Unit 3 Essay On Apollo 13

Unit 3 Essay

Have you ever wanted to do something so bad you could taste it? That desire was all you could focus on and you wondered when the opportunity would come. This is just what happened to astronaut Jim Lovell in the film Apollo 13.

The film began in mid 1969 at Lovell’s home where he and his colleagues had gathered to watch Apollo 11’s astronauts walk on the moon. Jim had been on missions before and had come close to the moon but his heart’s desire was to walk on the moon. A few months later, he got his wish when he was informed that the primary crew of Apollo 13 had to be removed due to an illness and his crew had been bumped up to become the primary crew for the mission. As one can imagine, Jim and his crew were ecstatic upon hearing the news. They were finally going to get their chance to walk on the moon.

Over the next several weeks, Jim and his crew, Fred Haise and Ken

Mattingly, trained feverishly to become proficient in flying the mission without failure. Their first problem arose just days before the mission, when the Flight Surgeon notified Jim that crewmember Ken Mattingly had the measles and could possibly become ill during the mission. Upon this news Ken was to be replaced with his backup Jack Swigert. Naturally the crew was upset, but for the mission to continue and not be rescheduled the replacement had to be made. The decision to replace Ken was a simple logical decision which didn’t require a lot of discussion, and it made sense.
A few days after Jack joined the team, the launch finally took place, and was a success. As the crew was continuing toward the moon, their next problem occurred, which eventually led to the major problem of the mission which we will see later. Jack was asked to stir the oxygen tanks but when he done so there was a loud bang and the ship rocked and went out of control. The warning lights were going off and Lovell, the mission commander, made the famous statement “Houston we have a problem” (Howard, R., Director, & Grazer, B., Producer, 1995). A defective coil had caused one of the oxygen tanks to fail which resulted in a large explosion that left the crew with limited oxygen for the remainder of their journey and also caused carbon dioxide inside the ship to rise to deadly levels. Eventually, with the help of ground control the oxygen deficiency as well as the CO problem was corrected and the beginning of a plan was being put into place to get the crew back home safely.
The major problem of the mission was due to the explosion which left the ship crippled and without enough power to return to earth.

Most of the workers at EECOM were insisting there was no way they could get the crew back home. However, this is when mission control leader Gene Kranz sprang into action and demanded that each group of experts get together and come up with a plan to get them enough power to get back home. This began the problem-solving process. The problem had been identified and now the alternatives were being worked on by the individual groups. Ironically, Ken Mattingly, who by the way never got the measles, was called in to help with the situation as well. A short time later, the groups reconvened to discuss their findings along with the advantages and disadvantages of each alternative. The process continued until an acceptable solution to the problem was reached and the groups, along with Ken, had come up with a way to get enough power to return the ship to earth. Afterwards, a plan of action to accomplish the solution was put into

place.
Because of the effective leadership of Gene and his knowledge of how to correctly solve a problem by identifying, breaking the problem down into smaller more solvable problems, gathering information on each problem, analyzing that information, and implementing a solution to solve the problem, they successfully got the crew back to earth safely.
As a Battalion Chief, I am charged with supervising a significant number of employees.
Along with this charge comes the responsibility of disciplining an employee if necessary. Recently, I had an issue with one of my employees which required me to initiate the disciplinary process.
This employee was promoted to Lieutenant and was transferred to my watch from another battalion earlier in the year. Up until this point this individual had never worked for me. However, we did know each other and had a mutual friendship which dated all the way back to high school and this made the process even more difficult.
To begin solving this issue, I first had to identify the problem and decide what results I was expecting from the disciplinary process. Because the employee had not worked for me the entire year, I had little background information on his job performance. I had to do a little information gathering to identify the deficiencies in his job performance as well as begin the documentation process. First, I went into our 911 dispatch information and gathered some statistics on his response times and discovered that his rescue company was one of the slowest in the department which is unacceptable. Then I began interviews with his crewmembers, one on one, to discuss any issues or complaints they had about this individual. Much to my surprise, his crewmembers had become very dissatisfied with his leadership abilities. Some of the issues they brought to my attention were obviously the delayed response times, crewmembers having to wake him up at night when a call came in, oversleeping in the mornings and being late for work, wearing uniforms that were not clean and pressed, wearing shoes that were not polished, and other general hygiene issues such as dirty fingernails and body odor. Each of these things was the beginning of the documentation which would later be used in the disciplinary process.
Now that the problem was identified, the decision had to be made as to what I was expecting from disciplinary process. My main expectation was to correct these unacceptable actions and hopefully improve the employee’s life and enhance his career. Once these things were determined, I began the process of analyzing the alternatives and deciding which one would be the best course of action to take. The employee could just be counseled, he could be placed on probation for a set time, or he could be suspended and/or demoted. To simply counsel him wasn’t going to be harsh enough and his actions would more than likely continue. To suspend and/or demote him would be degrading which could be detrimental to his mental well-being since he had just been promoted earlier in the year. What should be done? After much deliberation, the decision was made to have a counseling session with him and place him on probation for six months.
The problem had been identified, information gathered, expectations examined, and a corrective course of action was determined. Now all that remains is a plan of action to accomplish the solution and then evaluate it to ensure that it worked.
A counseling session was arranged with the employee and while discussing his poor response times and having to be awakened by his crewmembers, he informed me that he had a sleeping disorder called sleep apnea. He told me it was very hard for him to go to sleep and when he did go to sleep it was hard for him to wake up. This new information required more thought on the matter as he did in fact have a problem. It was discussed with him that our employee assistance program might be able to help him with his problem and he agreed to give it a try. The counseling continued and we discussed the other issues he had of dirty uniforms and shoes, and the general hygiene issues. During the discussion of these items he said he was embarrassed that people saw him like that. Apparently, he had been living like that for so long it had become the norm for him. After the discussions were over, the counseling session was ended and he was placed on probation for six months. It was explained to him that if the actions were not corrected at the end of the six-month period, further disciplinary action would be required.
The last step in this problem-solving process was to evaluate the situation to make sure the solution worked and the unacceptable actions were corrected. Over the next six months, the employee was watched closely to make sure that he was trying to correct the issues.
At the end of the six-month period, not only were all items corrected he went one step further and told me he was going to quit smoking and start working out to get in better shape. He said he realized that as a company officer he should be an example for his crew so they would be proud of him.
By using the organized process of problem solving, this situation was handled smoothly and confident decisions were made throughout the process. Thus, this employee’s life was changed and his career will be enhanced if he continues the path that he has begun.