As part of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage month, NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif., is highlighting our employees and the diversity they bring to our center every day. We recently sat down with Wason Miles.
What do you do at NASA and what is most interesting about your role here?
I am an Aircrew Life Support Technician. What is most interesting about my role here is that I get to work on several platforms of aircraft here at NASA Armstrong and all the different projects and missions that we fly. I am also one of two fully qualified full pressure suit technicians for the ER-2 High Altitude aircraft.
How do you help support Armstrong’s mission and how long have you worked here?
I have been at NASA Armstrong since October 2008, coming up on 15 years. I support our mission by training aircrew, secondary aircrew, and anyone that flies on the aircraft. We provide the necessary egress training and survival training for all flyers, so they know how to exit the aircraft in an emergency and how to survive on land and water until search and rescue arrives. We also work with explosives and inspect and maintain all ejection seats for F-18’s, F-15’s and ER-2 aircraft. With the explosives we install and remove rocket motors on the ejection seats that stabilizes ejection upon ejection at altitude. We also install smoke flares and pen gun flares in our survival kits in our ejection seats and life rafts for our passenger aircrafts.
Why did you choose to work at NASA and what has been the highlight of your career?
I chose to work at NASA because there was an agreement with the Air Force in the event NASA needed assistance. I was one of the Air Force active-duty members that came to NASA to help at the Life Support shop. I then thought it would be awesome to come over when I retired and start and new career at NASA. The highlight of my career here is getting to travel with the different aircraft such as ER-2, SOFIA, and DC-8 to support the missions all over the world.
What has been your proudest accomplishment?
My proudest accomplishment was being able to design a tool here at NASA, working with a design engineer, to make our job safer and easier to change out ejector snaps on the harness that the pilots wear to fly in the aircraft.
What/Who has been your biggest inspiration?
The biggest inspiration for me is when the pilots come back from a flight and tell me “thank you all, I had no issues with my life support equipment”. It gives me a sense of accomplishment to know I did my job right and the pilots trust us with their lives.
Do you have any philosophies for facing challenges?
If you don’t succeed the first time don’t give up, step back, take a deep breath, think it through, and try again.
Do you have any advice for others like yourself who may be contemplating a career at NASA?
Take the leap of faith, you’ll never know unless you try. NASA has endless opportunities.
Is there something surprising about you that people do not generally know? (Maybe a hobby or a fun fact)
My nick name is Haku. It’s a nick name I got from my Air Force career because I am from Hawaii. All through my Air Force career and even today here at NASA Armstrong, when people look for me in the email address book they always say I am not in there and I tell them you must look for Wason Miles. They automatically say who is Wason Miles and I tell them that is my real name.
Anything else you’d like to add?
I also enjoy doing all the outreach events like JPL’s open house, the Poppy Festival, and airshows. People really enjoy when we interact with them and let them try on a pilot’s helmet or take pictures with the demo full pressure suit that we have inflated. I enjoy answering all their questions about our job and watching faces light up with interest.
