That defeats one of the possible outcomes of the investigation -- namely that my hypothesis might be unsupported. I'm trying to avoid the cofirmation bias.

[jrkeller]

I think Jay means that if he tells you what he's looking for you'll customize your answers accordingly.

Jay, I will probably send you something in the next few days.

As far as the moon hoax goes, this clearly is a valid question. In many the contractors are the ones who best know how the equipment works.

[GrapesOfWrath]

What was the schedule and budget of your project?

Many projects, many millions of dollars.

Which agency or department of the government did you contract to?

NSA, others.

Would you characterize your supervisors as technically competent?

Very.

Mangerially competent?

Yes.

Was the tone of your working relationship cordial?

Very.

Condescending? Adversarial?

In large projects, there are a lot of different styles. For the most part, we worked as a team, to get the jobs done.

I'm not looking for "horror" stories, but anecdotes that you believe to be representative of your experience and of government contracting as a whole will be appreciated.

Well, there was one time that a simple communications problem cost a few hundreds of thousands of dollars--another contractor was tasked to analyze the data that we were building the software for. When we asked the simple question of how the technicians wanted the data stored and displayed, we were referred to the other contractor, as they were more familiar with the newer capabilities. Months later, there was widespread confusion because of a mixup over a few decimal places (centimeters vs. meters, for instance), and we had to go back in and convert all the data and software, and retest.

After delivery, I asked one of the analysts why they'd changed midstream. He said they didn't, but couldn't figure out why we had. I said we were just using the other contractor's info. He said no way, he could show me exactly what was given to the other contractor--and pressed a couple keys and walked over to the printer. You should have seen his face. He said, "How'd that happen, it's missing the decimal point."

But that can happen anywhere. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: GrapesOfWrath on 2002-11-07 09:46 ]</font>

[nebularain]

On 2002-11-07 09:45, GrapesOfWrath wrote:
NSA, others.

You're allowed to admit that? Wow! Times have changed. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img]
I've always known the place to be treated as "No Such Agency"! or references of it relegated to "I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you."

[GrapesOfWrath]

On 2002-11-07 13:49, nebularain wrote:

On 2002-11-07 09:45, GrapesOfWrath wrote:
NSA, others.

You're allowed to admit that?

It's the others that I can't name. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[nebularain]

Hee! Hee!

[kucharek]

On 2002-11-07 13:52, GrapesOfWrath wrote:
It's the others that I can't name. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

The Greys? [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[jrkeller]

No, he's part of the secret government that covers up everythings, like the moon landings, Roswell, Kennedy assasination, shuttle UFO's, etc.

[aporetic_r]

But does he smoke Morleys?

[GrapesOfWrath]

I smoke HBs. For breakfast.

[SaturnV]

On 2002-11-07 01:31, JayUtah wrote:
I will reveal the purpose of the question when I accumulate enough answers. I can't really delve into it right now without tainting the results.

As for the applicability, who do you think built all that wonderful Apollo hardware? Do you think NASA built it? No -- it was built by contractors such as North American
Aviation, Grumman Aerospace, Boeing, and many others. These corporations acquired and held the expertise for making space vehicles. Their work is central and indispensable to the space program.

Sounds to me like he's working on the conspiracy with NASA.

[AstroMike]

On 2002-11-08 22:22, SaturnV wrote:

On 2002-11-07 01:31, JayUtah wrote:
I will reveal the purpose of the question when I accumulate enough answers. I can't really delve into it right now without tainting the results.

As for the applicability, who do you think built all that wonderful Apollo hardware? Do you think NASA built it? No -- it was built by contractors such as North American
Aviation, Grumman Aerospace, Boeing, and many others. These corporations acquired and held the expertise for making space vehicles. Their work is central and indispensable to the space program.

Sounds to me like he's working on the conspiracy with NASA.

Yep, guess he must be. Anybody who knows a great deal of Apollo hardware, and has worked with people who built it must be a NASA conspirator, or did I miss something? [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_razz.gif[/img]

[kucharek]

On 2002-11-08 09:43, GrapesOfWrath wrote:
I smoke HBs. For breakfast.

[img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]




<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: kucharek on 2002-11-09 08:42 ]</font>

[GrapesOfWrath]

Exactly

[R.A.F.]

On 2002-11-08 22:22, SaturnV wrote:

On 2002-11-07 01:31, JayUtah wrote:
I will reveal the purpose of the question when I accumulate enough answers. I can't really delve into it right now without tainting the results.

As for the applicability, who do you think built all that wonderful Apollo hardware? Do you think NASA built it? No -- it was built by contractors such as North American
Aviation, Grumman Aerospace, Boeing, and many others. These corporations acquired and held the expertise for making space vehicles. Their work is central and indispensable to the space program.

Sounds to me like he's working on the conspiracy with NASA.

Perhaps you should have your hearing checked.