 The back row, consisting primarily of NASA and Department of Defense (DOD) management, was the location of the operations director (held by Walt Williams), a general or flag officer who could coordinate with the DOD on all search-and-rescue missions, and the PAO ("Shorty" Powers during Mercury), who provided minute-by-minute mission commentary for the news media and public.In addition to the controllers in the Cape MCC, each of the crewed tracking stations and the "Rose Knot Victor" and "Coastal Sentry Quebec" tracking ships, had three controllers, a CAPCOM, SURGEON, and an engineer.Unlike the Cape CAPCOM, which was always staffed by an astronaut, the tracking station/tracking ship CAPCOMs were either a NASA engineer, or an astronaut, with the latter located at stations deemed "critical" by the flight director and operations director.