Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

Family Photos: Ground Zero

by Rainer Klauss

Class of ‘64

John Turrentine’s suggestion that portions of the July issues of The Traveller should be dedicated to our memories growing up in Huntsville as “moon children” and also test our knowledge of the epic trip to the moon was a marvelous and timely challenge. All of us share the legacy of a connection to Apollo 11, in one way or another, even if it was just living in a city that shook with thunder from the static engine tests. I’ve enjoyed reading the varied responses and puzzling over the questions and photos.

I’d like to go back a bit further, though, to the time and place where the road to Apollo 11 started for my family in America.

That’s my father, Ernst Klauss, peering through a periscope at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, observing the test-firing of a V-2 in 1946. He was not normally a participant at such occasions. He told me he was only there as a “trouble-shooter.” Since his work in Germany on the V-2 had principally involved fuel valves, something must have gone awry during the assembly and testing of the missile, and he was called up from Ft. Bliss to help correct the problem.

As the photo suggests, conditions at WSMR were still fairly primitive. The site had only been in operation since 1945, and much of the infra-structure of a proper launch complex—blockhouse, gantry crane for erecting and servicing the missile, and ancillary structures—wasn’t available until late 1946. It was the dawn of such technology in America, of course.

Conditions for the workers were difficult. Housing and mess facilities were rudimentary, air-conditioning and heating were poor or non-existent (the daily swing in temperatures could be brutal: intolerable heat during the day and very cold at night), and potable water was in very short supply. Just to get to White Sands involved an 80-mile Army bus trip from Ft. Bliss. My father must have been glad that he didn’t have regular duty there.

The United States had gained the prize of the Rocket Team, but they weren’t sure of what to do with them. They had come over initially as consultants, to transfer their knowledge of rocket science and engineering to the Army Ordance Corps and companies such as GE (which eventually took over the assembly, testing, and launching of the captured V-2s in 1947). They had hoped to get to work on refining and developing successors to the V-2, adding to America’s arsenal of weapons, but this country was in the process of de-mobilization, budgets were tight, and goals were unclear.

The second picture shows portions of “Little Germany,” our housing and work enclave at Ft. Bliss, with El Paso and the Franklin Mountains in the background. These were the former wards and outbuildings of the William C. Beaumont Army Hospital that had been converted into apartments and “labs” (a far cry from the facilities at the German research complex at Peenemuende—but again, this is where things started in America).

My mother, older brother, and I joined my father here in 1947. The scientists, engineers, technicians, and their families were still under the custody and protection of the United States Army and having everyone in one settlement was beneficial for all. For one thing, it was easy to provide services and security that way. In addition, it gave the families a sense of solidarity as they made the transition to life in the new world.

That there was a secure future for the German families in America didn’t become clear until late 1949, when the Army Ordnance Corps decided to concentrate missile and rocket research and development in Huntsville, at the two arsenals closed after WWII. In addition to the fact that the facilities and sprawling land area had far more potential than Ft. Bliss would ever be able to offer, the decisions were pushed along by the worsening world situation. China had finally succumbed to the Communists, and that autumn brought the news that the Soviets had tested an atomic bomb. Unfortunately, it was time to re-arm. We came to Huntsville in 1950 to help in that effort.

Through the various organizational transformations and re-directions at Redstone Arsenal, ABMA, and NASA, my father and many others worked diligently and hand-in-hand with increasingly complex projects. Having assisted in man’s landing on the moon, he ended his career with NASA in 1970 as Senior Projects Manager, Quality and Reliability Assurance Laboratory, quite a bit further along the line from a young man watching the launch of a primitive V-2 in 1946.

I’ve always thought it was highly appropriate that I witnessed the landing on the moon, American and NASA’s triumph in space, at an Army base. Five of us GIs were spellbound as we watched the unbelievable event unfold on a small television in a second-floor barracks room at Ft. Benning, Georgia, hardly even bothered that night by the stifling heat.

Part of my research for this article came from Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War. I highly recommend this book by Michael Neufeld as a comprehensive biography of a complex man.

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1. When Armstrong & Aldrin started their descent in the LEM, catastrophe nearly struck before they landed at “Tranquility Base”. What was the problem?

A) The LEM’s gyros tumbled.

B) Buzz Aldrin threw up in the LEM.

C) They almost ran out of fuel.

D) They got lost.

2. Immediately after landing, Aldrin requested, and was denied, permission to broadcast to Planet Earth their radio transmissions of which event?

A) Recital of the Lord’s Prayer.

B) Holy Communion

C) A poem he had written

D) None of the above.

3. Who was the “forgotten” astronaut from Apollo 11 that remained in the Apollo

Capsule orbiting the moon?

A) Michael Collins

B) Gordon Cooper

C) Chuck Yeager

D) Rusty Schweickart

3. Time is everything in a space shot!! When Neil Armstrong exited the LEM to set foot on the moon, he left his watch (chronometer) in the LEM because the clock in the LEM had given them a problem and he trusted only his timepiece. What was the manufacturer of this timepiece?

A) TIMEX

B) Longines

C) Omega

D) Rolex

4. “Houston, Tranquility base here. The Eagle has landed” Who could ever forget those famous words from Neil Armstrong when the LEM touched down on the moon and the whole world began to breath again. Now, big, big question! What was the name of the Apollo Capsule on this mission?

A) Columbia

B) Friendship 7

C) Nina

D) We Come in Peace

5. How many men ever left their boot prints on the moon?

A) 6

B) 8

C) 12

D) None (it was all a NASA hoax perpetuated on a Hollywood set!

6. Mystery photo. He was the last man to walk on the moon. Who was this Astronaut??

(Editor's Note: After long research on the technical side, I have found that it is an urban legend that Neil ever said "Good luck, Mr. Gorsky" at any time during the mission. Those of you who have seen the email know what I am talking about. Too bad, that one's a classic.)

Carolyn Burgess Featheringill

Class of '65

Loses Mother

It is with a great deal of sadness that I forward my mother's obituary. We were much heartened, however, by the presence of a number of the Fami-Lee at her service.

Lottie Belle Coyle Burgess

Aug, 27, 1914 - July 7, 2009

Lottie Belle Coyle Burgess of Huntsville passed away Tuesday after a long illness.

Mrs. Burgess was a member of the fifth generation of her family to reside in Madison County. She graduated from New Market High School, attended Florence State College, now University of North Alabama, and graduated from Athens State College. She taught for many years in the Huntsville and Madison County public schools and was engaged in farming.

Mrs. Burgess was preceded in death by her husband, William Kirby Burgess; and her parents, Maye Nance Coyle and Monroe Jones Coyle.

She is survived by her daughter, Carolyn Burgess Featheringill and her husband William Waddell Featheringill; her granddaughter, Elizabeth Featheringill Pharo and her husband Andrew Bernard Ernest Pharo; two great-grandchildren, all of Birmingham; her sisters, Edna Coyle Stone of Huntsville, and Virginia Coyle Rodgers of New Market; and a number of nieces and nephews.

Mrs. Burgess was a member of the First United Methodist Church of Huntsville, Huntsville-Madison County Retired Teachers Association, and Delta Kappa Gamma honorary education society.

Visitation will be at 1 p.m. today at the First United Methodist Church chapel with funeral services beginning at 2 p.m. in the chapel. Private burial will be at Maple Hill Cemetery. Laughlin Service Funeral Home is assisting the family.

Contributions in memory of Mrs. Burgess may be made to the First United Methodist Church of Huntsville or to a favorite charity.

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Subject:40th anniversary Apollo 11

John Drummond

Class of '65

Tommy, you may wish to give Fami-Lee a heads-up re: TIME magazine current issue cover story is dedicated to the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Armstrong's walk on the moon. More than just a re-hash of Apollo program, the article reports follow-up stories about the lives of astronauts after Apollo. Neil Armstrong is 78, Buzz Aldrin is 79, and Jim Lovell (Apollo 13, played by Tom Hanks in the movie) is 81; and we thought WE were old!!! The article is written by Jeffrey Kluger, co-author of Apollo 13 film. I feel compelled to point out that Ken Mattingly, a mere pup at 73 (played by Gary Sinise in the movie) is an Auburn graduate.

P.S. To watch videos about how the Apollo 11 mission landed on the moon, see photos the astronauts took, listen to interviews with astronauts and hear what experts believe NASA should do next, go to www.time.com

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Subject:Moon Children

Dink Hollingsworth

Class of '65

Neither my parents nor Marty's (Fincher) parents contributed directly to the Space Race but their contribution's in Huntsville made an impact that directs my life today.

My dad was an Assistant Meat Manager for a Kwik Chek (Winn Dixie) in sleepy Anniston, AL where the store closed at 5:00 pm each day and never opened on Sunday. My mom was an Assistant Manager in the PX (Post Exchange) at Ft. McClellan in Anniston until September 1959 when my dad was offered an opportunity to be the Meat Manager at a new Kwik Chek at the corner of North Parkway and US 72. Hunstville seemed like a million miles from Anniston to a Seventh Grader but we left family and moved to Huntsville.

Many readers worked part time at that store and if you did, you were part of retailing history. From about 1960 to 1968 or so that store was the number one volume Winn Dixie in Alabama. It was a Gold Mine.

My mother worked at the PX at the Aresenal but like the Kwik Chek, it's sales volume was tremendous and to help with this volume, it was decided to move Toys, Sporting Goods and all Outdoor Products to a different location called "The Rod and Rake Shop" and my mother was selected as the first female in the southeast to manage a PX.

Marty's dad was an Excavating Contractor in Birmingham and worked with a number of contractors that had just compelted the first enclosed, air conditioned mall in the southeast, Eastwood Mall. His business was clearing land for houses, digging basements, driveways etc for builders that were building subdivisons in East Birmingham.

When a number of builders opened in Huntsville, he also moved the family north and his work can been seen in parts of Lakewood, Davis Hill's, projects on Pulaski Pike and basically NW Huntsville where the growth was. Living in Birmingham today, it is odd to see subdivisions, street names and house plans that mirror many in Huntsville. If it worked once, it should work twice and it did.

Neither Marty's or my parents helped go to the moon but they fed and housed thousands that did. Those six years at Lee and Huntsville will be with me the rest of my life.

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Subject:Lights

James Ballard

Class of '67

Tommy, please thank Chip for the plug (nearly drained my bank account...ha-ha). And remember, no one would've made it to the moon without the lights being turned on first !

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