Closer to the end I think it was Harrison Storms that told his wife that Lee Atwood was on the phone and he says something like, "I think it's over", I don't get it. What's over?
"Cheddar! Aah-ooh! Cheddar whizzy!"
I believe he said "I think this is it"...meaning that Atwood was on the phone to give Storms his marching orders (i.e. the sack)
shareIn fact his participation in the program ended at that moment. I don't think he was even invited to view any of the launches that he certainly would have been had he still been part of the program.
Of course even a legend like Charles Lindburgh only attended the Apollo 11 launch on his own and was one of a large anonymous crowd.
However, Lindbergh and his wife Anne did get to have a private visit with the Apollo 8 crew at the Cape a few days before the launch.
__________________________
"I am a collage of unaccounted for brush strokes, and I am all random!"
I thought Charles was a guest for the breakfast with the Apollo 11 crew.
shareStormy was transferred within North American from the Space Division to the ship yards. He continued as a Vice President there, maintaining friendships and contacts with his old colleagues. He was not "sacked" in the sense that he was fired, nor was he considered guilty of anything, either by NASA or by Lee Atwood.
North American cleared house in the Space Division for a few reason, the most important, internally, was to get fresh eyes and personel working on getting to the moon. Those closest to the project were still dealing with grief over the accident. It allowed everyone to start fresh. Externally, for the public's view, North American had to be seen to be making massive changes. Atwood states explicitly that North American, by choice, was going to stand up and sacrifice itself for the good of the program, knowing NASA was in no position to find another contractor at that late stage of development. They kept their mouth shut about the files which would damn NASA and did not shy away from the "socket wrench" SNAFU at the Senate Hearings.
NASA, for it's part, did much the same internal restructuring. Joe Shea was delicately moved to Washington a) because the Senate Hearing probably would have devoured him for allowing NASA to pressure North American with "unrealistic demands" and "arbitrary deadline", and b) to bring in fresh personel. Guenter Wendt was brought in from North American, and at the request of Wally Schirra and other astronauts, was made the new Launch Pad Leader because he was meticulous in his attention to detail and strict in his safety practices.
The King Of Rhye
"My first thought was he lied in every word."
More than a few astronauts, in later years, said that they thought that if Guenter Wendt had been Pad Leader for Apollo 1, things might have worked out differently.
Of course, with that inward opening hatch, combined with the atmospheric pressure, I don't think Wendt could've done too much given the short time involved.
"I vonder vere Guenter Vendt?"
That's a crack up.
Seriously though, of all the people at NASA at that time and, apart from the astronauts themselves, he would have been the person I would have like to have met most. He seems to have been an enigmatic figure of the space program during the Apollo flights and now (hopefully not overstating his contribution) almost legendary.
So Guenter Wendt worked for North American originally. I didn't know that. I got a couple questions here. I always wondered though did Werner VonBraun and the rest of the German scientists also work at North American or NASA? North American built the rockets but I always heard Werner VonBraun designed them. Also what ever happened to North American? I heard the company was absorbed by the other major companies like Grumman, Boeing and McDonald/Douglas.
Yes, you are reading my signature.
Von Braun was hired by the Army after coming to the US, along with many of the German rocket engineers. He worked on ballistic missiles until NASA was created, and the Army rocket research facility in Huntsville, AL became part of the newly created civilian space agency.
North American Aviation was bought out by Rockwell International (becoming North American Rockwell) in 1967. They were the prime contractor for the Space Shuttle orbiters. Rockwell later sold out to Boeing in 1996.
Thus they all, in time, became part of Boeing.
North American was acquired by Rockwell, which later sold off its aviation and rocket businesses to Boeing.
McDonnell became McDonnell-Douglas, and eventually was merged into Boeing.
Actually, Guenther Wendt came to North American from McDonnell (not McDonald).
When a loose cannon flogs a dead horse, there's the Devil to pay!
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McDonald/Douglas
I read the wiki article on Joe Shea and it's pretty sad to see just how badly he was affected by the tragedy. Chris Kraft's father suffered from schizophrenia and had this to say about a meeting:
"Joe Shea got up and started calmly with a report on the state of the investigation. But within a minute, he was rambling, and in another thirty seconds, he was incoherent. I looked at him and saw my father, in the grip of dementia praecox. It was horrifying and fascinating at the same time."
Of course he wasn't the only one going through something like this to different degrees. It really shows the caliber of these people that they put so much of their heart and soul into the mission.
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