剛剛看到一篇華盛頓郵報的新聞 ，想要跟軍友們分享(嗯，很語重心長喔。)
作為一位工程師，特別是在航空、太空、軍事等領域有所著墨的老、中、青、少年郎，工作不只是一個飯碗，而是他/她理想、抱負的投射。由於一點點的差錯，造成無可挽回的後果，真的會令人失望、甚至沮喪一輩子的！
Finally free from guilt over Challenger disaster, an engineer dies in peace
終於從挑戰者號的罪惡感中得釋放，一位工程師安祥離世
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us ... -BBqLzDT?li=BBnbfcL
「為甚麼是我？」
“Why me?”
這是當鮑伯•伊伯陵看見神的時候，他打算要質問神的話：「為甚麼是我？您挑選了一位失敗者。」
This is what Bob Ebeling planned to demand of God, when he saw him: “Why me? You picked a loser.”
伊伯陵先生，以前在美國航太總署的契約商 Morton Thiokol 擔任火箭工程師，由於他無法阻止(太空梭失事的)災難，在過去的三十年期間被他自己的傷感和罪惡感所淹沒。在挑戰者號太空梭飛到半空中燒盡、殺死座艙裡全部的七位太空人之前幾天，伊伯陵和其他四位工程師曾經請求美國航太總署延遲發射。他們顧慮到太空梭的助推火箭上裝置的橡膠O型環封，會不會在冰凍的冬季裡適當的止漏。伊伯陵甚至授權一份警示的備忘錄，詳細寫下這環封的毛病。標題念起來很笨拙，寫著「救命啊！」
For three decades Ebeling, a former rocket engineer for NASA contractor Morton Thiokol, had been swamped by his own grief and guilt over the catastrophe he’d failed to stop. In the days before the space shuttle Challenger burned up in mid-air, killing all seven astronauts on board, Ebeling and four other engineers had pleaded with NASA to delay the launch. They had concerns about whether the rubber o-rings on the shuttle’s booster rockets would seal properly in the frigid winter weather. Ebeling even authored an alarmed memo detailing the problems with the rings. Its subject line read, bluntly, “Help!”
但是這幾位工程師(的請求)被(其他命令)蓋過了。1986年一月廿八日，他和同事們在無助的驚嚇中，眼巴巴看著太空梭和乘員在空中化作灰燼。
But the engineers were overruled. On January 28, 1986, he and his colleagues watched in helpless horror as the shuttle and its crew turned to ashes in the sky.
「我想那是神所造成的錯誤之一」，伊伯陵先生在今年告訴NPR(註：全國公用無線電台)「祂不應該挑選我做那一份工作。我不懂。」
“I think that was one of the mistakes that God made,” Ebeling told NPR this year. “He shouldn’t have picked me for that job. I don’t know.”
但是數以百計聽過那一段在今年元月紀念挑戰者號爆炸30週年(所廣播)的面談(的聽眾)，不同意(這個看法)。他們包括艾倫•麥當勞，是伊伯陵先生的老闆、(他)也是發射當天留在佛羅里達州甘迺迪太空中心、Thiokol 契約商的代表。
But hundreds of people who listened to that interview, which aired on the 30th anniversary of the Challenger explosion in January, disagreed. They included Allan McDonald, Ebeling’s boss and Thiokol’s representative at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the day of the launch.
「我打電話(給伊伯陵)，並且告訴他：『你曉得，對我來說，我定義裡的失敗者是一位根本甚麼事都不作，更糟糕的是，他們不在乎。』」麥當勞先生一個月之後告訴全國公用無線電台：「我說：『你做了點事，而且你真的很在乎。那就是定義裡的贏家。』」
“I called [Ebeling] up and told him, ‘You know, to me, my definition of a loser is somebody that really doesn’t do anything, but worse yet, they don’t care,'” McDonald told NPR a month later. “I said, ‘You did something, and you really cared. That’s the definition of a winner.'”
伊伯陵先生的家人說，他週一逝世於猶他州的百翰市，享齡89歲。不過，一部分感謝麥當勞先生和其他不透露姓名的人(給他的)確據，讓他從過去30年一直在驚嚇著他的問題中(釋放)，比較沒有負擔地去到神那裏。
Ebeling died Monday in Brigham City, Utah, at age 89, his family said. But, thanks in part to the assurances from McDonald and untold others, he goes to God less burdened by the question that has haunted him for the past thirty years.
「這彷彿像似他得到世界的許可，」他的女兒萊斯莉•伊伯陵•奢娜告訴全國公用無線電台：「他可以讓他生命中(困擾他的)那一部分離去。」
“It was as if he got permission from the world,” his daughter Leslie Ebeling Serna told NPR. “He was able to let that part of his life go.”
後記：在下沒有翻譯該則新聞稿的後半段，文筆也生澀，請先進專家等賢達批評指教。
也謝謝眾軍友們的評語和贈金，無法一一回覆，尚請見諒！
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本文章最後由 上尉後勤兵 於 2016-03-24 13:52 編輯 ]
