“American badass” — LOL...and the nicest guy you would ever want to meet! It was the most stressful job imaginable. You have an unforgiving launch window. Tens of thousands of systems and subsystems all coming together for that launch. Things in the development programs didn’t always go right and they would have setbacks that needed to be made up.
I’ve always wondered what Dad was like on the job. He had to have been a badass to get everybody to perform, but you just can’t kick butt. He was always kind and a great mentor to me.
Sounds like an amazing guy, and that’s badass to me