posted 02-01-2008 08:51 PM               

Apollo Fire: I was a 6-year old attending 1st grade in Port Arthur TX. I don't remember the actual event, but do remember my teacher discussing the tragedy in class around that time.

Challenger: I was at work at the flight school where I instructed. I remember hearing a news update on the radio that Challenger was poised to launch within less than an hour. A friend called me a short time later and asked if I had heard the news that the "shuttle had blown up." Disbelieving, I turned on a TV set and saw ABC's Peter Jennings with a long face talking about what had happened, and then saw the first of many replays of the explosion. One of those "I'll never forget where I was when ..." moments.

Columbia: A co-worker called me on work-related business, and mentioned casually if I had "seen the news". I turned it on to see the replay of Columbia breaking up over Texas, but with no certain determination of the status of the crew. I remember going a bit numb. Just the previous day I had flown directly over KSC with another pilot who was a former JSC employee. We discussed the landing planned for the next day, and how he was good friends with Mike Anderson, relating a couple of Mike-related anecdotes.

posted 02-01-2008 09:11 PM               

Challenger: I remember I was sick and home from school that day. I was sleeping in my bed at 11:40 when my mom yelled "Jason, the shuttle!". I ran down stairs and walked into the living room and froze as I saw the fireball and the twin snakes of smoke from the SRB's corkscrewing from it. I realized right then that something was wrong. I remember listen to President Reagan's speech, and how we talked about it in school the days after. I also remember that we started a fund to send to NASA to help on building a new shuttle. We sent I think $250.00 and received a letter from the NASA administrator and a picture of Christa Mcauliffe that is still hanging in the school.

Columbia: We lived with my in laws while our house was being completed, and I remember we were watching a movie before going to work. When I got to work, my co-worker told me that they had lost contact with the shuttle. I didn't think much of it, until someone came in and told me that the shuttle was lost. I called my parents in Houston, who told me more about it. Then I called my grandmother who lived in Gatesville, south of Dallas, and she told me that some of her friends in the debris path heard the sonic booms as the debris went subsonic. I still have all the houston chronicles from the day of and days after the disaster.