The HOD was instigated by Mike Dinn when
he came on board as Tom Reid’s Deputy in 1967.
“It was used to document ops procedures to be followed
at HSK.
The basis was the GSFC supplied procedures, but
these always needed condensation, clarification, addition and adaptation to
local conditions. Also most operators had their own little black book or cheat
sheets dealing with their own specific equipment and procedures, but these
could differ from person to person and shift to shift. And could also become
out of date.
So the decision was taken to produce the HOD,
including all these procedures, encouraging everybody to contribute, and ensuring
that the HOD was up-to-date.
A major requirement of the HOD was to ensure that
it never conflicted with the official documentation, as GSFC were understandably
nervous when they found us using our ‘own’ documentation, especially
when conducting on-site sims. I think we achieved this.
There was some resentment when introducing the
“HOD”, at least initially. I’ll let others explain why. It
might have been part of the inevitable management /worker or Department (of
Supply)/Contractor relationship. But I think it came to be accepted with time.
One opponent told me that he eventually generated an equivalent document when
he moved to a new job.”
– Mike Dinn, January 2004
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Cover |
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Preface |
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SRT Phase 1 (Intercomm Test) |
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“Here is a caricature I did of Mike when he
put out this ‘alien’ document.
We were all slaves to the NASA bible – the
Network Operations Directive, Volumes 1, 2, and 3 plus Supplements – it
was absolute law. I was always intrigued that Mike always wore dark sunnies,
even when he came on shift at midnight. So I drew this Roman scribe in sunnies
with an expression of you lot WILL follow my Directive, or else.
In the background are the ‘discarded’
three volumes and Supplement of the NOD sitting on a plush cushion. My Technical
Support Section, holding the Master Copy, bore the brunt of keeping this document
up to date – many, many hours were spent copying all the changes before
every mission, and distributing all the pages to every copy around the station.”
