Today is the 46th anniversary of the fire that killed Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chafee in the Apollo 1 capsule. Tomorrow is the 27th anniversary of the destruction of Challenger and her crew: Dick Scobee, Mike Smith, Ron McNair, El Onizuka, Judy Resnick, Christa McAuliffe, and Greg Jarvis.
There's always a price.
7 comments:
We were both a little young to recall Apollo 1, but the Challenger was something you remember where you were.
I was at the ROTC office when the our instructor told us the Challenger had blown up. We didn't have a TV in our office so I walked down the the Air Force guys and they had the news on. I stayed with them for an hour or so watching.
How about you Darren? Or anyone else reading this post?
I was walking back to the barracks from class, and I saw cadets with their heads hanging down. Cadets *always* walk with their heads up so they can greet each other or salute an officer, so I knew something was wrong. I passed a guy and asked what was up and he said, "the space shuttle blew apart". (That's not quite what happened, but that discussion is for another time) I went back to the barracks and watched tv until the last possible second before rushing to lunch formation, barely making it in time. As soon as I could leave the mess hall, back I rushed to a tv.
I was walking to class in Jr. High and passed another class that was watching a TV. I paused to see what they were watching, saw an explosion and thought "Oh, must be some movie". Some 10 minutes later, they made an announcement over the intercom that Space Shuttle Challenger had indeed exploded during takeoff.
Now I live in a town that has roads named for the two Shuttles - Challenger Way and Columbia Way. They intersect near Plant 42 in Palmdale where all the orbiters were assembled.
I was with my tank platoon in the West German countryside training. At the end of the day I was getting ready to form up the platoon for the road march back to the kaserne. My company commander drove out from garrison and climbed on my tank, looked down my open hatch and said: "The Challenger blew up." To which I responded "What?" It was so out of context from what I was expecting that he had to explain exactly what happened. I passed the word along to the rest of the platoon and had to wait while is sunk in prior to heading back in. My platoon was told to remain at the ready in motor pool for a couple hours because for the first few hours no one knew what happened and there was a possibility of something Cold War related had happened.
I was in the dentist's office, having a tooth filled, and listening to the radio via the headphones. I nearly bit through the drill.
We lived in Idaho at the time, and Christa McCauliffe was an elementary teacher from McCall, a nearby town, so this was a local, as well as a national, tragedy. I believe they renamed the elementary school after Mrs. McCauliffe.
Sitting on a stool in art class when an announcement over the school intercom informed us of the news. The class was much quieter the rest of the period.
Well, now, THAT'S just plain embarrassing! I always thought Christa McCauliffe was from McCall, but it was her backup, Barbara Morgan, who was. McCauliffe taught in New Hampshire. Still, I recall there was a move to name the school in McCall after McAuliffe. And to think I've been packing that misperception around with me all these years! :)
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