Straight shooters

A lot of praise is being heaped on the Navy SEALS whose marksmanship saved the life of a Vermont sea captain held captive by pirates. This from the Washington Post.

“It was pretty remarkable that these snipers nailed these guys,” said the senior military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “You think of rough seas, 75, 80 feet away, and under darkness, and they got them. Three pirates, three rounds, three dead bodies.”

We in the North Country know the value and competence of our military. While scanning the papers, I found an article about another American straight-shooter.,.the repairman who fixes the Hubble space telescope.

If all goes well in what Dr. Grunsfeld described as”brain surgery” in space, Hubble will be left at the apex of its scientific capability. As chief Hubble repairman for the past 18 years, he has been intertwined with the Hubble telescope physically, as well as intellectually and emotionally. “He might be the only person on Earth who has observed with Hubble and touched Hubble,” said Bruce Margon, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and former deputy director of the Space Telescope Science Institute.

In a time when so many titans of American society have turned out to have feet of clay, it’s great to remember that we still have amazing, accomplished men and women working to get things done.