Meet: Brandt Secosh

My Journals

Who I Am and What I Do
I work with three programs at KSC. The Space Team Online program, the Virtual Science Mentor program, and the Learning Technologies Channel. Each job requires a lot of coordination and teamwork. For the Space Team project, I coordinate chat sessions, conduct interviews for the field journals that you read each month, write biographies for the Space Team volunteers, and take many photographs. The Virtual Science Mentor program also requires a lot of coordination. This program connects many of Kennedy Space Center's work force with schools throughout the state of Florida using video cameras. I stay very busy installing hardware and software and supporting the mentors so that they may support the schools. I have also developed and maintained the web site for this project. My involvement with the Learning Technologies Channel has become very extensive over the last year. This project allows you to view and participate in live events over the Internet - how cool. We are busy in the production of a year-long series at Kennedy entitled KSC Shuttle Countdown: Landing to Launch.

My Career Journey
I graduated from Titusville High School in 1974. Three months after graduating I joined the United States Army as an Air Traffic Controller. After finishing Basic Training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, I attended Air Traffic Control school at Fort Rucker, Alabama. From there I was assigned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina and worked in the Radar Approach Control (RAPCON) facility at Simmons Army Airfield. In 1980 I was assigned to Korea in another radar flight following facility with the primary function of monitoring what is known as the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea.

I returned to the United States fourteen months later in 1981 and was assigned to the helicopter flight simulation division at Fort Rucker, Alabama. In 1982 I began rotary wing flight school and graduated in 1983. From there I was assigned to Panama as a medical evacuation pilot flying the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk.

I had the opportunity to fly in most countries in Central and South America during this assignment. My next tour was at Fort Campbell, Kentucky with the 101st Airborne Division. While assigned to the 101st, I attended the Black Hawk helicopter Instructor Pilot course and returned to continue my work as an instructor pilot. Our entire unit was deployed to Saudi Arabia just a few weeks after the invasion of Kuwait, and we eventually ended up in Iraq until the end of the Persian Gulf War.

	This is where I spent most of my time instructing pilots and crew members. This is a shot of a Black Hawk cockpit on an instrument flight. All navigation references and attitudinal inputs are made from the instrument panel because you can't see a darn thing in those clouds.)
	This is a shot during a fuel stop on our way down to Colombia -- I am the second guy from the right.

After returning from the Persian Gulf, I attended the electronics helicopter school at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. I was then assigned to the 2nd Armored Calvary Division in Germany to monitor what was then the Czechoslovakian border; now they are two separate countries--Czech and Slovakia. Ironically, within six months of my assignment, the Berlin wall came down and this mission was no longer a necessity. I was then reassigned to the 3rd Battalion, 1st Aviation Regiment in Germany, an attack helicopter regiment.

My final tour was at Fort Carson, Colorado where I was the battalion standardization instructor pilot for the EH-60 Electronics Helicopter, Oh-58 Scout, and UH1H platoons. After I retired in 1995 as a Chief Warrant Officer-3, I spent almost a year in the swamps of Florida, fishing and enjoying my newfound geographical stability. I then attended Computer Assisted Design and Drafting (CADD) school at Valencia Community College in Orlando, Florida graduating as the valedictorian. I had the rare opportunity of conducting my internship with the Advanced Systems Division at Kennedy Space Center. Although I loved the work I was doing, jobs where not available for the type of CADD work I enjoyed most - 3-D modeling. The opportunity arose to become a member of the Space Team Online project and the Virtual Science Mentor Project. I readily accepted the offer and have had a blast doing this work!

Influences
My parents have had the biggest influences in my life. My father was a career Navy man with an insatiable curiosity about everything. As long as I can remember, he has been tinkering with something and reading books. He has always been a strong figure in my life and by watching him, I was able to emulate those qualities and become self-sufficient and motivated in my own way. My mother has always been a role model in the qualities of kindness and understanding. Together they are the dynamic duo and complement each other well. They have both offered me good advice, and, fortunately, I had the good sense to listen.

Personal Information
I live in Titusville, Florida with my wife, Stephanie. I have lived most of my life overseas due to my service in the military. I am very happy to finally settle down in Florida. My family and I are all animal lovers and currently have two dogs, Buster and Ralph. In my spare time I enjoy fishing, woodworking, surfing, motorcycle riding, building and flying radio control aircraft, and computer gaming.

Future Plans and Goals
I am quite happy with my job at present and hope to continue with the Space Team Online project, the Virtual Science Mentor project, and the Learning Technologies Channel. I have enjoyed a great life that has been full of unique experiences. For now, I want to be as supportive as I can be for my oldest daughter and her upcoming college education. She is now seventeen (how did that happen?!) and has a bright future in front of her. It is now her time to shine! Lauren, 7 and Ethan, 3 keep me busy with their curious natures. They are my little buddies, and we have a great time together!

Advice
Be true to yourself! If you didn't do well with something, be honest and learn from it, go back and do it better. This is all part of the learning process! Secondly, shout praise - whisper criticism. This motto will carry you far in life!