posted 04-05-2008 05:04 PM               

Our guest speaker will be one of the pioneers of early missile development for the US Navy, Capt. Grayson Merrill (USN, retired). Capt. Merrill, also known as the "Father of Point Mugu", has had a long and influential Navy career. The Class Deck Officer in the Bureau of Aeronautics during WWII, Merrill helped oversee the creation of assault drones for use against Japan. In the post-war era he helped prepare specifications for 18 guided missiles, including the Regulus, Lark, Gorgon and Gargoyle. He played a key role in the creation of the Naval Air Missile Test Center at Pt. Mugu, and was the director of testing there for four years (1946-49). Prior to retirement from the Navy in 1957, Captain Merrill was the first technical director for the Polaris ballistic missile program. A true renaissance man, Captain Merrill co-authored a ground - breaking series of guided missile design textbooks, and also wrote the gripping Cold War novel "Conger Eel.”

The meeting will also include a short report from the senior Space Unit officer at the meeting and (but of course) trading!! Bring trade stuff!!!

The evening of August 23, Steve Durst has graciously volunteered to have a cookout at his home in nearby Millersville, Md. Steve is also working up a tour of Ft. McHenry, home of “…the rockets’ red glare…” for Sunday morning August 24 for all who are interested.

More details will come in future editions of the Astrophile (the Space Unit's magazine) and on the Space Unit website at: http://stargate.1usa.com/stamps/

So don’t miss this celebration of “The Early Days” of missile development. And bring trade stuff…

posted 04-11-2008 03:20 PM               

I plan on attending. Looks like a great program.

posted 08-23-2008 07:13 PM               

We also heard about naamodel240's planned book on American Astrophilately. SU members got copies of dox1932's 50th Anniversary of NASA Langley covers and writeup, along with draft copies of Steve Durst's Project Gemini tome.

Bruce Cranford sold the sample hardcopies he brought of his books, "Space Covers: Dictionary and Identifier", and a dictionary of space shots and space terms (good for all collectors).

A trading session was held afterward in the hotel lobby with 8 people attending. A slew of covers traded hands!!!

Daveblog, who has taken on the honorific task of finding all 305 of the Project Mercury first day covers (see a separate CS thread), got introduced to Henry Scheuer's latest status on the same, and Dave's business card got delivered to Henry later on in the day. These two live near each other, so this could be an empire-in-the-making!!!