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Apollo 1 Funeral: Last Word

posted 9 years ago by wab-3
6 replies | jump to latest

I'm re-watching From the Earth to the Moon, and in Episode 3 they used Walter Cronkite's actual description of the funeral as voiceover for the funeral scene. He states, "Grissom and Roger Chaffee are being laid to rest here at Arlington Cemetery. Edward White will be buried at West Point later today."

So...I think we can take Uncle Walter's sequence of events as canon, leaving Pat White plenty of time to attend all three funerals as described in the book. No need to cast aspersions on the author.

[–] johnston.scot 9 years ago

You're fine up until the last paragraph.

Presumably Cronkite was speaking at the beginning of the broadcast, around 8:30 am or so. "Grissom and Roger Chaffee are being laid to rest here at Arlington Cemetery." (Grissom at 9 am, Chaffee at 1 pm). "Edward White will be buried at West Point later today." (at 11 am).

The New York Times archive isn't available to everyone, so I suppose you don't have to take my word for what it says. But here's a link to Life Magazine, which I think anyone can look at.

https://books.google.com/books?id=eFYEAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Look at page 24: "Four hours after Gus Grissom's funeral, Roger Chaffee was buried near him...."

[–] wab-3 9 years ago

No, Cronkite was reporting from the actual funeral.

Are you seriously doubting the accuracy of Walter frickin' Cronkite? Besides which, why would they have waited five hours to hold the burial of Chaffee? Think about it. LBJ was at both burials. Do you think he hung around for five hours waiting for Chaffee to be buried?

[–] johnston.scot 9 years ago

Cronkite didn't say that Grissom and Chaffee were being buried at the same time, just the same place, which is not in doubt.

Not a major point, but all the sources, and all my posts, have said four hours, not five. There are four hours between 9 am and 1 pm.

If you'd read the Life reporting, you'd know that it says "Later, the President returned to Arlington for the Chaffee funeral." The New York Times says the same thing, as do later sources: LBJ left at the end of Grissom's funeral and came back.

Plus, there's what initially drew my attention to the issue: Mike Collins said that it was impossible for him to attend both Chafee's and White's funerals, and that he explained that to Pat White, who understood. Hard to see how she would understand if she actually went to both.

It's not a huge piece of historical detail, so I don't know that the author really deserves to have aspersions cast upon her. She got a detail wrong. The only reason it was notable to me is the inconsistency with Collins' book, which I would think would be required reading for anyone writing about the space program of the period.

[–] johnston.scot 9 years ago

The New York Times front-page article on February 1, 1967 is long and very complete, with lots of details, such as Chaffee's father resting his hand on the steel coffin in a last farewell, the number of horses pulling Grissom's caisson, who sat where and the ages of the astronaut's children, what year White's father graduated from West Point, etc. etc. down to the numbers of Grissom's and Chaffees' graves (2503-E and 2502-F, in case anyone's wondering).

A few details may be left out, but the four-hour gap between the two Arlington funerals isn't one of them.

Photo caption on the front page, for a photo of Chaffee's caisson, following a photo of Grissom's service, higher on the page: "Four hours later, the caisson bearing the coffin of Commander Chaffee arrives at Arlington National Cemetery."

The second paragraph of the story: "Lieut. Col. Virgil I. Girssom, 40 years old, of the Air Force, and Lieut. Comdr. Roger B. Chaffee, 31, of the Navy, were given full military honors in ceremonies four hours apart."

Several paragraph in: "The first burial ritual, the one for Colonel Grissom, began at 9 A.M."

After the jump: "The rites for Commander Chaffee, four hours later, were virtually identical... Again the President motored across the Potomoc to the Virginia hilltop."

[–] johnston.scot 9 years ago

A little more: a scan of LBJ's daily diary is available online at
http://www.lbjlibrary.net/collections/daily-diary.html

On January 31, 1967:

Johnson left the White House for Grissom's graveside service at 9:10 am and arrived at Arlington at 9:25 am. He left at 9:45 am and arrived back at the White House at 9:55 am.

He did various other things in the middle of the day.

At 1:09 pm he left for Chaffee's service and stayed until 1:45 pm, when he left and arrived back at the White House at 1:55 pm.

This is consistent with Grissom's funeral beginning at 9 am, which - per the New York Times account - was when his caisson began a journey of about a mile to the graveside. Apparently Johnson timed both trips so as to arrive just in time for the graveside part of the ceremony.

[–] johnston.scot 9 years ago

And - just to button up another detail - even if I'm wrong on the timing of White's ceremony (scheduled for 11 am, in between Grissom and Chaffee) - it couldn't possibly have been late enough to permit Pat White to attend both. From reports, photographs and newsreels, White's burial took place in the sun. On January 31 (just ten days after the solstice), the sun is quite low except in the middle of the day. It was fully set at 5:10 pm on the day of White's funeral - actually earlier at West point, which - as anyone who's been there would likely remember - is along the Hudson beneath rather steep hills to the West and South. So the burial had to have taken place fairly close to noon.

Also, LBJ's diary indicates that Lady Bird - who photos and news accounts clearly place at White's funeral - was back in Washington, DC by 4:45 pm, when she spoke at a ceremony unveiling a new portrait of FDR.