Forum: Off-topic

Salute all!

Just watched Discovery channel Columbia episode. Makes me sad, but still filled with resolve that some of you on this thread will carry on the torch, go out and beyond, dare, strive, et al....

Gump, errr...., Gums states:

"Here's a toast to the host of those who love the vastness of the sky,
To a friend we will send the message of his brother men who fly.
We drink to those who gave their all of old,
Then down we roar to score the rainbow's pot of gold."

I had not looked at my calendar, but tonight I was reminded of a strange coincidence. Oh yeah, Gump, err, Gums was there in a special way for two outta three.

January 27 1967
January 28 1986
February 1 2003

1) I was a very young Lt, and my bride and I had just come home from a very cold night at the O-club up at Grand Forks. News was talking about a fatality with Apollo program. I told her that the thing wasn't supposed to blast off for a few months. Then the story came out.

My squadmate's brother died that night in a stupid fire, stupid test, stupid design. Ed White. He had told me everything I needed to follow in his footsteps. I came damned close, but didn't make it. Nevertheless, I always held him at the top of my list of old, bold vets who had the right stuff and didn't mess around with the B.S.

So he got fried that night, 27 Jan 1967. Sadly, his brother (and my classmate/squadmate) was lost over N. Viet Nam a year later. Two fine men, and their loss was a terrible reminder to me and all of us that the aviation and exploration thing has its price.

2) I am at work when the secretary says that the shuttle has exploded! I am leaving for lunch, and get home in time to see pieces falling into the ocean.

The replay of the control consoles shows my classmate, Fred Gregory, looking about in a daze. My student, Dick Covey, is on the radio and has a similar blank stare. Oh yeah, we all knew what had happened.

I drank a half a bottle of scotch and tried to sleep.

3) I am on the 'throne' when my bride (same one for last 87 years) calls to me that 'they have lost contact with the shuttle". I yell back that it is normal when they are still zooming at Mach 15 or so.

I also had forgotten that we are an hour before eastern time. I usually tune to NASA TV and watch/listen to all shuttle landings and take-offs. So I had planned to go to the 'war room' and tune in. As Columbia was supposed to come overhead about ten miles north of our house and 100,000 feet, I wanted to go outside and look for it, and hear the boom (heard several, btw, due to our location for some of the planned re-entry routes).

I get to kitchen TV and see the first video from the Dallas/Ft Worth tv station and tell her that the thing just rolled/yawed left and came unglued.

The networks read off the crew, and there's an Israeli. All my buddies ask me if I knew him, as he was a Viper pilot. I could not recall him.

The IDF sent a handful of pilots to Hill in 1980 to check out. Then they went home and trained all their pilots. All but one were old pharts like me. I even have an autographed Mig kill pic from one of them (the Yom Kippur War). Also their squad patch.

A year later, IDF bombs so-damned-insane's nuke plant using Vipers, using dumb (but big) bombs. The Israeli astronaut was on that raid.

Sure enough, I go back to records and such, and find that he was the young nugget in that first and only class we taught.

So I knew two of the folks outta the three space disasters.

Figures.

I want all the yutes out there to know that there ain't no 'easy' way to get there. But 'there is a way'. And from my signature poem...

"Airpower is a million little things which merge like molecules of molten metal to form a spar for the wings of your spirit.

But there is something more to add, the final thing that tempers all the rest.

You must believe that, bigger than yourself, enduring when you're gone, surviving though you perish, your cause is right and just.

There is no power on earth or sea or sky that can be power such as the airman needs without convictions.

The integration of his faith with all his skills of trade - well, such is power aloft.

God in your guts, good men at your back, wings that stay on - and Tally Ho!"

And remember, "Here's a toast........."

respectfully,

[/list]

F-16.net Sponsor

A very somber Cheers to your toast... Crying or Very sad

ditto...

I have been immersed in space stuff for the past few weeks, reading up on some things that might have been and many that have been. It is a sad day of recollection to me. I was too young to remember Apollo 1, but Challenger is burned into my memory. I can recall stopping a video to see what my mom was telling me to look at and seeing the rams-horn cloud still freshly burned into the sky. Then only a year ago I came downstairs intending to turn on the TV to see if they'd cover the landing. I had the computer up and reloaded CNN to the headline of Contact Lost with Shuttle... It took only a second to realize that they weren't talking about the normal LOS, especially since that is not as common anymore. (They parked a TDRS sat in a position above and behind the ionic disruption for relaying info.)

The TV showed the multiple trails in the sky and it was obvious to me what had happened. It still haunts me to this day...

Kevin

I remember the Apollo 1 tragedy but was a young teen at the time. What struck me was when I heard the names and remembered watching Grissom's and White's Mercury and Gemini flights as a kid. My parents were big "space"fans too and had allowed me to skip school and stay home to watch every single Mercury and Gemini launch. Needless to say I did the same for all the Apollo missions as well.

I learned of the loss of Challenger and her crew as I drove to work. We had a large screen TV upstairs at work, I spent the entire day up there watching the reports. I still have a framed print of Challenger's crew hanging on the wall.

Just a year ago my wife and I were sleeping in on a Saturday morning when a loud sound woke us up. Even in my sleep I recognized the sound as a sonic boom, but found it odd that it lasted a good 15-20 seconds. I even commented to my wife that it was a boom, but couldn't imagine anyone booming over land in this day and age. Not knowing the shuttle was scheduled to land that morning I never gave it a second thought. A few minutes later a good friend called from the Cape where he was waiting for Columbia to arrive, and was now overdue. "Looks like we lost the shuttle, right over your house." I realized immediately what I had heard only moments before. Had to sit down for that one. A few minutes later I learned the crew's names. I had gone to college with Kalpana Chawla, we were both in the engineering program at UTA. I didn't know her personally but knew who she was.

Some time after Challenger and her crew were lost I met author Dennis Jenkins. I have his Space Shuttle Missions book, autographed by him years ago. Dennis was on the CAIB and, while too much of a gentleman and a professional to discuss details when it wasn't his place, he has authoritatively debunked some rumors about what really happened aboard Columbia, while confirming others.

A toast....

Gosh darnit Gums. I was sitting here LMAO at your other post after finishing some homework tonight. Like the dumbass cowboy I am I decided to get a masters degree, any who’s… Yeah, we buried several good ones last year, buried one of my very best friends in Arlington last year too, Sharkbait. I’ll post a few of his stories he once in a while, taught me a lot, and I just hope I smart enough to remember and apply it all. So I got out my bottle of Weed, and I’ll toast them all…

A pic of Sharkbait back in the early 60’s in Germany, and after putting 7.5 g's on the meter at age 66 in the F-104 at Shaw.

Pics won't post, another time.

Fly Hard, Life Is Short…

JR

I'll save what I think of the NASA "leadership" for another post.

Thanks to all that go out there on a day to day basis including space and risk everything. The famous poem by the guy that was in the Battle of Britian applies here. Not much better words than that.

>>> cue flyover and missing man formation <<<

From the Columbia Memorial service... Crying or Very sad

Forum: Off-topic

A toast to the host...