posted 03-31-2009 03:01 PM               

But something strange is going on -- I am receiving requests for my autograph from all over the country - Calif. to New York. What on earth? I am a nobody.

Now our local ABC affiliate wants to make a special about me.

posted 03-31-2009 03:50 PM               

What you are experiencing is the power of collectSPACE. When you post on this site you have no idea how many people from around the world will see it.

posted 03-31-2009 04:46 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by KSCartist:
You certainly are NOT "a nobody." Congratulations on long overdue attention.

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Thank you for your compliments. But for 40 years I have been a "nobody". Oh, if the world could see what I have! I would love to be able to speak to the children of this world and fill them with the excitement of the stars!

The only school that has wanted me to speak is the U.S. Naval Academy. I love them all! Sadly in Leon County, Fl. (where Tallahassee is) no one in the schools wants me to speak to the kids and I am FREE.

posted 04-02-2009 12:46 PM               

I am getting ready to tell you more about Michoud and the S1-C Stage. But first, I want to tell you about my heroes. I have had the honor to know all of them.

1. I knew Dr. Wernher Von Braun and so did my dad. Dr. Von Braun, I think, had 2 girls. He helped me believe that girls can do anything. I did.

2. I met Jacqueline Cochran in 1962. She broke every record in aviation for both men and women.

3. Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson - the Director of the Hayden Planetarium in NYC and host for PBS "Nova". I met him in 2005 at LSU in Shreveport, La.

4. John J. Nance - the Aviation Consultant to ABC news, Best-Selling Author and whose books were made into great movies.

posted 04-02-2009 01:06 PM               

Every engineering team had clerks and secretaries. Ours was a gorgeous babe. How do I know? We went water-skiing together every weekend. She looked great in a bikini. Down boys -- she is now a grandmother.

I've had folks ask me where were our pictures. You ask the astronauts too. We are all madder than hell. NASA gave out only their cameras and confiscated all of them. I don't know about other plants, but I never saw a camera anywhere. We were searched every morning arriving for work.

There were signs that said if anyone was caught with a camera, they would be shot on sight (just kidding about the shooting part). At that time the cameras were enormous clunky things. How would one sneak that in?

posted 04-02-2009 05:47 PM               

But you know, we only go around one time and we had better make the most of it. I will talk to anyone. If I don't, I'll miss something or someone really important.

Gotta go -- we are having rip-roaring really bad storms with flooding, tornadoes and power outages. We have had this for 2 days. Yuk!

On edit: I'm back but for a short post. I am so excited -- I found a treasure! It is a very large book in excellent condition. "History of Rocketry and Space Travel" by Dr. Wernher Von Braun and Frederick I Ordway III.

posted 04-06-2009 05:07 PM               

Walking into the building, you were faced with enormous scaffolding, technicians all over the place and much more. It was organized chaos and VERY LOUD! Everyone (including me) was yelled at. The techs would scream, "Get the hell outta here".

We were just passing through the assembly area to get to the engineering spaces. But we beat feet!

In the assembly area were our stages having the skirts welded on. (Do you know what a skirt is?) Then they were in various pieces being worked on. A word about the welding: EVERY weld was X-rayed-sometimes many times.

The skirts were welded over the basic framework of the stage. Here is what worries me today: Those dangerous X-rays. How many of the techs developed cancer or other terrible things due to the radiation?

I worry about people. I worried about Mike Collins alone orbiting the Moon while Neil and Buzz were on the Moon.

One time I made the mistake of looking at the enormous X-ray machine when it was turned on. Yow-ouch. I developed cataracts a few years ago. (???)

Remember, the 1st Stage was assembled by Boeing and the 2nd Stage by Chrysler under contract from North American Aviation. Michoud was divided into parts -- we were in the front section and Chrysler was in the rear section. We were the Cowboys and Chrysler the Indians. Every time a Boeing engineer saw a Chrysler engineer, they would say, "NNaa, nnaaa our stage is bigger than your stage". Lots of water fights ensued. In the assembly area in three years or so I think we worked on about 14 S1-C stages. That was in the period of three years. Chrysler did the same. I am writing a book because there is too much to tell on a blog.

When the stages were completed in our area, they were stored in our area either in a floor cradle or suspended from the ceiling.

Then each stage which was completed except for the most important part -- the engines. The engines were installed in another building. After some more adjustments, the stage was loaded onto a barge and sent through Lake Pontchatrain, Lake Borne, out into the Gulf and up the Pearl River to the Mississippi Test Site near Bay St. Louis.

I was on the Systems Test Engineering Team.

Now the stage mounted on the test stand was our baby. Yahoo! What a great fun job!

The stage was loaded and they let her rip! Wow! Seven and a half MILLION pounds of thrust! I have video. I have pictures. I have most of the manufacturing and test records.

There is so much more to tell -- three years' of work. Triumph and tragedy. Boeing is the very best company that I worked for in my 25+ career.

I have begged and pleaded people to let me show my DVD and pictures. The U.S. Naval Academy loved me and I loved them. I know the Air Force Academy and maybe West Point would like to hear me speak. I am getting desperate -- this information needs to be told to the American people.

posted 04-12-2009 12:24 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by kr4mula:
I also believe your situation is exacerbated by the fact that you worked for a contractor. NASA kept many records about its own people's work, but very little about anyone who wore a contractor badge.

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posted 04-12-2009 01:51 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by GACspaceguy:
"Pilots might have the Right Stuff, but Engineers have the Real Stuff"

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posted 05-10-2009 01:30 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by kr4mula:
All that said, NASA did start a program a few years ago to extend its oral histories specifically to include some of the key women in its history.

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I called Boeing (my employer). Ha! Ha! They had my name but they don't know where our records are. Boeing was one of the main contractors. If they don't know anything, what do the others know?

posted 05-10-2009 04:04 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by capoetc:
It looks like a uniform of some kind...

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The guy you are looking at on the other side of me is one of my dearest friends. I am lucky to have the most and longest friends (over 40 years) of anyone I know.

This person graduated from college like all of us, and was sent to Vietnam where he flew Hueys. He came home, took courses on the GI bill and was hired by Delta Air Lines. He just retired after 31 years and 22,000 miles. He has flown every aircraft in the fleet. His son flies for AirTran.

I am blessed to have extrordinary friends such as these. I am so proud of all of them.

We were at Barksdale Air Force Base for some event or other when Dr. Von Braun showed up. Of course, everyone went "gasp"! I just went over to him and said, "hello". You know,I can't for the life of me remember what we talked about.