My first job out of college was working as an engineer in Palo Alto, California; a position I held for just over four years. One day my supervisor, I'll call him "Ed," came to my office to inform me that there was a series of layoffs taking place that day and that I was being let go. Ed could see that I was upset and being a generally nice guy he wanted to say something to make me feel a little better but I was unprepared for what came next. Ed said, "Gordon I was never laid off however I was once fired and that was worse. In fact it was a very great deal worse. It was my responsibility to remove a dustcover from a Titan rocket engine. This was a very simple task, a task that anyone could've preformed. However I neglected to do so and as a result the rocket suffered an abort on the launch pad. Not only that but the lives of two astronauts atop the rocket were put in extreme risk. Thankfully no one was injured or killed but I felt terrible. However in time I got over it and moved on. I tell you this so that you'll know that you'll move on from this setback."
Later that evening I found myself thinking; Dang that was a really interesting story Ed told me but why'd he have to wait to the worst possible moment? If he'd brought it up at a better time I'd have loved to hear all about it.
I suppose I should've been mad that he just about killed Tom Stafford and Wally Schirra who are two of my favorite astronauts but I just couldn't bring myself to feel any anger. Anyway it was a heck of a way to get laid off.
Edit: Since posting I've been thinking a bit more about this. I have no doubt that Ed was fired but I can't believe that one person alone was responsible for the Gemini launch abort. There must have been a series of failures and many people who simply screwed up.
Considering that this was a near catastrophic event you'd assume NASA had some sort of investigation and instituted corrective action. Did that ever happen?