Great article! Way to go Grumman! Its hard to imagine 400,000 people working on anything anymore. Love the video by Marcucci, can't wait to see the finished doc.

My late wife worked as a secretary on the Apollo program at McDonnell Aircraft when it was still a gamble as to whether or not it would function as planned. As a joke I taught our 3 year old son to tell people who asked him where his mommy worked, "My mommy works at a bookie joint."

The looks that it got made it all worth while!

Greetings,
You are correct about the effort that many made on Apollo and the human costs.
I was transferred to the Space Division North American Aviation from the Autonetic Division after the Apollo fire.
That began a an experience that required 10-12 hour days, 7 days a week and continued until after Apollo 11.
To many of us, Apollo 7 was the critical flight.Its success after the Apollo 1 tragedy resulted in establishing the foundation for the success of Apollo 11.
That said,it became more than an technical project and became a crusade, to many of the participants.
You might want to take a look at what happened to when many of the engineers and managers left the Space pace Shuttle and transferred that experience to society

I thought immediately of my brother Dick and wondered if he was part of this and am sure he was as he was in Barstow in 1969 tracking with the big 210' saucer...later he went to DC to be a supervisor at Goddard Space Center. He died way too young...when he was 54...heart transplant which didn't take. If ever there was dedication to the Space Program, Dick was part of it. He was passionate and I was so proud and I still am, even though he has been gone now for twenty-three years.

Thank you for this wonderful article.

I headed up the test and installation team that installed the Univac 494 computers at Houston. We brought two of them down from Univac's development center in Roseville, MN where they had been built and tested. They ran for 24 hours a day I believe, and were extremely dependable. Their duty was to communicate to the 102(?) computers installed around the World to provide the digital communications to/from the Apollo module. Obviously as the World turned a different data center would be needed to communicate with the Apollo module on its way to the moon and back. One computer served to provide back-up for the other. The computers served as a "front end" to strip all communication bits off the data stream and present clean data on to the next stage of communication.

We were quite excited to be part of one of the most significant endeavors ever undertaken by man

We were certainly aware of the cost back then. I had a bleeding ulcer at age 26, just before the Apollo 1 fire. Divorces were of course common. A good friend fell asleep on his way in for his 12-hour shift at LC-39, hit a utility pole and was killed.
The commute on A1A from Satellite Beach was over an hour. A friend told me of one car pool driver who fell asleep at a the Minute Man Causeway traffic light in Cocoa Beach. It was also common to stop at the 7-11 for beer on the way home. There were probably 50 bars between the Cape gate and the 520 Causeway.
But what you really remember are moments like midnight on the launch pad before Apollo 7 or the moment when the Saturn V engines lit up. I still dream about it.

My mother was a part of the team that built the Univac guidance computers. she told me- they built 2 of them. Later one was put on a Shaker table for 2 weeks, and the only thing that came loose was a piece of tape.

When I first joined the editorial staff of "Missiles and Rockets" Magazine in 1959, I found the same intensity in the very beginnings of the Mercury program. It was reaching into sub-contractors who were tiny departments of large corporations.
Management at the upper levels in many such firms soon learned about the mission minded people first starting on "Mercury",
The pressure was not restricted to the Apollo effort, it was present from the start.

John F Judge

There were thousands of us who worked for Boeing (the main contractor). I am one of 2 ladies who was an engineer and worked on the S1-C Stage at Michoud, La. We tested every S1-C Stage over and over again. Chrysler under the contractor-North American Aviation was building and testing the second stage. I have been researching for over two years and I cannot find any women who worked "hands-on" on the Saturn V. There were approx. 150 women working for NASA and they did marvelous research. We were so proud of what we accomplished. We worked on the marvelous F-1 engines, too.
Beside our achievements, there were explosions and setbacks.
All of the stages had to be perfect or the Saturn V would have never made it to the Moon.
We were the "peons in the pits" and have been ignored for over 40 years.
Our astronauts made it to the Moon and came back safely. It is the greatest accomplishment in the history of mankind.
Thank you for letting us be heard.

My partner and I were the ONLY two gals who worked "hands on" on the Saturn V. We worked on the S1-C stage at Michoud.
There doesn't seem to be any other Boeing or Chrysler employees online. Sad. Have lots to tell. Back later. I might be the only Aerospace Engineer gal left who worked directly on the Saturn V.

A significant event in the early stages of Apollo was
the trargic fire that killed 3 astronauts on the
launch pad at KSC during a fuel test.(1967).

The subsequent investigation resulted in the Kennedy
Space Center getting total control of ground activities at KSC - heretofore JSC (Houston) was responsible. KSC
management (programs, engineering, procurement) rose
to the occasion in a "team environment" that proved highly successful and the program continued to it's
successful conclusion.

Bill Baulig

In my book "Taking science to the Moon: Lunar Experiments and the Apollo Program," I discussed how, if we wanted to get George Mueller's almost undivided attention, we would schedule briefings on the weekend. One example, the decision as to which RFP to use for the ALSEP procurement, and which center (MSFC or MSC) would manage the procurement, was made on Saturday May 24, 1965 during a long, contentious meeting with Mueller, Sam Phillips, Edgar Cortright, E.Z. Gray, and others. Sam Phillips concerns carried the day and MSC was selected to manage the contract but using the MSFC draft proposal. Now you know the rest of the story.

Six months after joining NASA at the Mannned Spacecraft Center (now the Johnson Space Center) I and three other MSC engnineers spent Thanksgiving, and several days before and after, working around the clock to test a full-scale engineering model of the Apollo Command Module launch Escape System Canards in the 16 ft. transonic wind tunnel aat Langle Research Center. Not being with out familiies on Thanksgiving in 1963 was typical of the dedication by many NASA employees and the sacrifce by their families.

I came to work for NASA (Manned Spacecraft Center now Johnson Space Center) in 1966 at age 21, a "fresh out" with an engineering degree that unusually included computers from the Univeristy of Michigan. I drove through Houston to the Center in May, and was totally "swallowed" by the Apollo program. Then a stranger to the area, it was over six months before I realized that we were as close to the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico (on Galveston Island) as we were to downtown Houston. The average age had to have been somewhere in the mid-to-high 20's and being totally immersed was typical. For the many young folks like me, with little or no family responsibilities, being captivated by the mere thought of working on, much less contributing to, space travel was a continuous drug-free "high".

I came to work for NASA in the Spring of 1963. I had been at Boeing in Seattle since 1959 after graduating from Purdue. I worked on several Apollo proposals while at Boeing, but Boeing lost all of them except the Saturn contract. I was called to the office an told that I was being transfered to Huntsville, AL and I said I didn't want to go there. Thats how I ended up at NASA in Houston. Morris Jenkings recruited me. I told him that I required a raise to change jobs and I started work at NASA for an additional $25 per year! We bought a new house in Houston for $50 down!

Jim Taylor/ MPAD

I was raised in a very small farming community in Arkansas (Russell, population 99)...At one time in the early 60s, 4 of us from Russell were employed at the MSC at the same time: My brother, who later retired from NASA headquarters (and married a NASA scientist); My sister, who was Glenn Lunny's secretary for awhile (and married an AF pilot who was assigned to Landing and Recovery Division); Paul Mitchell, also an MPAD engineer; And, myself...

I was a math teacher/coach in Houston when NASA began to “transfer” to Houston. My older brother arrived from Tullahoma, TN to set up blockhouse rocket test facilities first at Ellington and later at MSC. Immediately he began to question my wisdom for working long hours (7AM until 10PM, teaching coaching, grading papers, and washing boys underwear for an extra $100 per year) at such “low pay”. After flooding the “job market” with resumes, In June, 1963, whilst working on my MS in math, I received a telegram (on a Thursday) to report for work (with a defense contractor) in Cocoa Beach the following Monday.

My experience at NASA must be prefaced by recalling how many veterans of war have responded when asked, “Were You a hero?” Their response : “No but I was privileged to know and work with some!” (to be continued...)

(continued...) As with several people I worked with at Patrick Air Force Base, I was “lured to MSC” by Carl Huss. June 8, 1964, I reported to him at the HPC building on the Gulf Freeway. Whatever contributions I may have made from that time forward are wholly owed to the tutelage of Mr. Huss and the team of engineers he assembled. Also, at that time, there were some great “motivators” who encouraged us to give more than 99.9%. Mr. Craft would walk the halls and occasionally stop by our desks for a visit. I tried (mostly unsuccessfully) to keep a clean desk for I never knew when Bill Tindall might pull up a chair and begin to ask for “clarification” on some work I did.

Many times I have been asked if I knew this or that astronaut. My reply has always been, as with most of the folks I worked with, I was privileged to meet with, work with and be encouraged by many of the astronauts… but never spent a night camping out with any of them…

My brother was wrong about working fewer hours than a math teacher/coach… Most of us often worked 20 hour days, run home for a nap, and be back at 4AM for a “Sim”. The overtime pay (until it began to be “suggested” we work “voluntary overtime”) was great; yet, however good the overtime pay was, it was not the “pay” which motivated us.

I left NASA on May 13, 1977... How I can remember the precise dates I arrived and departed? Both were “rites of passage”. I can also, sometimes, remember my wedding anniversary and birthdate.

Right out of college in 1965, I went to work for McDonnell in St. Louis working on the final assembly and testing of the Gemini spacecraft. Soon after Gemini phased out, I quit and moved to Florida with Boeing to be part of Apollo, making the huge sum of $10,524/yr (which included $22.50/week "swamp pay"). 23 years old, making all that money, and being at Kennedy as part of the historic Apollo program, how could things be any better? I do not recall being stressed, I remember how lucky I felt at having the opportunity to work at the launch pad and in the Firing Room. We were launching Saturn Vs about every 2 months, so we were busy fixing the damage from the last launch and getting things ready for the next. Not being the senior guy, I had the advantage of being outside for the last few hours of the countdown and was able to watch (and film) all the liftoffs. The main thing you hoped for was that your systems didn't fail and cause a hold or scrub.

It is somewhat comforting to hear that many others were stressed out to the point that it affected their family life. I was the lead Flight Planner for Apollo 11 and was totally overwhelmed by the task of developing the minute by minute details of the flight and making it consistent with the 40 pounds of detailed checklists and consistent with the mission objectives. Every one on our team worked long hours. There seemed to be a sense of urgency and a need to get the endless details as correct as possible. Good thing we were young! It was great to be a part of a highly motivated team.

I arrived at JSC in March 1964. My first duty station was in a large empty building off the Gulf Freeway where we checked out the MOCR's display equipment. Time passed and I became a Network Controller. Once we moved from the warehouse to Bldg.30, there was no such thing as downtime. Once in the Gemini era, I worked an average of 21 hours per day for 7 weeks! I know that seems crazy but it is true(and crazy.) I went home one early morning, went to sleep in the middle of the only red light intersection in Pearland and was awaken by the Pearland Deputy Sherif. Thankfully, there wasn't any traffic to block and the Deputy let me go. With the admonishment, "to get some sleep." Fat chance of that!
WE all knew we were part of one of the greatest exploits in the history of mankind. I knew there would never be the praise as given to the Astronants; there shold not ever be; but I knew I was liken to a seahand on the Pinta, Nina or the Santa Maria. I knew my expertise counted and after all these years, I am very Proud of my contribution. Very few people have been so blessed as to have played a part in one of mankinds watershed epics.
Douglass R. Wilson
Network Controller
Flight Support Division
Philco/Ford

My father, Bobbie D Weber, dedicated most of his early "fatherhood" years to our nations mission to land a man on the moon as a NASA engineer. He is my hero not only because of his work for and dedication to his country but also for his love and dedication to his family and Jesus Christ. My father left NASA to pursue a "Higher calling" as a pastor. And to answer the question... "Yes, it does take a rocket scientist".

After spending 44 years and 7 months all within the Mission Control Center (MCC) at the Manned Spacecraft Center/Johnson Space Center I can say it was a hell of a ride and an outstanding adventure!!! Came down to Houston as a Philco-Ford employee to integrate and checkout the MCC computer hardware and display systems. Later, providing mission support to all of our outstanding flights. I remember calling the house and telling my wife to have the kids in front of the TV to watch our first moon landing; the kids were 2, 4, and 6 at the time, but I wanted them there anyway. Later, with a company name change to Ford Aerospace supported the beginning of the Shuttle. Continued on through STSOC and USA. Sad that I can't be "there" for another moon landing and a trip to Mars. My best to those that are, and good luck. It was a pleasure serving and I'm proud to say,I was there.

Comming straight out of college in 1966, I reported to Mission Operations JSC (Houston). The one thing that I knew for sure was these folks were excited to be part of this great adventure. At this time we didn't realize that we were making history, because we were so busy working. My great regret is now so many folks part of this adventure are passing away and can't be here. The ones of us remaining represent great sacrifices made by all of thoses no longer remaining. We made America proud!

I have nothing but awe for those involved in Apollo. I teach about the Apollo program and you can hear a pin drop when I talk about the first landing.

Burt Rutan urged me to read 'Angle of Attack', a riveting account of the pressures involved in getting to the moon. I highly recommend it!

I was a co-op working for NACA at the Langley Research Center when President Eisehower signed legislation renaming NACA, NASA and putting America into the "space race." It was a wonderful adventure to move to Houston with the Space Task Group in February 1962. What a privelidged to have known and worked with some of the most brilient and most dedicated men and women ever assembled to accomplish one of America's greatest challenges. In those years, it was not unusual to work all day and all night to meet a deadline or prepare a briefing.

I volunteered as did many others, to work Apollo mission in the SPAN room. I too regret the loss of so many of these NASA and contractor colleagues.

I arrived in Houston to begin work at the Manned Spacecraft Center on January 21, 1963, in the middle of one of the hardest freezes I can remember in Houston. Freeways were shut down for ice on the overpasses and travelling was terrible. I was to work in the Computation and Analysis Division which was situated in the U of Houston television building on campus. Our computers were IBM 7090's at that time but we evolved to much more sophisticated equipment as we moved first to Ellington Field then to what I remember to be the first completed building on site, building 12. I spent the next 21 years in that building, working in what we called the "business part of the program". We developed the logistics reporting systems, the SR&QA data bases, all the mundane computer applications needed to make the center run. Lots of "all nighters" during those early times. Did we work closely with the astronauts? Nope, but we knew that what we did was absolutely necessary. Then, culminating in that mind boggling broadcast when "The Eagle has landed" came into our homes and hearts, the remainder of the program just got better and better! Lord, I loved it,--most of us did.

I arrived at the Manned Spacecraft Center in the summer of 1966. I worked in Flight Crew Operations and was involved in astronaut training and checklist management for the period of time of the lunar stay. I used 2-way handscribed memos to coordinate procedures with various technical experts. We didn't have PCs. My secretary typed the masters of the lunar surface chechlists that were printed and sent to the moon. We did what we had to do with dedication, and time wasted was "not an option."

During the lunar landing of Apollo 11, I was awaiting my time to enter the mission control center for the prep for EVA. I was watching internal and commerical TV, and looking out doors, I saw many visitors just walking around our campus as if it were just another day, another tour.

My husband Jack Walsh returned to Houston & the fledgling space program in 1962 before the Space Center was built. He was involved with Guidance & Navigation & was one of the guys toiling away in one of the back rooms. He was always on console for lift-offs & landings. As there were no desk-top computers in those days he borrowed a fancy calculator from the business office to help make those time pressured calculations during a mission. After the Space Center was built he lived at the Porto Fino apartments in Nassau Bay & that is where we met in 1971. He always used to ride a bicycle to work & all the guards knew him well. But one night he had to go in for his shift during a mission & it was absolutely pouring with rain. So he drove his car (a Continental Mark IV) & was able to park right outside the control center. The guard saw him & commented, "I see you brought the Imperial bicycle this evening"! Jack was transferred to the Jet Propulsion Lab. in Pasadena, CA in 1975. We were married in 1977 & have lived in Pasadena ever since. Jack was laid off from JPL at the tender age of 72!
He is now legally blind & forgetful but quite spry, tries to go for a walk every day & will be 95 on 2 August 2009. I am only 65 (age is just a number you know!), come from UK & am a retired Occupational Therapist. We are having a really good life together & I cherish all Jack's wonderful stories about his time in the Space Biz. Thanks for being able to share some of this with you. Lyn Walsh.

Many of us worked long hours of unpaid overtime. It wasn't because we had to, we wanted to. Working on landing men on the Moon was like working on your dreams from chidhood. I don't remember stress so much, I just wanted to be sure my work was right. Yes, our wives and children made sacrifices when we weren't home. However, in our neighborhood someone who wasn't traveling was designated as husband of the week to help our families when we were gone. About getting it right: I was charged with the lunar descent and ascent trajectory designs and real-time support. The night before the landing my wife asked,"What if they die?" I said,"I will know I have done all that I can do to prevent it and we will start again." I know many others felt the same way.

I was 8 years old when Apollo 11 landed on the moon. I remember it like it happened yesterday. I especially remember the words of Neil Armstrong, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind".

I am honored to read the stories of the unsung heroes "behind the scenes" of this momentous achievement. I have always wondered about these nameless, faceless individuals and I am glad to finally have the opportunity to learn their names and hear their stories. Thank you.

I started with NASA in 1963, on the Gemini Program which was a precursor to Apollo. To me, there were more hours spent away from family during Gemini than Apollo. The last 2 Gemini missions were only 6 weeks apart - as we sped onward in the Race to the Moon.

From July 1, 1966 until September 30, 1969, I was a member of the Crew Systems group at Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation at Bethpage, N.Y., the prime contractor of the Lunar Module (LM). In order to meet the schedule and President’s Kennedy’s goal of landing a man on the moon before the end of the decade, we regularly worked on weekends and holidays. Family events, such as wedding anniversaries, a child’s First Communion, birthdays, and other landmark celebrations were ignored. Some of our engineers even delayed medical treatment so as not to be away from their desk in order to support this demanding schedule. What was our financial reward for these sacrifices? Overtime and holiday pay was calculated at your hourly rate of pay plus a bonus of $1.65 an hour. We weren’t in this effort for the money. It was a privilege to be part of the Apollo program, and we were all very proud of our personal role, no matter how small. The best people I ever worked with were on the LM Program. After the successful lunar landing we all thought even greater things were in store for us as individuals, and for our country. We had visions of going to Mars in the next decade, and launching a space station, all made possible by the powerful Saturn booster. Each of us would play a vital role in these new adventures. None of this came to pass, and it was a bitter disappointment. I consider that my involvement with the LM was the highlight of my career, even though I subsequently had a role in both the Shuttle and Space Station Freedom.

I worked for Boeing at the time and was part of the Launch Umbilical Tower (LUT) group that was responsible for the Swing Arm operation and checkout. We came early in the morning hours before the launch to man the Swing Arm Launch Control Center consoles and prepare for launch. The sight of Apollo 11 at the pad, bathed in searchlights, was magnificent. Tension was high as the countdown proceded. At T-30 secs the Swing Arm that I was responsible for was commanded to retract. The countdown continued and Apollo 11 lifted off into history.

Subsequently, I eventually had a 45 year career with Boeing but still consider my 10 years with Apollo as a highlight and my experience at Merrit Island fulfillment of a dream.

Iwent to work for IBM in 1956.I was assigned to Cape Canaveral where we installed a IBM 704 computer which was used to predict the impact point of the missel if it went off course and had to be blown up.At that time the Cape was only used to test missels.We covered all shots including Vangard.When Projet Mercury started I was transfered to Bermuda where we installed an IBM 709 computer.The reason
this was required was that the radars at the Cape were at their extreme range when the dicison was to be made to go or abort the man flight.NASA built a control center with
radars and telemetry to feed the 709. The computer would then drive the displays in the control room. These dislays were manned by NASA people and a astronaut to be the capsule
communicator. In 1962 an undersea cable was installed between Bermuda and the mainland this enabled the data to be sent directly to NASA computers at Goddard.The 709
was shut down and in Oct 1962 I returned to Washington DC
I was then assigned to a special engineering dept. where I continued to work on special engineering projects to support the IBM computers at Goddard and Houston.
After we landed on the moon, I moved to other projects in IBM and retired in 1990.

I spent 10 years designing and maintaining the Saturn Launch Support Equipment. During the Apollo 17 launch the equipment malfunctioned and delayed the launch until well after dark. NASA sent someone out to the launch pad to install a jumper sire to bypass a failed diode in our LSE. That individual has never received recognition for his bravery--there was a 6 million pound bomb sitting right above him. Very few people remember him and what he did, and even fewer know who he was. If he reads this I hope he will let us all know his name.

When the launch occurred about 10 that night I was watching from the banks of the Banana river in Titusville. About one minute after launch you could see the sound waves approaching across the river surface. Unforgettable sight!

My pilot, Fred Haise of Apollo 13 fame, and I spent our 1st year as NASA employees, 1959, being periodically weightless in an AJ-2 airplane, collecting fluid flow data at 0-G. We may have been the 1st NASA types to experience weightlessness. Years later when Apollo was still envisioned as an earth-rendezvous mission, I was charged with turbine development of Apollo's 1.5 million lb. thrust M-1 second stage engine. The component developments were almost complete when von Braun decided to go to a moon-rendezvous mission, meaning he no longer needed the M-1. I was at the Huntsville meeting the sad day (for us) when he made his decision. The only results from ours and Aerojet General's work was a stack of NASA/contractor reports covering the design of the components, of what might have become a great cryogenic rocket motor. But I was also the cognizant person at Lewis Research Center on the Rocketdyne J-2 engine, that made many trips to the moon. But poor Fred didn't make it. He was the engineer on board Apollo 13, and the one that had to ration out the oxygen and electricity onboard so they could make it back to earth after their disastrous lox tank explosion.

My part in all this--I answered an ad in the paper in Perth (where I'd migrated from Boston) and went to CRO, the CarnaRvOn Tracking Station 611 miles N. I was assigned to Computers--those 642Bs were always breaking--then moved to USB where I became the timing tech, and looked after our "atomic clock". We were prime for TLI (Trans-Lunar Injection, leaving Earth orbit for the moon) and before reentry, so played an important role in Apollo despite our little 30' antenna. We were usually in "3-way track" ie backup.

I lucked out and got sent to Goddard in Maryland for training on Loran-C Timing--it was an unforgettable trip I made the most of. I finally left CRO before the last few flights but working as part of Apollo, even as a lowly tech, was an unforgettable experience. Later I worked at climate observatories, field stations, for NOAA in arctic Alaska, then American Samoa! --Roger Williams, Boulder CO

I came to Houston and the MSC during the Mercury Program, one of several military assignees. We started in the Farnsworth-Chambers building, moved to Ellington AFB, and then to permanent spaces at MSC. As a flight surgeon I worked for Dr Chuck Berry whom everyone knew as the "Flight Surgeon to the Astronauts" but there were a lot of us in the background. We were responsible for the care of the flight crews and their families and monitored many tests and training activities. I was fortunate to be assigned as the NASA surgeon on the recovery carrier for MA-8 and MA-9 doing postflight exams on Wally Schirra and Gordon Cooper. Later in the Gemini program I was the surgeon on the control team in Carnarvon, Australia when Ed White made his historic first spacewalk. I consider myself very fortunate to have had a part in the early programs that were critical to the Apollo Mission. I now live in Florida, near the Cape, where we can watch the shuttle launches from our back yard!

Re: August '09 issue of Air&space
As Engineers and Technicians at The Dynatronics Division of General Dynamics Electronics in Orlando; we were proud members of NASA's 400,000. As a subcontractor we designed and built the World-Wide PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) Decom Ground-Stations for the Apollo Program. In our Airborne Section my fellow engineers and I and technicians designed and built,as subcontractors to Bendix Corp. in Ann Arbor, Mi.,the special analog to digital converters for the
ALSEP pallet module. This instrumentation system was deployed on the moon and sucessfully transmitted data for several years after the Apollo Program was concluded by NASA. Although we worked many nights and weekends without monetary compensation,the project was analagous to working on one's hobby. Such songs as "Take This Job and Shove It", was never a thought in our organization. We loved our tasks and were proud participants. General Dynamics was a dream Corporation to work for and no doubt still is!
John Gilbert, E.E. (Systems Engineer),retired.
Orlando, FL.
jongilber@aol.com

I work for Mcdonnell Douglas during the Saturn 5 project. We were responsible for the third stage of the vehicle. That stage had to fire twice, once during the launch phase and later in earth orbit to transfer the Apollo to the moon. Prior to engine start the rocket bell had to be cool down to cryogenic temperature. This was accomplished by 2 one horsepower motors, one of which was runing flooded in liquid hydrogen. The power for the motors came from two chilldown inverters that converted 56 V DC to three phase 400 cycle AC. I was responsible for the initial design and development of this box and to say that we were pushing the state of the art is an understatement. I used to have nightmares before every launch because if the box did not work the vehicle did not go. After a lot of hard work and one period of three months when three of us work seven days a week 24 hours a day on a design change the box worked perfectly on all the flights. We were just a bunch of kids between the ages of 25 and 35 years old who didn know we couldn't do the impossible. It was my privilege to be a part of that.

I worked at Bendix Aerospace Systems on the north Campus of the University of Michigan from 1967 through 1969. We worked on ALSEP (Apollo Lunar Surface Experimental Package) which contained the six experiments to assess the surface, air and thermal environment as part of Apollo 11 and the moom buggy. I was a lowely QC technician , who as time progressed was promoted to being ass't project engineer (APE)-mech on the FACI team and sign off on preliminary drawings. Since over 80 percent of the components were purchased, a large portion of the inspection was done at recieving ports, then inspected before being placed in bonded store.

We were severly understaffed as there were reduction after 1966,(the high point) to the degree that over 369,000 engineers/ scientists/ technicians who worked in Aerospace numbered less than 200,000 by 1967. At the same time, this created career advancement for individuals like myself, as well as being given green cards for many British engineers.

I learned first hand how to build and manage technical teams, and monitor project progress to achieving large goals. Thank you for writing the other side of the Apollo project, much has been written about those who flew the hardware and those who monitored it, but very little about those who designed it.

My father, Lou J. Poulos, was a launch team member on the Apollo mission. He was employed by IBM and worked on the Instrumentation Unit of the Saturn V. I remember his never ending concentration at home with slide rule in hand and ever immaculate figures dominating pages and pages of notebooks. I remember late night test launches at the Cape. I remember when my father won the Manned Flight Awareness Award for discovering a weakness in an extendable arm and there was no mechanism designed to retract it, which would have ultimately resulted in the death of the astronauts. This award was given for significant contributions to manned space flight, including quality work, efforts toward flight safety, cost-saving ideas, and achievements that helped accomplish the goal of manned space flight. I remember driving with my father to the Cape time after time after time, to see the VAB, the launch pad, the mobile service launchers and hearing explanations of everything. I remember parties on Cocoa Beach the night before a launch. I remember the excitement of launch day, the actual information we, as children, DID receive when Apollo 13 was in trouble, and all things space related that I so dearly loved. But most of all, I remember how proud I was of my father, of how I knew as a child that he alone WAS the space program. I look at his Manned Flight Awareness Award, his launch team patches, the things presented to him as the mission progressed. I know for a fact that my father was, is, and forever will be my hero.

Was a young child when all this was happening, but old enough to remember the excitement and buzz in the air during Apollo 11. It is sobering to think now about the effect this grand project had on the lives of the men and women involved - stories we have never heard - to achieve this goal. Thank you Air and Space for telling us. Thank you Lynn Radcliffe and the 400,000 others for your dedicated service.

I worked as a systems engineer for Grumman at the Kennedy space center from 1966 to 1971 I was 24 years old at the time. Working on the LM was an exciting and rewarding. The hours were long and the pressure was very high. That time shaped the rest of my career; it gave me the tools to get any task done on time. There was a great pride among all of us and we all worked together as a team regardless of what company we worked for. It was a great adventure and national goal; I was very lucky to be part of it.

Did anyone work with North American Aviation safety inspector Tom Baron? If so, I'd like to talk to you. Sincerely, Gary Corsair, Senior Writer, The Villages daily Sun Email me at gary.corsair@thevillagesmedia.com

My neighbor, Ted Kerpez, worked on the LM in Bethpage throughout the Apollo program. He would bring home test panels and control boards for his sons and I to play with, pretending we were launching rockets to the moon. You are all heroes in my mind. Thank you!

Hello

I am in the early days of creating what should be a NASA-authorised journal of the Apollo Mission Control Room (parallel to the already existing Apollo Flight and Surface Journals - all done by volunteers). I have the go-ahead to take initial steps on this by the existing AFJ and ASJ editors, prior to approaching NASA History). We think that this is an important part of U.S. and space history.

As part of this project, I want to have modelled the MOCR in detail and in 3D, and document each console and its instruments/displays etc, and their detailed technical functions/mods over the missions.

I understand that Bendix manufactured these consoles, and it would be great to get hold of some 'as-built' drawings from those days, and any other information to help on this project. Perhaps you could point me in the right direction?

I'd be very grateful for any help, and of course any assistance would be fully acknowledged.Perhaps Mr Alexander above could help?

You all have my great admiration, by the way!

Many thanks, Steve Wallace +44 7768 273 214 sw1984@excite.com

I worked for Bendix Aerospace in Ann Arbor Michigan. I worked in Inspection and Quality control.
We all worked long days starting in the summer of 1965, the OT was for only a few weeks, but lasted through the end of the 60's.
The Lunar Roving Vehicle was worked 7 days a week, labor day till Easter the next year, just Christmas and New Years off, in a closed building and going to the entrance to see if it was time for dinner or breakfast. We went to Huntsville to demo our entry to Von Braun in the competition but with cuts in APOLLO the smaller jeep size vehicle was substituted.
We were involved with getting things working. J Lynn Helms was the guy in the front office for some of that time.
Work on APOLLO and on ALSEP and EASEP experiment packages and their testing in a large vac chamber, was part of the best this country has done during my lifetime to help benefit all of us on this planet.

With a background of high school honors science, and service in the U.S. Army Nike missile program as a technician working on the systems radars and computer. I applied for a job at Grumman Aircraft Corp. in Hicksville, L.I. This turned out to be a several year job-shopping assignment as a technical writer/editor from Volt Technical Services in the Lunar Module(LM) systems engineering group. Regular employees could not understand how I worked there so long with a contractor badge, they felt that I must be a regular employee. I wrote, edited and coordinated astronaut flight procedures between Grumman, the astronaut flight control board, and an outside publications company which produced the flight procedure documentation manuals. These were approximately somewhat over 1,000 pages of procedures for each LM spacecraft. This was done manually, without benefit of a computer. The manuals covered the length of my desk. In those days I was working on several of these manuals at a time. I once asked Joe Murray, the Grumman pubs manager I worked for why he hired me. He said that it was my attention to details, and he had determined that in one interview. There was a Grumman editor in the group who edited the procedures, but I would review his work and correct it. I sometimes worked long hours, but never felt that I was under stress and don't believe that it effected my health. The other technical writers would joke about the special handling that the procedures received with goldenrod shipping bags and transporation in the Super Guppy between Grumman and the Space Center.




Now I am writing a book about and do presentations regarding a former, local U.S. Army Nike missile base NY-93/94 Franklin Lakes-Mahwah, N.J. Hopefully, I will complete it soon.




Richard M. Levine


Mahwah, N.J.


levine1944 [at] verizon [dot] net

You have to also realize that those were the days of cost-plus contracts. Therefore, the more the contractor spent the more profit they made. When I was in the Grumman Systems Engineering group I could clearly see many engineers sitting around doing nothing all day. Some of them were running their investments or other business ventures from their desks for lack of work to do. However, I had more than a full workload keeping track of the astronaut flight procedures. I wonder whatever happened to our John Pierce, my Grumman contact at the Space Center. One engineer was busy running the several building he owned, another owned an air pollution company in NY, and another had significant investments which he also ran or tracked from his desk. The one who owned a number of buildings was noticed by his boss at the bank and fired. Another, a math genius would go to the track, win a bundle and take off the next few weeks. I thought he used his math to win so much, but was disappointed when he told me that his winnings was due to following the owners' betters who knew the results of the horse races before the race was run. He just followed them to the betting window to see who they were betting on. The engineer who owned significant investments whould become very upset when his stocks went down and would throw his desk phone on the floor. The engineers would follow the flight of the LM from a control center near where I worked.

My dad is in this picture. His name was Rocco Anthony Russo Sr. And I have this picture hanging in my living room. My husband decided to do search on Apollo workers and found it. I am proud to see my dad and all his co workers. I miss him every day.