Stewart,
You are right. Many a mechanic goes unnoticed and in many cases thwarts off credit where credit is due. It's been much the same in my short stint of 24 years in aviation maintenance and this anonymous poem called the "Forgotten Mechanic" says it best. But this could so easily apply to Drag Racing and the mechanics who have brought the quality and performance of the cars to where they are today...
Remembering the Forgotten Mechanic.
Through the history of world aviation many names have come to the fore.
Great deeds of the past in our memory will last, as they're joined by more and more.
When man first started his labor in his quest to conquer the sky he was designer, mechanic and pilot, and he built a machine that would fly.
But somehow the order got twisted, and then in the public's eye the only man that could be seen was the man who knew how to fly.
He was everyone's hero, he was brave, he was bold, he was grand, as he stood by his battered old biplane with his goggles and helmet in hand.
To be sure, these pilots all earned it, to fly you have to have guts.
And they blazed their names in the hall of fame on wings with bailing wire struts.
But for each of the flying heroes there were thousands of little known, and these were the men who worked on the planes but kept their feet on the ground.
We all know the name of Lindbergh, and we've read of his flight to fame.
But think if you can, of his maintenance man, can you remember his name? And think of our wartime heroes, Gabreski, Jabara, and Scott.
Can you tell me the names of their crew chiefs? A thousand to one you cannot.
Now pilots are highly trained people, and wings are not easily won.
But without the work of the maintenance man our pilots would march with a gun.
So when you see mighty jet aircraft as they mark their way through the air, the grease stained man with the wrench in his hand is the man who put them there.
(Anonymous)
