Leadership When The Sky Falls
Leadership Lessons From The Shuttle Columbia Disaster
by
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Chapter 1
And The Sky Fell
A deep, thick rumble resounded in the air early Saturday morning, February 1, 2003, wakening the habitants of East Texas to what would be a monumental day in present history. Like a train derailing, the roar of a spring storm, or even the implosion of a large building in the distance, the rumble lasted only for scant moment before fading into an eerie silence. Almost everyone, except experts at the NASA Space Center in Houston, was left completely unaware.
At 8:00 a.m. that harrowing Saturday morning, STS-107 entered the Earth’s atmosphere and quickly disintegrated while en route to what should have been a routine re-entry for landing in Florida. Better known as Space Shuttle Columbia, the vessel had been orbiting the Earth for almost 16 days on a multidisciplinary microgravity and Earth science research mission. On board the shuttle were Commander Rick D. Husband, Pilot William C. McCool, Mission Specialists David M. Brown, Laurel B. Clark, and Kalpana Chawla, Payload Commander Michael P. Anderson, and Ilan Ramon, a payload specialist from the Israeli Air Force. The mission was a statistical success in terms of research gathered, though sadly each astronaut would finish the course of their lives in the skies over East Texas that morning.
Traveling near speeds of Mach 10, the shuttle entry literally began to fall apart as it entered air space over the United States West Coast, shedding its first piece of debris somewhere over California. But the vast majority of the craft was to eventually land in Texas, primarily East Texas. In a matter of minutes, the shuttle Columbia had been reduced to fragments scattered over more than 2,000 different debris fields. Reports flooded emergency lines across Texas, southwestern Arkansas, and parts of Louisiana; NASA locked its doors and hunkered down for the long haul. The sky had fallen.
The sky can fall for anyone in leadership at anytime. We just never know when that time might be. One challenge is that disaster to one leader is a mere inconvenience to another. Regardless of the circumstances, however, ultimate success in dealing with nearly any disaster is dependent on the ‘4 P’ rule – people, planning, practice, and past experience. Nacogdoches County was no different on that early Saturday morning of February 1, 2003. It took willing people, working with a flexible and well practiced plan, and using lessons learned from past experiences to accomplish the herculean tasks that began on that day.
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About the Book
Why write a book about leadership in times of crisis? Because it is needed.
Disaster and large-scale incidents are growing in size, scope, and intensity on the American landscape. With this growth comes the commensurate need for good leadership during those times of crisis. Leaders who function well in a normal daily environment often find crisis leadership challenging. Pressure, time, and intensity freeze some leaders while it frees others.
This book is a true story about team effort and leadership accomplished with excellence in the midst of a national crisis. It challenges the reader to ask, “What can I learn from experiences in the book, and what do I need to do to implement the fundamentals of crisis leadership before I need them most – while facing the next crisis?”
About the Author
Robert D. Hurst is the Principal of Critical Leadership. A leadership development consultant, he has 30 years experience as a lecturer, keynote speaker, and business trainer. He has a B.B.A. from Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches, Texas, and maintains multiple certifications in security, homeland security, law enforcement, and emergency response. For more information, visit his website at www.criticalleadership.com.