CHAPTER 1
The Road Not Taken
I originate from the veteran generation third classification,part of a post-World War II cohort, born in the middle of theera, 1939. The first classification is Depression Era, born 1912to 1921. The second classification is World War II, born 1922 to1927. Society defined my generation as having the best work andeducation opportunities, because of the postwar economic boom.We also tend to hold a deep regard for security, comfort, andfamiliar activities and environments.
In 1963, the third group of NASA astronauts and supportspecialists was made up of five young men from this generation.Dr. Joe Allen, age twenty-six, held a master's in physics from Yaleand was a guest researcher at Brookhaven National Laboratory.Major Ed White, age thirty-three, held a master's in aeronauticalengineering from Michigan and was an experimental test pilot.Captain Richard Gordon, age thirty-four, had a bachelor's inchemistry from the University of Washington and was a Navytest pilot. Colonel Buzz Aldrin, age thirty-three, held a doctoratein astronautics from MIT and was an Air Force fighter pilot. I, atthe age of twenty-four, had a master's in civil engineering fromStanford and was first lieutenant in base engineering at Brooks AirForce Base, San Antonio, Texas. I supported the NASA astronautgroup.
On January 20, 1961, President John F. Kennedy, in hisinaugural address, proclaimed the now-immortal words, "Andso, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do foryou—ask what you can do for your country." On May 25, 1961, ourpresident further defined our national strategic goal: "I believe thatthis nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before thisdecade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning himsafely to earth."
In June 1961, I graduated from the University of Vermont'scivil engineering program and was accepted into the graduateengineering program at Stanford, a second lieutenant with aone-year deferment from active duty. By 1962, I had completedmy master's degree and attained an automatic promotion to firstlieutenant. In July of that year, I reported for duty at Brooks AirForce Base (BAFB) in San Antonio, Texas.
I soon learned that BAFB was one of the first beneficiariesof President Kennedy's goal to put a man on the moon beforethe decade ended. Although the base, founded in 1917, was oneof the oldest facilities in the United States Air Force, it was nowthe center for Advanced Medical Research (AMD). The AMD'smission was to understand the human condition at the extremeborders of the earth's atmosphere and in interplanetary space.It represented the newest division of the Air Force SystemsCommand. Base engineering managed the design, engineering,and construction of six new buildings and infrastructure upgradesthat were the signature accomplishment, to date, of the fledglingspace program. The six buildings would support research for theProjects Gemini and Apollo. They included an extension of theheating and cooling plant and five buildings aptly named theProfessional Building, the Bioastronautics-Biodynamics Laboratory,the Bionucleonics Laboratory, the Aeromedical Library, and theVivarium Support Facility.
In time, I would work on upgrades to the centrifuge, agondola hung from a twenty-foot arm that spun a prospectiveastronaut at extremely high speeds, duplicating the bodily stressesexperienced at entrance to and exit from space. I would also workon the space cabin, a pressurized vessel allowing personnel totrain in simulated altitudes of up to 30,000 feet. The atmospherewithin the space cabin varied from ordinary air to pure oxygen.In this environment, the forerunner to the modern space suit wasdeveloped. The Vivarium Support Facility was a state-of-the-arthospital that cared for the well-being of research animals,including horses, sheep, goats, and monkeys. The Bionucleonicslaboratory housed the master slave, remote handling device—arobotic arm that allowed manipulation of experiments fromoutside a room, the forerunner to today's microsurgerytechnology. The facility had extremely thick walls designed toprotect against harmful radiation to the research personnel.
When I arrived at BAFB and booked into officer quarters,I met my roommate, Major White. Ed was a spit-and-polish WestPoint graduate. He had been temporarily relocated to the baseso he could take physical tests to qualify for entrance into theastronaut program. Ed would also study the oxygen chamberresearch tests that were in progress. A new and improved oxygenchamber had been installed to replace the original, which wasdestroyed by fire in a previous test. Fortunately, properly executedsafety protocol had saved the test occupants from serious injury.Major White's mission was to learn the new and updated safetyprotocol that went with the new machine. Living with a test pilotand prospective astronaut was to be quite an education in militaryprecision and detail.
The atmosphere at the base was one of largesse. Itresembled a university campus, and entrepreneurship wasencouraged. President Kennedy established the strategic spacegoal, Congress appropriated adequate funding, and the vicepresident, larger-than-life Texan, Lyndon Johnson, directed asmuch funding as possible to the base. Vice President Johnson'spersonal relationship with the base was evidenced by a helicopterpad, specially built for him, allowing easy access during hisfrequent trips to the base.
I, as first lieutenant just out of graduate school, married,and with my first child on the way, welcomed the opportunity foradditional income. My own low entrance rank and the abundanceof higher-ranking officers prohibited me from obtaining basehousing. I researched and pursued other income opportunities.I discovered our construction group lacked facility estimationknowledge, so I became an instructor in the evening school ofarchitecture at San Antonio College and taught facility estimationto people from my base construction group as well as privateindustry. Some students from A. J. Zachry, a prominent areacontractor, provided me with consulting projects I worked on,producing and reviewing their in-house estimates. I was allowedto use the base Corps of Engineers Concrete and Soils Laboratoryto perform independent testing for clients, and I soon developeda working relationship with my associates by providing homedesign. A mechanical engineer, an electrical engineer, anddraftsmen executed my design. Our first client was SergeantKrunas—close to retirement—who commissioned our group todesign his dream home, which he and his wife planned to build inNew Jersey when he retired.
The much-appreciated benefits to the project were thetwo-hour, six-course French lunches that his lovely French wifeloved to prepare. Needless to say, I became a frequent dinnerguest. It started with hors d'oeuvres with a light aperitif, followedby a fish course. The third course was meat or poultry followed byvegetables. During the third and fourth courses, an appropriatewine was served. The fifth course was salad greens, followedby cheese and fresh fruit. Fresh French bread complemented allcourses. The meal concluded with a demitasse.
Government funding wasn't restricted to the spaceprogram. I found scholarship money, in abundance, from IncarnateWord College. Geri—my wife—completed her bachelor of sciencedegree in nursing free of charge in June 1964. Our first son, Joe Jr.,was born in December 1963 at Fort Sam Houston Army Hospitalfor the princely sum of five dollars. Geri was expected to provideher own sheets and make her own bed.
Base engineering was equivalent to the public worksdepartment of a medium-size city. We maintained theinfrastructure of the base, oversaw the base's fire department,and supported the design, engineering, and construction of theresearch facilities. A primary research facility often has manyunusual engineering requests, and I became the go-to engineerfor these projects. Eight-year-old Sam, the first monkey intospace—in 1958—lived in the Vivarium Support Facility with twohundred other monkeys. I designed a stainless steel, enclosedoutdoor area to complement their indoor confinement. It wasbuilt on a concrete pad with radiant heating coils and internalsteam cleaning. The floor was designed to self-drain all waste.Each monkey lived in a private elevated cage. Various componentswere built into the facility to provide each monkey the opportunityfor exercise. To avoid disease and infectious transmissions, themonkeys drank water from individual lixit faucets. The lixits were ofspecial design, allowing the monkeys to drink on demand, with nofear of contamination.
The key researchers were medical doctors and scientists;they were required to make regular flights in various aircraft toexperience the feel of weightlessness. As a safety precaution, theyneeded to train in how to parachute out of a disabled aircraftwithout actually performing the exercise. I was asked to designa parachute tower and landing area to provide this training. Theparachute tower was a steel structure with a platform thirty feetabove the ground. Utilizing a system of pulleys, the occupant,strapped in a typical parachute harness, jumped off the platformand experienced free fall while practicing correct landingtechniques.
Although the base mission was accomplished in the sixnew buildings, the officers' club remained part of the originalbase structures. At one officer function, the aerospace medicaldivision commander, Major General T. C. Bedwell, Jr., stood in linefor an unacceptably long time to relieve himself. It wasn't too longafterward that I was requested to redesign and enlarge the men'srestroom.
The general must have appreciated my design becausehe soon requested I design the forerunner to what we nowconsider a PowerPoint presentation. My staff and I designed aspecial conference table for the general's conference room. Theconference table held individual lighting controls that controlledlights in individual boxes. The boxes lined the wall from floor toceiling. The wall became a series of oversized mailboxes, housingmultiple series of slides. Manual manipulation of the slidesand lightening differentiation provided a PowerPoint briefingpresentation for the general and his staff.
The medical and scientific personnel needed recreationand desired a base golf course. Base engineering was solicited tosee if this was possible, and I was given the project. I establishedthat the open expanse between the new base facilities and the oldbase facilities served as the natural drainage basin for the baseand could be converted into an executive golf course. Fortunately,our construction group owned a dozer and backhoe, and our baseengineer was adept at hiding monies in budgeted operationalline items to be used for the golf-course construction. The basicdesign included a mile-long elevated road bisecting the drainagebasin. I designed a culvert, installed midway along the road, largeenough to walk or drive a golf cart through. I designed a damat the low end of the basin, with a built-in weir, to create a lakethat dramatically slowed the storm runoff. These projects wereimplemented as base landscape and drainage enhancements.Slowly, the footprint of an executive golf course emerged.
My diverse design talents did not go unrewarded. Basepersonnel went out of their way to induce me to make the AirForce a career. One perk was my selection as officer of the day onNovember 21, 1963. The officer of the day (OD) has the first lineof responsibility to react to emergency situations by recordingfirst-impression facts. The OD notifies, in a timely manner, theappropriate, responsible officers in the chain of command. Onthis day, I would opine that the function was mainly ceremonial,because of the abundance of Secret Service personnel availableto protect the president, vice president, secretary of the Air Force,and Air Force chief of staff. Thus, my wife and I were sitting in theoutdoor audience to hear the president's speech, dedicating theAerospace Medical Health Center at BAFB. I carried a pager.
The president spoke of the New Frontier as the erathat would be defined by new achievement and challenge. Heemphasized that space research would have great value hereon earth. He proffered three examples: "First, medical spaceresearch may open up new understanding of man's relation to hisenvironment. Second, medical space research may revolutionizethe technology and the techniques of modern medicine. Third,medical space research may lead to new safeguards againsthazards common to many environments." The president closedwith an allusion to the Irish writer Frank O'Connor's comment:"When faced with an insurmountable barrier such as a wall, youshould take off your hat and toss it over the wall—and then youhave no choice but to follow." This was President Kennedy's lastofficial speech and act as president.
Unscripted, at the end of the president's speech, herequested to walk over to observe the experiment underwayin the new and improved oxygen chamber. Four enlisted menhad entered the chamber on November 3. After seven days atatmosphere pressure, the air pressure in the cabin had beenreduced to that found at 27,500 feet, and the environment airwas enriched to pure oxygen. This was the eighteenth day of theforty-two-day experiment. I took a shortcut to the route to theoxygen chamber and shook the president's hand as he walked by.During the inspection of the oxygen chamber, the president wasobserved to ask, "Do you think your work might improve oxygenchambers for, say, premature babies?" The president's youngestchild, Patrick, born prematurely, had died in August of respiratorydistress syndrome. Medical protocol to treat this disease did notexist in 1963.
The next day, at 1:34 p.m., I was standing in the hall outsidemy office, chatting with Lynn, my mechanical engineer colleague.Rex, my electrical engineer colleague, shouted from his office thatUPI was reporting "the president has been shot." We looked ateach other, stunned.
I didn't realize it at the time, but I was halfway through mytour of duty. During the next eighteen months, the exuberanceof the base community became much more subdued andintrospective. Geri and I now had two sons. Soft pressure fromour families was exerted for us to move back east. My motherhad recently died. I explored outside opportunities such as theUnited Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO). UNESCO was involved in a twenty-year program tomove the Great Temple of Abu Simbel to keep it from floodingby the Nile after construction of the Aswan Dam. The civilian armof military intelligence, headquartered at Kelly AFB, offered anassignment to the Khyber Pass. I could continue to make the AirForce a career or return to civilian life. The Air Force promotedme to captain in the regular Air Force, ostensibly to influencemy decision to make the Air Force a career. I was told this is veryrare because ROTC officers are normally promoted within theReserve. Unconvinced and motivated to pursue a civilian career inheavy, industrial construction, I left the Air Force in April 1965. Inretrospect, this decision proved very rewarding.
CHAPTER 2
Transition
Therefore, I have decided to leave the Air Force so thatI may better pursue my goal of becoming a professionallycompetent engineer, in the design and construction of large-scalesystems of constructed facilities.
I am comparing this last paragraph of my requiredAir Force exit statement to a letter of appreciation from thecomptroller, Headquarter Aerospace Medical Division, and thebase commander. The letter stated:
"Please convey my personal gratitude to each personwho contributed in the development and establishmentof the AMD Commander's Status Room. Youraccomplishments are an example of the imagination,skills and pride of workmanship which I know to bepresent in the Civil Engineering Division." In addition, aspecial footnote was appended stating, "I take specialpleasure in passing on to you this letter of appreciation.Please accept my sincere thanks for a job well done."
The footnote was dated April 15, 1965, and was signed bythe deputy base civil engineer. Such was the conflict that I and myfamily had been wrestling with for the last six months, centered onwhether or not to make the Air Force a career.
Geri had recently received her bachelor's degree in nursing,and our family had grown to four with our sons Joe, Jr.—one and ahalf years old—and Wil—two months. Should the family continuewith the security and stability of my Air Force career, or shouldwe venture into the unknown? To aid my decision, I solicited andreceived promising interviews in three areas of civil engineering:a Boston consulting firm, Metcalf & Eddy; a Connecticut heavy,highway constructor, Lane Construction; and a Cleveland miningmanagement firm, Pickands Mather and Company. I decided toaccept the interviews, venture into the unknown, and leave the AirForce.
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