posted 07-19-2006 12:24 PM               

Hill 305 was northwest of the Apollo 15 landing site and clearly visible on the horizon in surface panoramas. But where does that name come from?

Numbering hills is a common military practice, to give designations to otherwise unnamed features. It looks like ‘Hill 305’ references can be found to both the Korea & Vietnam wars …

Apollo 15 crewmembers:
Commander David SCOTT first was an Army officer after graduating from West Point but soon changed to the Air Force
Lunar Module pilot James IRWIN was an Air Force Colonel
Command Module pilot Alfred WORDEN also retired from the Air Force.
Although some of them were surely stationed at an USAFE base in Europe I don’t know if any of them did a tour of duty during the Korea or Vietnam war?
Anybody on cS.com have an idea what connection (if any) there might have been to the crew?

posted 07-19-2006 02:46 PM               

[Jones - "Hill 305 has a number for a name. How come?"]

[Scott - "Probably the elevation of that hill was 305 meters above something, because that's the normal way the Army designates a hill."]

[In June 2003 it occurred to me that a more likely explanation is that the name refers to the azimuth of the summit as seen from the landing site which is, indeed, about 305 degrees (east of north).]