“Something Funny Happened on the Way to the Moon” contains a series of vignettes by Sara Howard, one of the two female engineers who worked on the Saturn V, the rocket that sent men to the moon.
One of the fascinating aspects of the memoir is that it does not read like a feminist tract, though one would think that a woman engineer in the man’s world of the Apollo program would certainly count as a feminist icon. There is not a hint of any discrimination or even slight suffered by Howard because of her gender. That may be because the Apollo program was the ultimate meritocracy. One could either do the job assigned or not. Boy or girl, it seems not to have mattered, at least among the engineers.
One thing that does shine through in the memoir is Howard’s fierce, protective pride in the Apollo program and her small but crucial part in it. Most people still remember the astronauts who walked on the moon. Many even can name a flight controller or two. Very few indeed remember any of the other 400 thousand plus people who toiled long hours in the 1960s to make that one small step happen.
Even after Apollo, Howard did some remarkable things, like fly private planes in an era where female pilots were a curiosity, even a generation after Amelia Earhart. She also helped to build the Trident missile submarine, one of the weapons platforms that kept the peace during the latter days of the Cold War.
It is a custom, and a good one, to, when seeing someone in uniform, to thank them for their service, to buy him or her a drink perhaps. It might be a good idea to expand that custom to include anyone who ever worked on Apollo, especially the anonymous, largely unappreciated worker bees whose efforts all too often got them a pink slip as the country lost interest in lunar voyages.
Apollo was a thing of wonder, something that proves that the history of humankind from the time the first hunter gatherers built towns to this very moment, has a purpose more than just survival. Apollo helped to win the Cold War, by proving the superiority of freedom over tyranny. More than that, it provided beauty and even transcendence. It was a message to God, that said, “The universe that you brought into being is wonderful and we thank you for it.”
So, Sarah Howard, thank you for your service. It was a great and glorious thing.
Source: Something Funny Happened on the Way to the Moon, Sara Howard, Strategic Book Publishing, 2010