NASA Headquarters NACA
Oral History Project
Edited Oral History Transcript
Cecil G.
Dome
Interviewed by Rebecca Wright
Bakersfield,
California –
19 February 2015
Wright: Today is February 19, 2015. This oral history session is being
conducted with Cecil Dome at his home in Bakersfield, California,
as part of the NACA [National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics]
Oral History Project sponsored by the NASA Headquarters History Office.
Interviewers are Rebecca Wright and Sandra Johnson. We thank you again
for allowing us to come in your home and have this opportunity to
visit with you. I’d like to start if you’d share with
us how you first became involved with NACA, and what you knew about
it when you joined.
Dome:
When I was going to Northrop Aeronautical Institute, they came recruiting.
They hired me and I stayed there for 32 years I guess.
Wright:
Where was the Northrop Institute? Where was that located?
Dome:
Hawthorne.
Wright:
California?
Dome:
Yes.
Wright:
How old were you when you were there?
Dome:
Probably 24.
Wright:
You spent some time in the—what branch of the service were you
in?
Dome:
Army.
Wright:
You went to the institute, and what were your plans at the institute?
What were you there for? What kind of training?
Dome:
I got an FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] A&E [aircraft maintenance
technician] certificate to maintain aircraft and release them for
flight.
Wright:
Did you complete your training at the Institute before you came out
here?
Dome:
Yes.
Wright:
Are you originally from California?
Dome:
Kansas.
Wright:
Well, yes, that’s a little ways away. Well, it was nice that
you were able to be at the right place at the right time.
Dome:
Well, I came out here to go to school.
Wright:
What year was it that you were part of that?
Dome:
1951.
Mrs.
Mary Dome: The Army, the veterans training
after he got out of the service helped many many men his age go to
school.
Dome:
The GI Bill [Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944].
Wright:
That’s wonderful.
M. Dome: We went on the GI Bill.
Wright:
You were married at the time?
Dome:
Yes.
Wright:
So NACA sent a recruiter down to the Northrop Institute?
Dome:
Yes.
Wright:
Then you moved where? Did you come out to Lancaster or Palmdale [California]?
Dome:
Mojave [California].
M. Dome: Mojave, it was the only place we had to live. The deactivated
Marine barracks is what we lived in.
Wright:
That was cozy, I’m sure.
M. Dome: You had to sweep the sand out of the tub. And we had a barrel
of oil in front of the kitchen window; that was how we heated and
cooked.
Dome:
Heating oil.
Wright:
Yes, you were camping before you knew that. You were pioneers. Tell
us about the first days of working out at the base. What did they
have you do?
Dome:
The first day probably mostly orientation, to show you what kind of
work they did and what they expected you to do, which helped get started.
Wright:
What kind of planes were in the hangars when you arrived?
Dome:
X models, [Bell] X-1, X-2, X-3, X-4, X-5. And the [North American]
X-15.
M. Dome: Well, that [the X-15] would have been some years later, honey.
Wright:
It must have been quite a sight to see planes that you had never seen
before.
Dome:
It was, yes. That’s probably why I stayed. It looked very interesting.
M. Dome: He was flying before he came out here, but he wasn’t a
pilot out here.
Wright:
Flying your own plane?
Dome:
Yes.
M. Dome: In Kansas.
Dome:
That was before I was married. After that I couldn’t afford
to do that anymore.
Wright:
Yes, those planes, it’s an expensive hobby, isn’t it?
Those days that you went up, what did you have to bring when you went
to work there? Did you have to bring your own tools as part of your
job? Or did they supply tools and training for those planes?
Dome:
We had to furnish our own hand-tools, but lots of test equipment was
furnished, and had to learn how to use that.
Wright:
Who taught you how to do that? The people who had been working on
it for a while, the team that was already there? Did they train you
how to work on the test equipment?
Dome:
Yes. It would have been very hard to go to work with not knowing anything
about it, but all the people that were there were very helpful and
showed you everything.
Wright:
Were some of the men that were there, were they from Langley [Research
Center, Hampton, Virginia]?
Dome:
Yes. That was original, actually, when I hired in, the papers and
everything I hired in were from Langley.
Wright:
Do you remember the title? What was your first assignment or your
first title when you walked into NACA?
Dome:
I guess I was a mechanic originally.
Wright:
Tell us about maybe the first plane and the first flight that you
worked on or even witnessed out there, or one that’s memorable
to you.
Dome:
Probably the first plane I worked on was the X-4. If we were at [my
home in] Tehachapi [California] I could show you pictures of all of
them, but I don’t have them here.
Wright:
Were they all different?
Dome:
Oh yes. They built three of each X model usually and usually one of
them crashed.
Wright:
Did you witness that as well? Did you see some of the crashes?
Dome:
Yes.
Wright:
How did that impact the workforce, the people who worked on those
planes? How were you able to start again the next day and keep working?
Dome:
Well, you had to, even though the pilot got killed, you had to keep
going and do it again.
Wright:
As a mechanic did you have a lot of input if you saw something wrong
with the plane?
Dome:
Oh yes. As a mechanic inspection was part of your job too. You checked
each other’s work to make sure your fellow hadn’t messed
something up.
M. Dome: Because he went from a mechanic to an inspector, and then to
Chief of Inspection. He was in the office then after a while. He went
to school, and they sent him to school. He was quality control, but
he had retired.
Wright:
What were some of the changes? You worked on the X planes and then
the X-15. Tell us about changing your role from a mechanic then to
one that was in charge of the inspections. That was a lot of responsibility
to make sure that those planes were ready to fly.
Dome:
As you gained experience you were more qualified to do those things.
Wright:
Did you know a lot about when they would make the changes like from
the early X planes to the X-15, and then they went to the Lifting
Bodies? Were you involved in those discussions about the designs of
the planes?
Dome:
Oh yes. We were involved in the design of a lot of new—had to
put new input in the designs, see if we could approve of what they
were doing, and not make mistakes, and try to keep them from making
mistakes.
Wright:
I guess sometimes ideas look good on paper but they don’t fly
very well, do they?
Dome:
Right.
M. Dome: He had to keep them straightened out from the Engineering Department.
They didn’t like that sometimes.
Wright:
I’m sure there were some planes that never got off the ground?
Were there some of those too?
Dome:
Yes.
Wright:
You went from the X planes, and you went to those Lifting Bodies.
What were your thoughts when you first saw some of the designs for
that type of a structure?
Dome:
A Lifting Body didn’t have any wings, the lift came from the
bottom of the fuselage. They flew pretty good, it was a good reentry
vehicle for reentering the atmosphere from flying in space.
M. Dome: I think one of the really interesting things is when they started,
the way they checked the motors, the only way was to put their ear
right against the motor. That’s the reason why he is deaf almost.
That’s how they checked to make sure that it was going to fly.
Wright:
Can you tell me a little more about that? What were you listening
for when you would put your ear down by the motor?
Dome:
Any bearings and things that were making noise. Some of the pictures
they have of us checking airplanes, everybody was around, and the
only ear protection we had was this.
Wright:
Put your fingers in your ears? That didn’t help much, did it?
Dome:
Not much. So all of us ended up deaf.
Wright:
I find that so interesting, because the only way that you knew that
it sounded correctly was constantly being around the correct sound.
Dome:
Yes.
Wright:
When you identified that there was something not correct, how did
you tell someone?
Dome:
We’d wave at the coordinator up in front, and he’d shut
it down. Then we’d go look and see if we could find out what
the problem was. Usually we could.
Wright:
That’s a lot of teamwork that they trusted you to—and
hopefully that you knew what you were talking about or hearing. Are
there any other tricks that you had that you knew, like when you heard
the bearings not being right, or the engine not sounding right? Is
there anything else that you taught the next group of people to listen
for?
Dome:
Sometimes when we had an engine problem, we’d get the factory
people back down there to work on it, and tell them what was going
wrong. They’d work on it, and finally figure out a fix.
Wright:
You worked closely with North American or McDonnell Douglas?
Dome:
Northrop, North American, Rockwell.
Wright:
Did you ever have an opportunity to go work for any of those companies?
Dome:
I could have but I didn’t go.
Wright:
Why did you decide to stay with NASA?
Dome:
I liked working there, and the variety of projects we had. If you
went for a company you were just working on one item usually.
Wright:
Did you have a lot of projects like three or four? Or were there different
projects in different stages all the time when you were there?
Dome:
There were three or four projects going on at the same time, three
or four different airplanes at different stages of testing.
Wright:
In ’57, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik [satellite],
it started a change in America’s culture, and NASA was then
formed. Do you remember much about the transition, or was there a
big transition there when all of that began to happen?
Dome:
Yes, I remember I was working night shift, and we’d go outside
and watch it fly over.
Wright:
You had a good view out there, didn’t you? Were there any changes
after NACA transitioned into NASA that affected your job? Or was it
just a badge and a patch change?
Dome:
We had developed a Moon landing system for the Lunar Landing Research
Vehicle [LLRV], which was developed to test a landing vehicle for
the Moon.
Wright:
What kind of work did you do with that research vehicle? Did you help
with the design or inspecting for the safety?
Dome:
Mostly safety work.
Wright:
It’s a very treacherous vehicle, isn’t it?
Dome:
Things could happen.
Wright:
At any time. But the accidents were minimum, if I remember, is that
correct?
Dome:
Not many accidents.
M. Dome: There’s one other little thing. This is just an aside,
but during the Russian thing he came home with a book, what I was
supposed to do should we get hit. He told me, “You take the
children and go straight to the Borax Mine, because at the Borax Mine
out next to Edwards [Air Force Base] they had underground place for
all the employees’ families to go in case of a Russian attack.
And I think in Tehachapi we still have the little booklet of what
we should do, and what we should have on hand, the wives, to go quickly.
Heck, we were an hour away, and I had five little kids. It would have
been something for me to get them all out there.
Wright:
Yes, just getting them in the car. I’m sure you had them trained
by then, but that’s that hidden fear at that time of knowing
what to do.
M. Dome: Oh, it was, it was very real.
Wright:
Then years later, with the race to the Moon, you were part of that,
by helping with that LLRV.
Dome:
Yes.
Wright:
Were you part of watching when the pilots would take it out and try
it and experiment with it?
Dome:
Oh yes. Buckled them up in the seats.
Wright:
How long did the test take, was it different than the other airplanes?
Dome:
Different. One of the airplanes we had would only fly about 15 minutes
and come back and refuel and go again and go full speed and it wouldn’t
take long for them to burn up all their fuel, so they had to come
right back.
Wright:
Did you inspect it each time it was back on the ground?
Dome:
Yes.
Wright:
Did you make modifications or take notes? Or what were you doing when
it came back down?
Dome:
Check it for any leaks, or see if it had been damaged from heat. They
get hot from flying fast through the atmosphere. Makes them very hot.
In fact one of our X-15s they added fuel tanks and got it going too
fast and burned part of the controls off. It was made out of Inconel
X [alloy], not aluminum. It got hot.
Wright:
I guess that was an experiment in itself, wasn’t it?
Dome:
Yes.
Wright:
The pilots had suits, did you have any protective gear or any special
equipment you put on when you were inspecting those?
Dome:
It depended on the type of fuel they were using. Some of the fuel
was very toxic, so we had to use pressurized suits with breathing
apparatus. That wasn’t very comfortable.
Wright:
No, but I guess it was better than breathing in dangerous fumes. Did
you have a large team that you worked with when you would be working
with these planes on the ground? How many people did you work with
that were the ground crew?
Dome:
Oh, probably 15.
Wright:
All men? They were all men?
Dome:
Yes. At that time. There’s some women now.
Wright:
After the Apollo Program closed down, the [Space] Shuttle Program
was moving its way through its development. What role did you play,
or how were you involved with that at all?
Dome:
We did some testing on the Shuttle, mostly reentering into the atmosphere.
Wright:
Those Lifting Bodies worked again, didn’t they?
M. Dome: Were you quality control then, honey?
Dome:
Yes.
Wright:
We just mentioned about more women being involved now out at the base
and at the Station. Once NASA started moving toward finding a way
to the Moon, were there more people that were joining out there?
Dome:
Oh yes. It was an interesting program. A lot of people wanted to come
to work there, so they had a good pick of experience there to hire
from.
Wright:
What types of training programs did you go through after you got there?
Did they send you to learn more about anything in specific, as you
were moving your way up through your career?
Dome:
Usually when we got some new equipment, new projects, they usually
had people right on base that took us through the training for it,
and operating it.
M. Dome: You went back to the University of Kansas, they sent you back
east for several things. Do you remember that, honey? They sent you
back east to train, and you went to KU to train.
Dome:
Yes.
M. Dome: There were a number of things that you went back east for.
Wright:
Were those for management type classes?
M. Dome: Well, at KU, it was to teach. At different universities, they
were teaching people to come to work out here or interest them. I
think that’s what he did at KU. He’ll know if he thinks
about it for a minute.
Johnson:
What time period was that?
M. Dome: It was when you were in quality control, wasn’t it? It
was when the Space Shuttle was starting? Because he was there through
the second Space Shuttle landing. I’m sorry dear, did I confuse
you?
Wright:
That’s okay. We’ve got time to sort it out. There was
a lot going on all the time, wasn’t it?
Dome:
Oh yes.
Wright:
I think sometimes we forget that just because a plane is flying, there’s
two or three more that are being designed and looked at.
Dome:
Yes.
Wright:
Do you have a favorite memory or a favorite time that you were working
out there that you’d like to share with us?
Dome:
Probably my favorite project was the X-15 Project. It was new and
it was faster and lots of new things.
Wright:
Did it ever scare you being around that plane? It was a powerful piece
of equipment.
Dome:
Yes, it was noisy.
M. Dome: I don’t think he was ever scared. He loved that job.
Wright:
Did you get to fly in any of the planes?
Dome:
In the early days, when we had [Boeing] B-29s [Superfortress] launching
our rockets, X-1s and X-2s, I flew in the backseat of the B-29 sometimes
watched them launch.
Wright:
That is a very unique perspective, wasn’t it? Were you able
to learn anything to apply to the next time? Or was it just for observation
to watch it?
Dome:
Mostly for observation, make sure the engine was performing before
they launched and there weren’t any big leaks or anything like
that.
Wright:
Were you back in time for the landing to see it land?
Dome:
Oh yes.
Wright:
Did you travel much for your job?
Dome:
Not very much.
Wright:
Was that a good thing? With five kids, I’m sure it was helpful
not to be on the road.
M. Dome: In later years he traveled more. He was gone so much because
they went in early. There were some times when they had a project
going they worked 21 hours a day and they slept at Edwards in the
hangar.
Wright:
Had to keep them going, didn’t you? I was going to ask Sandra
if she had some other questions. I know she’s been taking some
notes.
Johnson:
Yes, I have a couple of questions. When they came and recruited you,
when you were in school, for the NACA, how much did you know about
what was being done with the NACA at that time?
Dome:
I had barely heard about it. But it sounded very interesting from
the recruiters.
Johnson:
Did they explain some of the work?
Dome:
Yes.
Johnson:
I know a lot of it was classified, so did you have to have secret
clearance to work on the X planes and the X-15?
Dome:
I had a secret clearance. I don’t remember when I got it.
M. Dome: You got it right after you went to work, because back in Kansas,
they were going around in the neighborhood—they thought he was
in trouble—and checking on everything he had done and the service
that he had been in, everything.
Johnson:
Yes, I would imagine, since he was working on those early X planes.
M. Dome: And they couldn’t imagine why he was getting [investigated].
Johnson:
Yes, it made people wonder, didn’t it?
M. Dome: Small town Kansas was very curious.
Johnson:
What were the working conditions? Because when you started they were
still at the South Base in the old section.
Dome:
Yes.
Johnson:
Then in 1954 is when they moved to the new buildings.
Dome:
Right.
Johnson:
How did those working conditions compare for what you were doing?
Dome:
It happened so quickly that you couldn’t tell much difference
really.
Johnson:
You were in a hangar?
Dome:
New hangar.
Johnson:
Was it more convenient for you on that side of that base?
Dome:
After things got arranged right, yes. Took a while to get everything
set up, but it was a lot nicer. Had more room and could work inside
the hangar in the hot summer days.
Johnson:
Was it air-conditioned?
Dome:
No.
Johnson:
From what we’ve heard, the new building was air-conditioned,
the main building.
Dome:
The new one, yes. I think even some of the hangars are air-conditioned
now.
Johnson:
A lot different than when you were there, right?
M. Dome: Freezing cold in the winter too.
Johnson:
Especially in the early years there weren’t very many people
on the base, and the numbers started growing. But one of the things
that we’ve heard other people talk about is the social groups
and the athletic groups that would get together and do things. Did
either of you or both of you participate in any of the social events
or any of those type of things?
Dome:
We went to parties, didn’t we?
M. Dome: Yes, but it was NACA, and we went even to NACA reunions afterwards.
We went to nearly everything, but we didn’t belong to the baseball
team. He was on the bowling team. WONASA was the Women of NASA. I
was the historian for that. And then I passed it on to somebody else.
I don’t have any of that material, it was passed on through.
There were I don’t know how many of us. Not a whole lot when
we started. But I was busy with five little ones.
Johnson:
I could imagine you were. Do you remember when that was formed?
M. Dome: Let’s see, well, it was right after it was NASA. Maybe
a year afterwards. And then that included the mechanics’ wives
then, and the engineering wives. That included all of them. As time
went on, that sort of divided up. Then I wasn’t in it anymore.
Johnson:
The NACA was more of a family and it was a different way of doing
things. Then as the years went on in NASA, it changed things as far
as the way people related.
M. Dome: We went to the Halloween parties, the Christmas parties. We
got a babysitter, and we went to all those things, and it was fun,
and we dressed up. It was more family. Then also when it was first
NASA, in the summertime they would have family picnics, and we would
go someplace and the little ones all came. But it was family.
Johnson:
Yes, that’s nice that it was.
I was wondering about technology changes. You said you had to supply
your own hand-tools when you first started. Then of course technology
between ’51 and ’85 when you left, there were a lot of
changes that happened and took place. Can you talk about that? Or
was there anything specific that you can remember that really was
different from the time you started to when you retired?
Dome:
It happened so you really didn’t pay much attention to it. You
just went with the flow.
Johnson:
So whatever was available, that’s what you learned to use and
work with?
Dome:
Yes.
Wright:
Would computers make a big difference, when the airplanes became more
computerized?
Dome:
Computers, yes. Everything is tested by computer now. We couldn’t
fly airplanes without computers.
Johnson:
And you worked through the second landing of the Shuttle? You worked
through that?
Dome:
I think I retired after that.
M. Dome: After the second landing.
Johnson:
Those first programs you worked on were somewhat secret, and people
didn’t know that the X-15 was flying. Then when the Shuttle
came along, all of a sudden you have a lot of people showing up, and
people from the media, and people that just wanted to watch. How was
that? That was quite a change for the people that were working out
there, I would imagine.
Dome:
Oh yes. Out at the base whenever a Shuttle landed there’d be
cars up on the hill parked watching the landing.
Johnson:
Did you go out and watch any of the landings too?
Dome:
Yes. I watched them from the runway.
Johnson:
Did your kids get to see them?
Dome:
Yes.
Johnson:
I bet that was impressive for them.
Wright:
You could actually take them out and show them some of the work that
you did.
M. Dome: And grandchildren later. Prince Charles [Prince of Wales] from
England came.
Johnson:
That’s what I was going to ask, if there were any dignitaries
that you remember coming out.
M. Dome: Oh, many.
Dome:
LBJ [President Lyndon B. Johnson] was there one time.
Johnson:
Did you meet him?
Dome:
He talked to us. I guess he shook everybody’s hand, he was a
friendly guy.
Wright:
He was a hand shaker.
Johnson:
You said Prince Charles came.
Dome:
Yes.
Johnson:
A lot of people showed up when things got exciting I guess.
Dome:
Oh yes.
Wright:
You became I’m sure very close friends with your coworkers,
but also were you close friends with the pilots of those planes that
you maintained?
Dome:
Yes.
Wright:
Did they talk to you sometimes about when they heard something with
the plane?
Dome:
Oh yes. After each flight landing we’d sit down by the airplane
and they’d tell us what they experienced and what they thought
we should look at.
Wright:
Did you teach them how to listen to different parts of the plane?
Did pilots think that they were mechanics?
Dome:
Well, most of them were really.
Wright:
Sometimes they have that personality where they know, but that’s
good that you could talk in the same language, that you knew what
they were looking for.
Johnson:
You mentioned that the X-15, you enjoyed that program. Of all the
planes that you worked on, which one would you say was your favorite?
Would it be the X-15?
Dome:
Yes. It was the most interesting.
Wright:
I guess the most ugly would be the LLRV. Was that the most ugly?
Dome:
Like a bedframe.
Wright:
Yes, it has no personality, does it?
Dome:
Made a lot of noise, and a lot of dirt.
Wright:
I understand the astronauts who used it said it was what helped them
so much when they were landing, knowing that they had used that research
vehicle.
Were there some other thoughts that you might have that you can remember
during his career that you’d like to share with us?
M. Dome: Well, he went to college. Even after that he took evening classes
and promoted himself on up, able to go on.
Wright:
Was that here? Was it close to the base?
M. Dome: Lancaster Junior College. Back then I think they gave more,
because there wasn’t a four year college there. He took a lot
of math, and he took more electronics, because the classes were what
he needed. And I think they were giving classes then that they knew
they needed. He took advantage of everything he could.
Wright:
That’s great. And did you all stay in Mojave, or did you all
move?
M. Dome: The first—what do you call it?
Dome:
Housing development.
M. Dome: Housing development. We bought. We had to move out.
Dome:
In Lancaster.
M. Dome: It was a two-bedroom, one bath, and the air conditioning was
a water cooler, and our house payments were $49 a month. We only paid
$9,000 for that house. Later on we almost doubled the size. When he
was on the night shift, he built the house. He’s very handy.
He was very very handy with carpentry and everything. He built, adding
on a huge family room, two more bedrooms, service porch and another
bath. Believe me, with five children that was important. But when
he’d be on the night shift, that’s what he would work
on, and finally we got it. Then we moved to Tehachapi in 1972.
We had a home built in Tehachapi. We have a really nice home in Tehachapi.
But it’s so big, and this is so much easier to take care of.
And we moved to Tehachapi actually because Antelope Valley, AV High
[School], was getting so huge, and we wanted the two younger ones
in a smaller high school. So we moved to Tehachapi, it was one of
the best moves we ever made, because then we have here in Bakersfield
a four-year college, and so they nearly all went through. The two
older ones went to UC [University of California] Santa Barbara on
scholarships.
I worked for the state, for the Department of Motor Vehicles. Then
when we moved to Tehachapi, after a while it was just too much, driving
back and forth to Lancaster. Then I had the travel run to Mojave for
a while. Then after that I went to work for the school district. I
was the assistant librarian. We liked Tehachapi. We loved Tehachapi.
But our doctors are all here.
Wright:
Yes, and that’s important.
M. Dome: That’s why we’re here. We can go back and forth,
which is really nice.
Wright:
It is nice, especially when you think about starting out where you
did, sweeping dirt out of a bathtub. A lot of sand. Is there some
other thoughts that you have about when you were working that you’d
like to share with us?
Dome:
I think that’s about all the important things I can think about.
M. Dome: When he retired they wanted him to come back to work on a helicopter
project. It was really a big thing at the time.
Dome:
I had other things to do.
M. Dome: He had other things to do. We started building houses and selling
one a year. But he had had a bleeding ulcer, and he had a heart problem.
That’s why he didn’t go back. But they even called me
and asked me to try to talk him into coming back to work. Now, see,
Charlie [Charles N.] Baker went back to work after he retired, and
a lot of them did, like Terry [J.] Larson was an engineer. But Cecil
didn’t. Probably why he’s 88 going on almost 89 now, is
he retired when he did, because it was a very stressful job.
Johnson:
I can imagine, and dangerous.
M. Dome: And his heart problem has gone away, and he hasn’t had
another ulcer surgery. He’s going on to 89 now.
Wright:
Enjoy some life.
M. Dome: Oh, we did. We had a motor home, we traveled to Alaska, Canada,
we traveled. After we got our kids educated.
Wright:
Couldn’t go as fast as that X-15, but you got there, didn’t
you?
M. Dome: We had a good life. Of course the people in Kansas, we were
the only ones in California. They kept thinking we’d move home,
we wouldn’t last three months. We’ve lasted 65 years.
We’ve been married that long.
Wright:
Were you married when you came to California?
M. Dome: Yes, we were.
Johnson:
Did you have any kids at that time?
M. Dome: No, no, we were newlyweds, we lived in student housing in San
Pedro, California, and Torrance wasn’t very far. And I went
to work for Pittsburgh Paint. I had been a legal secretary before
we got married, and so I went to work for Pittsburgh Paint. And then
in those days when you got pregnant you didn’t work anymore.
They didn’t allow that. It wasn’t long until we had our
first one and I had to quit.
Wright:
It’s interesting you started out in Hawthorne because that’s
the home of SpaceX. I find that very interesting that you were there
at the Northrop Institute in Hawthorne, and I believe it’s one
of Northrop’s old buildings where SpaceX has its home.
M. Dome: There were a number of people that went to school there that
went to work for NACA or NASA.
Dome:
It’s a big school now.
M. Dome: Yes, Joe [Joseph D.] Huxman, he’s passed away now. They
lived in Kansas, but they were our neighbors for 30 some years. There
were a number of them that went to Northrop that went to work out
there. They were all good people. My gosh, they were mostly Second
World War [veterans].
Wright:
Looking for an opportunity, weren’t they?
M. Dome: We were so glad to have a job. It was just some of the wives
that came when we were living on the deactivated Marine base—and
at that time, the wild burros just roamed between the barracks—and
they cried. They didn’t like it. I was just so glad we had a
job. I was so glad we had a job that he really liked. That’s
very important for your husband to like his job. NACA and NASA was
a good thing for us. Very very good thing.
Wright:
Well, we thank you for sharing those thoughts and memories with us
this morning.
Dome:
Yes, I hope it helped.
Wright:
It does. It’s always nice to get another perspective. Thank
you.
[End
of interview]