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The future needs a clearer view.
Photo: NASA
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by Alan McBride
WINTER PARK, FLA. -- The realization that the shuttle program will end this year has many elected officials asking what can be done to stop the erosion of talent from the high-tech sector.
Retired central Florida congressman Lou Frey is suggesting that we take a chapter from the past.
When the Apollo program was canceled, he said they were able to implement a job's program that trained skilled engineers in other areas where their talents, if not their particular training, were needed.
He said they were able to call on colleges and junior colleges to establish curricula dealing with the more pressing problems of the day, and match those institutions with engineers who needed a fresh start.
Frey noted that it worked then, and there is no reason it could not work now.
He said the attempt should be made because of one simple principle: in Frey's estimation, the talent pool brought together by NASA represents a national resource, and one that should not be squandered.
"This national resource can do wonders," he said, "And has done wonders, as we've proven."
Frey noted that Florida's congressional delegation could get the wheels turning on such a proposal, and added that the money is certainly available to make it happen without writing the budget into the red.
He also observed that, as investments go, investing in the talent pool from the space program is a sound decision.
Frey said he hoped that the NASA workers facing layoffs everywhere could get work in the aerospace field; but, realistically, that would not happen for everybody.
He said that was no reason to lose the resource represented by such talented minds.
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