Repair Stories

Oil Leak Could Transform Repairmen into Superheroes

For the first time in our nation’s history, our hopes and dreams and economic fate rest, not on a warrior or a politician or an astronaut, but on a team of repairmen.

Repairmen fixing the ruptured oil well
Todd Schilla (left) and Ryan Gressett (right) co-pilot a remotely operated vehicle lowering a top hat onto the oil well in the gulf of Mexico. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Patrick Kelley.

The effort to seal the ruptured oil well in the Gulf is the grandest and highest-profile repair job since the Apollo 13 duct-tape fix. It is requiring a vast effort, leveraging all the ships and equipment and manpower that the most powerful companies and nations on earth can bring to bear.

It would be thrilling if the consequences of failure were not so dire.

Whatever the ultimate solution is, the men and women who finally do fix the ruptured well should be regarded as national heroes.

Continue reading our full editorial on Wired.com.