Former NSA employee will educate public in astronomy
Clinton Brooks moved to Glen Mills about four years ago from the Baltimore-Washington D.C. area, where he had worked for the National Security Agency. He’ll be teaching a 5-week course in astronomy at the Middletown Free Library, in Lima.
Astronomy?
It’s not a hobby for Brooks, and he didn’t “take it up” after his retirement — he used it during his career with the NSA. After he got a bachelor’s degree in physics from Yale, he went on to do some graduate work. At the time, there was a military draft going on, though, he took the advice from the friends of his older brother who said, “If you’re drafted, you want to be an officer.”
He joined ROTC, and worked it out with the U.S. Navy so he could do some graduate work in astronomy. He then got his master’s degree in astronomy and his doctorate in radio astronomy — both from Yale. After President Kennedy said the country was heading to the moon, and with the Navy knowing of Brooks’ background, he was given orders to show up at the NSA — brought there specifically to work on the Apollo program and the race to the moon, which he called, “clearly a political Cold War race.”
Brooks said his time working on the Apollo program was fascinating. He was running intelligence operations against the Soviets to understand their program, and then sent that information back to NASA, and jokingly said that he saved taxpayer dollars by saving NASA research time.
“Early on, the Soviets were ahead of us, and what we were doing was monitoring their spacecraft going out to the moon, intercepting the data that was coming back, and then reverse engineering all that to try to figure out what they were measuring and what their instruments were,” he said. “It was interesting because I was one of the few people who had a perspective of the entire program. I was seeing what the Soviets were doing from the inside, and [I] was coupled in with what NASA was doing — so that aspect was highly exciting.”
Brooks said he had to keep quiet about his job. His parents even thought he was working for NASA, and not the much more discreet NSA.
“I just couldn’t talk about it in public — I’m pretty much an introverted guy, anyway, and this really killed me at cocktail parties,” Brooks said.
Just before retiring in May of 2001, Brooks said he had gotten frustrated with the intelligence business. It got too political, he said. But, politics aside, he was asked to return to the agency Sept. 12, 2001, and did so gladly. He left his position at the Department of Homeland Security in 2003, and took up teaching.
“I was always giving talks and presentations to schools and clubs, and then when I formally retired, I got involved with Anne Arundel Community College in Annapolis, Maryland,” he said.
Brooks, originally from Pittsburgh, was speaking from his summer home in Magnetawan, Ontario — the same village where he had grown up, and where he became enamored with astronomy years ago.
“I was brought up here as a child, 2 and 3 years old,” he said. “Back then, we had no electricity up here, and even now, with the electricity, nights are spectacular. It’s absolutely clear. And I was thinking about this this morning. You’re just very aware of the sky and the stars, and I think that’s where my initial interest really came in the heavens and what’s out there.”
Interestingly, Brooks never fit an astronomy class into his time at Yale until his senior year. He said he was lucky to have an inspiring teacher who nurtured his interest.
Brooks’ course, “Perspectives on our Universe,” will run on Wednesdays starting Oct. 21 at the Middletown Free Library, 21 North Pennell Road, Lima, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. and again from 7 to 8:30 p.m. It’s a descriptive course with minimal mathematics, he said, lamenting the fact that people are easily scared of math. Brooks said the class, which is geared more toward adults, isn’t scripted, adding that he’ll listen to what people’s interests are, and veer off into whatever direction the people want to go — he’ll even talk about astronomy and philosophy.
“Astronomy is a humbling science,” he said. “It really is an elegant, wonderful picture. You start with energy, and evolve everything we see, including ourselves. It just flows, and you really feel this comfortable sense of, ‘Hey, this really does make sense, it all fits together,’ and that’s what I try to do — give people a sense of that.”
To register for the program, call 610-566-7828; or visit www.middletownfreelibrary.
It’s not a hobby for Brooks, and he didn’t “take it up” after his retirement — he used it during his career with the NSA. After he got a bachelor’s degree in physics from Yale, he went on to do some graduate work. At the time, there was a military draft going on, though, he took the advice from the friends of his older brother who said, “If you’re drafted, you want to be an officer.”
He joined ROTC, and worked it out with the U.S. Navy so he could do some graduate work in astronomy. He then got his master’s degree in astronomy and his doctorate in radio astronomy — both from Yale. After President Kennedy said the country was heading to the moon, and with the Navy knowing of Brooks’ background, he was given orders to show up at the NSA — brought there specifically to work on the Apollo program and the race to the moon, which he called, “clearly a political Cold War race.”
Brooks said his time working on the Apollo program was fascinating. He was running intelligence operations against the Soviets to understand their program, and then sent that information back to NASA, and jokingly said that he saved taxpayer dollars by saving NASA research time.
“Early on, the Soviets were ahead of us, and what we were doing was monitoring their spacecraft going out to the moon, intercepting the data that was coming back, and then reverse engineering all that to try to figure out what they were measuring and what their instruments were,” he said. “It was interesting because I was one of the few people who had a perspective of the entire program. I was seeing what the Soviets were doing from the inside, and [I] was coupled in with what NASA was doing — so that aspect was highly exciting.”
Brooks said he had to keep quiet about his job. His parents even thought he was working for NASA, and not the much more discreet NSA.
“I just couldn’t talk about it in public — I’m pretty much an introverted guy, anyway, and this really killed me at cocktail parties,” Brooks said.
Just before retiring in May of 2001, Brooks said he had gotten frustrated with the intelligence business. It got too political, he said. But, politics aside, he was asked to return to the agency Sept. 12, 2001, and did so gladly. He left his position at the Department of Homeland Security in 2003, and took up teaching.
“I was always giving talks and presentations to schools and clubs, and then when I formally retired, I got involved with Anne Arundel Community College in Annapolis, Maryland,” he said.
Brooks, originally from Pittsburgh, was speaking from his summer home in Magnetawan, Ontario — the same village where he had grown up, and where he became enamored with astronomy years ago.
“I was brought up here as a child, 2 and 3 years old,” he said. “Back then, we had no electricity up here, and even now, with the electricity, nights are spectacular. It’s absolutely clear. And I was thinking about this this morning. You’re just very aware of the sky and the stars, and I think that’s where my initial interest really came in the heavens and what’s out there.”
Interestingly, Brooks never fit an astronomy class into his time at Yale until his senior year. He said he was lucky to have an inspiring teacher who nurtured his interest.
Brooks’ course, “Perspectives on our Universe,” will run on Wednesdays starting Oct. 21 at the Middletown Free Library, 21 North Pennell Road, Lima, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. and again from 7 to 8:30 p.m. It’s a descriptive course with minimal mathematics, he said, lamenting the fact that people are easily scared of math. Brooks said the class, which is geared more toward adults, isn’t scripted, adding that he’ll listen to what people’s interests are, and veer off into whatever direction the people want to go — he’ll even talk about astronomy and philosophy.
“Astronomy is a humbling science,” he said. “It really is an elegant, wonderful picture. You start with energy, and evolve everything we see, including ourselves. It just flows, and you really feel this comfortable sense of, ‘Hey, this really does make sense, it all fits together,’ and that’s what I try to do — give people a sense of that.”
To register for the program, call 610-566-7828; or visit www.middletownfreelibrary.
