'04 News

Talk about your small world!!

How the demonstration of a new computer monitor at my job led to
an amazing connection with the governor's office in Kentucky!

As part of my job here at Lockheed in Huntsville I am currently working on a program to design an air defense command and control system for the UK. As a part of the program, we have a British army officer working with us on a day-to-day basis. In order to keep him from getting too homesick, we have all sorts of British stuff around the office,...a framed photo of the queen, lots of posters, and of course, the British flag. Just to keep things balanced, there's also a US flag, and somewhere along the way the guy who's our boss wrote to his governor to see if he could get a state flag. Well, he got one! And you know how things get started among office mates,... That inspired another guy in the office, named Troy, to write to his governor for a flag. Troy wasn't so fortunate, however. Instead of getting a state flag he received a nice letter back saying they only did that for deployed military units. Left without a state flag, Troy framed the letter and proudly displayed it instead.

(click on the letter for a slightly better view)

Months later, during a demonstration of a new computer monitor that was positioned near Troy's cube, I happened to glance over at the letter and looked at it a little more carefully. I noticed that the state he had written to was Kentucky, and on further inspection, I was amazed to see that the letter had been signed by none other than Paul Gannoe, who just happens to be my cousin! During Thanksgiving break last year, when we drove up to Kentucky to see my Grandparents and my Aunt and Uncle, I remember there being talk about Paul working on the campaign of some guy running for governor. I hadn't really kept track of how the election went, but judging form the letter, it must have gone quite well! Well, I wrote to my Aunt Kathy about the amazing coincidence, and she forwarded the note to Paul. It seems that Paul even remembered Troy's letter and felt bad about not being able to send him a flag. Since that letter, Paul had received so many other requests from folks who didn't meet the official criteria for a flag that he acquired some others on his own. So not too long afterwards, Troy got his flag! Below is a shot of his cube, now proudly displaying the colors of the great commonwealth of Kentucky! (And that's the letter, still framed, hanging just below the flag on the left)