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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Given Children

Mr. Orval Given began his career in the space field as a member of the U.S. Air Force in 1968 at Vandenberg Tracking Station (VTS), located on the central coast of California. VTS was a Remote Tracking Station, which was part of the U.S. Air Force Satellite Control Network, headquartered in Sunnyvale California. Sgt. Given began as an instructor in the Field Training Detachment at VTS, he then progressed through several stages of responsibility ranging from mainframe computer maintenance (1230 MTC), to computer area maintenance supervisor, and finally was certified as a Satellite Operations Controller. In this position, Sgt. Given was responsible for the command and control of several of the nation's critical satellite assets. In addition, in this role, Sgt. Given participated as the Tracking Station Controller in the countdown, launch and initialization of numerous spacecraft. After retirement from the Air Force as a Chief Master Sergeant, Mr. Given remained at VTS as a civilian contractor working for Ford Aerospace. In this capacity as a Technical Advisor, Mr. Given was responsible for the training and certification of other controllers as well as maintaining his own certification.

In May 1982, because of his exceptional reputation at Vandenberg Tracking Station, Mr. Given was recruited by Lockheed Missiles and Space Company to relocate to the Washington D.C. area. While awaiting his clearance for his new program, Mr. Given was provided the opportunity to work at the Goddard Space Center on the Hubble Space Telescope. This experience, coupled with subsequent experience, has resulted in Mr. Given being dispatched on several occasions to Goddard to provide technical assistance when significant vehicle aberrations occurred.

In the latter part of 1982, Mr. Given received his clearance and relocated his employment to Springfield, Virginia. His initial duty was as-shift Technical Advisor for a very highly sophisticated electronic system vital to National Security. In this capacity, Mr. Given provided recommendations to Government representatives and direction to fellow contractors for the configuration of critical assets. After coming off shift, Mr. Given progressed through several subsystem engineering positions including the most complex and critical as well as served in supervisory roles. He now (2003) serves as Program Training Coordinator and Senior System Engineer.

Mr. Given serves as an icon for Satellite Vehicle Systems Engineering. He is widely recognized by Government Customer Management throughout the Program (to include remote locations as well as Customer Headquarters) for his overall operational knowledge and numerous contributions over many years to mission success. Whenever operational problems/issues arise, Mr. Given is the most frequent name suggested by customer and contractor management. He is looked upon by engineers, covering a spectrum of experience, for his wise technical input, judgment and expertise.

The amazing aspect of Mr. Given's career in aerospace is that he has provided a level of support that sets the bar for others to reach and he has performed at that extremely high level throughout his career. He has been personally responsible for identifying several engineering shortfalls, that unnoticed would have caused a detrimental impact to the mission. Mr. Given has provided an example for the engineers on his team and because of his insistence and leadership he developed a core of extremely knowledgeable engineers with a strong work ethic. These engineers, now seeding other Lockheed-Martin programs, are a tribute to his tireless effort.

In summary, Mr. Given is frequently referred to as a National Treasure by both Customer and Contractor Management.