Ask a Veteran
These Museum staffers and volunteers once served their country in the armed forces. Now they serve in a different way.
- By Rebecca Maksel
- AirSpaceMag.com, November 10, 2011
Eric Long
James David’s father served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, so after obtaining his law degree, he decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and enlist. “I was in the JAG corps,” David jokes, “so no one’s going to give me a ship to drive.” After attending the Naval Justice School, he became a Judge Advocate General; he spent the next 20 years providing service members and their families with legal advice on a wide range of topics.
He came to the Museum as a curator in 1990, in the space history division. Among the artifacts he curates are a few from the GRAB-1 and Corona spy satelites. The Naval Research Laboratory built GRAB; it first launched in 1960, as part of a program designed to gather data on Soviet air defense radars, among other things. Corona was developed by the Air Force and the CIA, and was designed to obtain imagery of the Soviet Union that the U-2 spyplane couldn’t provide. Both programs were declassified in the late 1990s.
As a curator, David would love to acquire hardware from either the Hexagon or Gambit spy satellites, both National Reconnaissance Office projects that were declassified less than two months ago. Hexagon replaced Corona as a broad-area search satellite, while Gambit imaged small swaths of the Earth at very high resolutions. “You want to know the size of the wing on a MiG aircraft?” says David, “Or the thickness of a missile silo wall the Soviets are constructing? You did that with Gambit.”
David is photographed with the KH-4B, the last and most advanced camera system used in Project Corona. The Corona film return capsule is on display in the James S. McDonnell Space Hangar at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.
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Comments (6)
Thank you for your service Mr. Cochran. "P-51s, Cadillacs of the sky!", From the movie, Empire of the Sun. My favorite from WWII is Bud Anderson's "Old Crow" and the Korean War Harlon Hain's
"UKUMGI " FF-840.
Posted by Steve Eveans on November 17,2011 | 07:22 PM
This was a really great idea. I had no idea that any of these people served our country and it is an honor to work with them – some closer than others.
Posted by D. Blair on November 21,2011 | 10:22 AM
The docents I've had the pleasure to tour with, from Silver Hill to Udvar-Hazy to downtown, are always high points of the tours. The comments and insights, especially of the veterans and their experiences, make return trips all the more worthwhile. My thanks go out to them for their service in the military and to the museum.
Posted by Norm Samuelson on December 1,2011 | 07:35 PM
I love you, Uncle Paul!
Posted by Holly Cochran on December 21,2011 | 09:20 PM
Paul is a super unique person. He can really tell it like it was since he was there.
Thanks dear Paul for your service to our country.
Love, Your favorite sister-in-law
Carol
Posted by Carol Cochran on December 26,2011 | 08:37 PM
I am trying to find out information about Gilman Roger Clark, born 10-31-45 and died 12-13-2008. He worked in aerospace as an associate engineer, for defense companies (Raytheon, Hughs Aircraft, Santa Barbara Research Center. He was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Grew up in Columbus, OH. Worked with computers. He was a pilot. He married me in Ventura, CA on 4-27-85. He went by Roger as a child. His mother was a nurse. Woodcock was her maiden name.
Posted by Dessye Dee Clark on November 17,2012 | 12:35 AM