Page 192 - MY STORY

>Me: Really taken aback by this one. “Hot irons? You
mean like the kind used to iron clothes?” >Irv: “Yes.”

>Me: I had absolutely no idea how his question related to
my brilliant quantitative description of the laser threat.
Also, I had no idea how to answer his question. So I told

him “I don’t know how many hot irons equate to the
deposited laser energy on the surface of a satellite, but I’ll
send you the answer by tomorrow if that’s OK.”

My presentation went on from there, with a few more

very “off the wall” questions from Irv, which greatly
increased my level of frustration because I know if this
continued I would never finish within the one allocated
hour. Finally, someone other than Irv asked me a question

– I think it was our Vice President of Engineering. Finally,
a question that fell within the confines of what I was

trying to brief. To my abject horror, I was so relieved to
receive a logical question that I blurted out “I really
appreciate the first intelligent question of the meeting!!!”

Deathly silence – then a glance over to Irv so see if I was
going to be fired on the spot.