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"We had to pull off what in the end was the largest search in American history," Ciannilli says, describing the 420x16km stretch that comprised Columbia's flight path. If it wasn't for the "thousands of volunteers -- the American Indian tribes, volunteer firefighters and policemen, and everyday people that came down," he says, with something of wonder still in his voice, the job would have been nearly impossible. Ciannilli's respect for those volunteers is palpable: "These folks came on buses from around the country, lived in tents in freezing rain conditions. They worked twelve hour plus days through very, very rough conditions and then their reward at night was to sleep in a small tent in freezing rain." Ciannilli describes how incredible it was to interact with these volunteers, who simply felt that this was something they owed to their country. "And these folks did it with a smile, you'd walk around they'd be thanking you for the experience."

When you wonder if space really matters to people, Ciannilli says, think of these volunteers. "When you see these folks come down and put their life on hold to help out the nation's space program, it becomes very real what space means to people."

"It was an extremely bittersweet emotional experience," says Ciannilli, "I never want to have to do it again, but you can't imagine not living through the experience because of the amazing people that you met and the amazing spirit of those people. They wanted to bring Columbia home."

-- Mike Ciannilli, quoted in Space Safety Magazine, "Living with Columbia" by Merryl Azriel, 2014-06-10 [bold emphasis added -- DGA]

2003-02-01: Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates during re-entry. Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool, Michael P. Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, David M. Brown, Laurel Clark, Ilan Ramon