Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

Wernher Von Braun

They Went to the Moon –

I Went to Memphis

by Tommy Towery

Class of ‘64

This month’s recognition of the 40th Anniversary of the moon landing sparked John Turrentine to ask us to share a little about what it was like to be “moon children.” Many of you owe your connection to Huntsville and Lee High School because of Huntsville becoming a leader in the Space Race. In my reflections I realized that the Space Race was directly responsible for me losing my connection to Huntsville and being where I am today – in Memphis. Had it not been for those plans to go to the moon, I would have probably gone to the University of Alabama and my whole life would have been different. Unlike James Stewart in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” I will never get to see what the changes would be without me doing what I did, but I know they would have been significant.

My biological father got a job at Redstone when he returned from World War II. He was more involved as a draftsman in the military missile weaponry than the Space Race, but I am sure that somewhere along the line he made some contributions that I will never know about.

My parents were divorced when I was eight. Around 1962 my mother started dating a man from Memphis who was an electrician who was sent to Huntsville on a contract awarded the Memphis firm where he worked. He was not a rocket scientist either. His job was doing the electrical work in the new building that would house Wernher Von Braun and his staff. It was a big building out on the arsenal and it was a long contract. In Memphis he had been a leader in the local VFW post, and began attending functions (especially dances) at the Huntsville VFW. Mother had been a past-president of the Huntsville post and spent a lot of time there, and that is where she met the man destined to be my step-father.

A couple of months after they were married, he finished up his work on Von Braun’s office building and headed back to Memphis, taking my mother with him. That was the summer of 1963, and I was about to start my senior year in high school. I had no desire to start that important year in a brand new school where I knew no one, so I stayed in Huntsville with my grandmother to finish my high school career. I stayed until the day after graduation and on that day, I moved my stuff and my own dreams to Memphis. It was a hard move to make.

Had I stayed, I would surely have a different profession. I'd have gone to a different college, married a different girl, would not have had my daughter, Tiffany, and who knows what all else would have changed.

So, Commander Neil Alden Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Eugene 'Buzz' Aldrin, Jr. made it to the moon, but I have not yet made the move back to Huntsville, which is a dream I always hold dear.

As a “moon child” of Huntsville, I wanted to be an astronaut myself. I tried to be a pilot in the Air Force, but ended up being a navigator. Over the years many of my dreams have had to be altered, but many good things in my life have resulted from those changes. Whether I was a product of “Predestination” or was a victim of “collateral damage” from a divorce, I will never know for sure. Had I stayed in Huntsville, I know many very important events in my life would have never happened. God had a plan for me.

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Aaron Potts, First class of Lee - President Kennedy made the speech of going to the moon in 1962, at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

“Buzz” Aldrin was NOT a part of the original seven astronauts’.

I believe the astronaut in the pictured is Alan Shepard

IN 1973 it was announced that Thomas P. Stafford, would command the flight accompanied by two rookies, Vance D. Brand and Donald K. “Deke” Slayton in the Apollo space craft that would rendezvous with the Soviet space craft, Soyuz, more commonly known as the ASTP. This is the first but can’t remember the last. Donald “Deke” Slayton was one of the original seven on this particular flight. However the last Apollo flight was Apollo 17and I don’t think any of the original sever were included on this flight. Attached is a picture of the original seven astronauts that was presented to me when I left the aerospace industry to get into the chemical, petroleum and refinery industry. Look at the difference in the boots. They were short some boots when this picture was taken. The ones in the back were standing on a bench because everyone was so short in stature.

The first space flight was the Freedom 7 on a Mercury-Redstone rocket. The capsule was a Mercury capsule sitting on a Redstone Rocket built in Huntsville, Alabama as an I.C.B.M. (Inner Continental Ballistic Missile) Piloted by Allan B. Shepard. (Yes, that is the correct spelling)

I worked directly with astronaut Alan Bean for a solid week in the Neutral Buoyancy Test Operations as a scuba diver simulating outer space doing design work and he was the “test subject” testing the equipment.

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John Drummond, Class of '65 - 1) This speech was part of President Kennedy's inaugural address, in Washington, D.C. on January 20, 1961. He made a promise that the USA would send a man to walk on the surface of the moon, and return safely to earth, by the end of the decade. 2) d. There were no other American vehicles in orbit during Mercury, i.e. no unit with which to dock. 3) g. Buzz Aldrin 4) Gordon Cooper, called "Gordo" by his fellow astronauts. 5) Alan Shepard, who was our first "Man in Space." It was a sub-orbital flight, basically a cannon shot over the ocean, but marked the first manned spaceflight and successful recovery of the astronaut and capsule. I think the date was May 7 (also Ken Megginson's birthday) and prompted a quickly-announced celebratory parade through downtown Huntsville, in which the LHS band proudly marched.

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Rainer Klauss, Class of '64 -Here are my answers to the Mystery Photo and NASA questions.

1. Washington, DC, 1961

2. D: practice docking maneuvers

3. G: Buzz Aldrin

4. Don't know this one.

5. Alan Shepard

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According to John Turrentine:

ANSWERS:

Rice University, Houston, TX 9/12/1962

d. (Docking procedures came along on a later program)

g. (Buzz Aldrin’s first mission was as Pilot of Gemini 12 on 11/11/1966)

Deke Sleyton

Alan Shepard

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On December 15, 1965 during the mission of Gemini VI-A (Schirra/Stafford) and Gemini VII (Borman/Lovell) to evaluate docking procedures, Wally Schirra held up a homemade sign in his spacecraft window as the two space craft were facing each other feet apart. What did it read??

A) Go slow!

B) Hey Frank!

C) Beat Army!

D) Hi Mom!

These were the stated NASA goals of the Gemini Program. To subject man and equipment to space flight up to two weeks in duration. To rendezvous and dock with orbiting vehicles and to maneuver the docked combination by using the target vehicle's propulsion system; To perfect methods of entering the atmosphere and landing at a pre-selected point on land.

How many landings occurred on land?

A) 1

B) 3

C) 5

D) None

3.Name that tune. “….and the papers want to know whose shirts you wear. Now it’s time to leave the capsule if you dare.”

A) Moon River.

B) Rocket Man.

C) Ground Control to Major Tom.

D) Fly Me to the Moon.

4. Most of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo Astronauts came from the ranks of the military and were not only engineers but test pilots. Who was the first person to become an Astronaut as a civilian?

A) David Scott

B) Eugene Cernan

C) Neil Armstrong

D) Michael Collins

5. Name either of the Gemini Astronauts in the Mystery Photo.

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How to Stay Young

1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay 'them.'

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever, even ham radio. Never let the brain idle. “An idle mind is the devil's workshop.” And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love , whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

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Subject:Article by James Ballard

Chip Smoak

Class of '66

A big Texas howdy to all the Fami-Lee,

I thoroughly enjoyed the article by James Ballard. My father was one of the engineers involved in the space program at Redstone until the Federal government started cutting back on funding for it. No, he was not one of James' "phd" puff balls.

It is a wonder that the U. S. actually did put a man on the moon.

The right hand often did not let the left hand know what it was doing. My father once told me about a time he went to work talking about something that he had read in the paper and his supervisors questioning him about how he knew anything about what he was talking about. It seems that it was supposed to be classified top secret. They were shocked when he told them that he had read it in the newspaper.

I can only surmise that it was men like James' dad and mine who worked where the rubber met the road that were responsible for the success of our space program.

I am astonished at people who say we should not be wasting money on the space program, that we have other needs here on earth for which the money would be better used. I believe that they do not understand that the money is spent here on earth and that it creates jobs and improves our standard of living with such inventions as the microwave oven. They are, sorry to say, very short sighted.

I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July. Thanks to our forefathers and our military for making it possible for us to celebrate this holiday.

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