This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

---

page
10
Business growth continues
BY METRIC DOCKINS
THE SUN HERALD
The proliferation of businesses and industries in Hancock County has come hand-in-hand with the increased population, making this one of the fastest growing counties in Mississippi.
Growth began in measurable amounts with the locating of more businesses in Port Bienville Industrial Park.
That growth was then spurred by the arrival of casino gambling here in 1992. Hancock County voters were the Coast’s tint to approve dockside gambling although Harrison County got three of the floating casinos first.
The building of big industries such as Wellman in Port Bienville, which was announced in mid-April 1996, has added to the area’s population and financial growth. This growth plus the arrival of ancillary businesses to support the bigger industries has meant a continual movement away from jobs in the age-old occupations of farming and timbering.
The Ten Top Employers in Hancock County and the number of employees:
•	Stennis Space Center (including contractors): 3,779
•	Casino Magic Corp. (gaming): 1,264
•	Hancock County School District: 530
•	Hancock Medical Center: 440
•	Halter Marine Group (steel fabrication): 300
•	Bay-Waveland School District: 275
•	Coast Electric Power Association: 217
•	Wal-Mart: 200
•	G.E. Plastics: 200
•	St. Stanislaus College Prep: 125
cdJmah#HANCOCK COUNTY
Naval oceanography sounds the depths
SPECIAL TO THE SUN HERALD
Hancock County is home to more oceanographers than any other single location in the world.
During the mid-1970s, the Navy relocated major elements of its world-renowned oceanography program from the Washington, D.C., area to NASA’s test facility on the banks of the Pearl River. This was the beginning of what would become a growing Navy presence at SSC and on the Coast.
In Navy parlance, the term “oceanography” is considered in its broadest sense, including all disciplines that influence the marine environment. This broad definition encompasses the modern Navy’s operating environment on, under and over the sea.
Responsibility was divided between two separate organizations. The Naval Weather Service Command with its worldwide network of some 70 field units provided operational weather and oceanographic forecasts. The Naval Oceanographic Office collected ocean data using its fleet of survey ships and a number of aircraft.
Rear Admiral J. Edward Snyder, then Oceanographer of the Navy, had
a vision to combine the Navy commands that provided oceanographic services into a single organizational entity. That vision became a reality on Sept. 29, 1978. On that day, the Naval Oceanography Command (now the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command) came into existence.
The new organization grew and prospered. NASA’s multi-agency center provided an ideal environment. A detachment of the Naval Research Laboratory was established to conduct research to support the operational command. Navy scientists could work with their colleagues in related disciplines. Spacecraft were increasingly being used as data-gathenng platforms to give a view of the oceans and atmosphere from space.
Today, the Navy operates one of the world’s most powerful supercomputer systems, one of the top 10 in the nation, at the Naval Oceanographic Office as part of a Department of Defense Major Shared Resource Center.
A vast oceanographic library containing over 160,000 volumes is available to support the work of the Navy scientists. This library is available to
members of the public doing advanced ocean research.
The Navy is involved in numerous education programs locally and statewide.
For the second year, the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command has administered the Secretary of the Navy’s Engineering and Science Residential Program. This six-week program introduces students with high aptitude for math and science to the opportunities within the Navy’s scientific environment.
For the past seven years, the NMOC has been a partner in the JASON Project, the award-winning distance learning program headed by Dr. Robert D. Ballard, who discovered the wreckage of HMS Titanic. Mississippi students have joined Ballard on his interactive TV broadcasts from the underwater canyons of Monterey Bay, Calif., the volcanoes of Hawaii and the rainforests of the Peruvian Amazon.
Although the oceanography program accounts for most of the Navy presence at Stennis, it is not the only part of the Navy represented there.
Stennis Space Center an engine for change
BY MACK R . HERRING
SPECJAL TO THE SUN HERALD
Before Oct. 25, 1961, descendants of Hancock County’s early settlers could have never believed that they wpuld see rocketships bound for the moon and other faraway places pass through their area during the last half of the 20th century.
Rocket scientists, ocean explorers and
build a moon rocket test site along the banks of the Pearl River. Their surprise and curious study of the newcomers to the area were not a great deal different from that of the Indians when D'lberville’s expedition sailed up the river in 1699.
At first, about 2,000 original landowners expressed disbelief and anger that the government was going to take land from them
Testing rocket engines for NASA vehicles, like this one for the space shuttle, is the primary mission at Stennis.
astronauts would come to NASA’s Stennis Space Center and play an important role in the county’s colorful 300-year history. Even the children and grandchildren of the original landowners would ftiake their own history as the "new breed” at Stennis Space Center working in space, oceans and Earth research during the last days of the century.
Residents were shocked in 1969 when they heard that Uncle Sam was going to
by eminent domain. It consisted of 13,800 acres for use in the testing of the giant Saturn V rocket and an additional 125,000 acres for an acoustic buffer zone to mitigate the awesome sound waves of the big boosters.
A few days after the announcement, Sen. John C. Stennis went to Logtown and assured residents that their sacrifices were critical in gaining victory over the Soviet
Union in the Cold War. In addition, he promised that no one would suffer "undue hardships” as they answered their nation’s call.
NASA brought in some of the largest construction companies in the world to drain the swamps and build the rocker-test-ing center. Hundreds of Hancock County and Coast residents joined in the monumental effort, which was the largest construction project ever in Mississippi. More than 6,000 workers were at the Hancock site by mid-1965, building giant rocket test stands, control centers, laboratories and waterways.
Engineers, technicians and craftsmen came from all parts of the U.S. Many took up permanent residence after their work was over and are enjoying their retirement years here today as their children pursue high-tech careers at the space center.
The roar of rocket tests was heard throughout the late 1960s as the huge engines were tested and prepared for their moon voyages. On July 20, 1969, American astronauts stepped onto the surface of the moon — arguably the greatest single event of the 20th century.
On Aug. 17, 1969, before the nation could celebrate the great journey, a devastating hurricane named Camille struck the Coast with a vengeance. Hundreds were killed by the powerful storm, and practically every structure in Hancock County and on the Coast was either destroyed or heavily damaged.
SSC employees joined their neighbors during the recovery’ after Camille and became instrumental in rebuilding the Coast. A bond between the "space folks” and the people of the community was formed and exists until today.
After the lunar landing, NASA fell on hard times, and it looked as if the then Mississippi Test Facility would close. The
management team at the center, led by Jackson Balch, along with Stennis and Congressman Trent Lott, diversified and invited other federal and state agencies to share the resources at the Hancock County site.
In 1972, the test complex was chosen to static fire and flight certify the engines to be used in the new space shuttle program.
Under the leadership of center director Jerry Hlass, the center personnel tested the way for America’s space program to make astounding discoveries using the space shuttle craft.
On May 20, 1988, President Ronald Reagan named the installation the John C. Stennis Space Center in recognition of the senator’s dedication to the national space program and the Hancock County site.
In 1994, a coastwide organization called Partners for Stennis was formed to promote the center and its programs. Made up of key community leaders, this group works to promote the center and bring closer ties with the communities along the Coast and in nearby Louisiana.
During the 990s, Roy Estess, a Mississippian who came up through the ranks of NASA, has directed a new breed of Stennis engineers and scientists to new heights with added national responsibilities.
During the last half of the decade,
Stennis was declared NASA’s lead center for rocket propulsion testing and for commercial remote sensing.
These recognitions fulfilled the dreams of Werner von Braun, famed rocket scientist who is considered by many as the "father” of Stennis Space Center. He said in 1966 that the development of the center was "tantamount to an act of faith that the nation wanted a pre-eminent space capability, not only until Apollo was completed but into the indefinite future.”