Ten young men from Alaska--five Indians and five Eskimos--will soon move into technical jobs in the space exploration program as a result of training received under auspices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Department of the Interior reported today.
The Alaskans were graduated from an electronics training course at the RCA Institute in Los Angeles August 2 and soon will return to their native State to take jobs at a new data acquisition facility at Fairbanks. It will be operated by RCA Service Company, Cherry Hill, N. J., under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Featuring an 85-foot parabolic antenna, it is one of the first high-capacity data acquisition stations in support of NASA's new generation of scientific and meteorological satellites.
Training of the ten Alaskans represents the second major phase of an electronics teaching agreement between the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Radio Corporation of America. The first group of trainees was graduated about a year ago from the RCA Institute in New York City and was received by President Kennedy at the White House August 2, 1962, before proceeding to jobs on defense installations in Alaska.
Twenty-five other Alaska natives are now training at the RCA Institute in Los Angeles and will be ready for placement in 1964 in jobs similar to those at Fairbanks. An additional 44 are scheduled to begin training at Los Angeles August 11, and 20 more are scheduled to enroll in January 1964. Job counseling and placement services will be the responsibility of the Bureau and of RCA.
The ten latest graduates moving to the Fairbanks facility are Morris S. Thompson, Athapaskan Indian from Tanana; Roy Wesley Snyder, Jr., Eskimo from Nome; Paul Rookok, Eskimo from Mt. Edgecumbe; Lawrence D. Peterson, Athapaskan from Fort Yukon; Albert David Morgan, Tlingit Indian from Ketchikan; Vernon F. Miller, Eskimo from Fairbanks; Vitus Jack, Eskimo from Stebbins; Harold A. Haldane, Tsimshian Indian from Metlakatla; Gerald Evans, Athapaskan from Bettles Field; and Albert Adams, Eskimo from Kotzebue
