If the engineers didn’t know something, they’d say something like, “Oh, Lifer knows about that; let’s gethim in.” Al would call up Lifer, who would come right away. I couldn’t have had a better briefing.

It’s called a briefing, but it wasn’t brief: it wasvery intense, very fast, and very complete. It’s the only way I know to get technical information quickly: you don’t just sit there while they go through whatthey think would be interesting; instead, you ask a lot of questions, you get quick answers, and soon you begin to understand the circumstances and learn just what to ask to get the next piece of information you need.