On this Memorial Day, 2011 we of course honor and remember the men and women who gave so much to preserve our freedoms in this country. That path is the most common theme that people follow, and it is most certainly a correct one. But, I’d like to take it a step further, a bit “out of the box”, to honor and remember what those men and women through their sacrifices made possible for us to achieve as a nation. America’s finest hours in my opinion, were made possible by those very people who we honor this Memorial Day. They made it possible to learn, to dream, to build, to adapt, and to work through the darkness to see the light when the situation seemed hopeless.
I can think of no better way to honor our veterans, than to thank them for enabling the environment that gave birth to what you can watch and experience below. This, is science, engineering, mathematics, and uniquely American can-do ingenuity, all combined, and made possible by the sacrifice and the dreams of many whom we honor today.
Please set aside 90 minutes of your time to watch these series of Failure is Not an Option. Few people today know who Gene Kranz is. I’ll tell you who he is, he’s an unsung hero with a remarkable clarity of purpose. In reflecting after watching this documentary, I find it amazing that Gene Kranz and James Hansen were part of the same organization, NASA. The NASA then and that of today, are worlds apart.
This is the NASA I looked up to in my youth. I hope you’ll find this as moving as I did.
Image above: A photo of the vest and pin worn by Gene Kranz during the Apollo 13 mission, by Matthew G. Bisanz.
It’s hard to believe we got to the moon safely and back using nothing more than our nerve, brains and slide rules. If it wasn’t for Neil Armstrong flying manually the LEM would have never landed. So much for computers.
Let us remember the astronauts, scientists, engineers, technicians, assemblers, machinists, chemists, and the hundreds of thousands of dedicated people that made the lunar landing a reality.
Most importantly, let us remember the dedication and sacrifice of our members of the armed forces which made all our accomplishments possible.
Thanks for this Memorial Day post. My kids are looking forward to watching this for class (homeschool) today.
“Gentlemen, it’s been a priviledge flying with you.”
Wayne Job:
“Please elect the next time around as president a man or woman of vision to give your country a goal that many will think impossible , that makes it more likely to happen faster. The world needs America to have a goal, for it is a cradle of invention.”
Instead of inventing smart bombs, I look forward to Americans inventing of smart food.
The decline and inevitable fall of American materialism is promoted by the increasing moral lassitude that pervades daily life, and what seems to be the almost inevitable takeover of the levers of power by the military-industrial complex, personified for all time by Dick Cheny and Donald Rumsfeld.
Your comment is essentially a moral one and the questions about ‘what happened’ are moral. A nation that has no morally-based sense of self-worth cannot achieve greatness. As the movements of the far left and right have found in the last century, you cannot kill your way to peace no matter what the cover story. The world cries out for peace and unity. It groans and pleads for an end to structured conflict promoted by self-serving power centers intent on plunder.
The moon landings harnessed a pre-existing social condition of unity of purpose, it did not create it. Tasking the US to some great achievement of a material nature will not imbue the necessary social conditions and unity that are its pre-requisite, not its consequence.
Unity in the face of a common threat is an illusion, mere survival, and fleeting. We all want more than that. Strong families and moral vision are not created by engineering projects, rather they are the foundation of such projects.
Witness the fleeting unity of purpose created by hyperventilating about ‘climate change’. It is fear-mongering of the basest kind, asking people to believe a priestly class of scientists who garner their grants and fame through effective PR management. Inject a ‘higher purpose’ now and then about saving people from their ignorant, uninformed selves so the believers can look down on the un-annointed fools. How edifying! How superior! How fake.
The USA has many internal and external challenges to face. Internally the most challenging question is that of race unity – overcoming will be as difficult as the Brits overcoming the class prejudice that pervades its daily life, and the tribal disunity that is the toxic lifeblood of Africa. None of these problems will be solved by material constructions/diversions.
The public face of the lunar program was of course a screen for the real objective: building launch vehicles for military payloads and to make a reality out of the MAD policy (Mutually Assured Destruction). The Space Shuttle size was dictated by military payloads (KH11 satellites, for example) not Buck Rogers. What did you get for your money? There is a 10 foot mirror pointing out to space (Hubble) and more than one, costlier, 11 foot mirror looking down towards earth.
If mankind wants to joint the unknown company of civilisations that travel to other planets, we should grow up first.
My Dad did not work for NASA, but he worked for some of the big companies in California associated with the space industry. He was an electrical engineer and rarely talked about what he did at work. After he died, we found out that he had a pretty high security clearance, so probably couldn’t talk about it. One day we were watching a rocket take off, and as the rocket gained altitude the first stage fell off, then the whole rocket rotated and the second stage fell off. At that point my Dad very quietly said, ” Oh good, it worked”. I was a young teen at the time and didn’t ask any questions, but I am proud of the fact that “whatever” it was worked, and my Dad played a part in a successful mission.
The day of the Moon Landing was during our county fair. I had just finished high school and we had brought a portable TV to the fairgrounds to watch the landing. The TV was set up outside on a picnic table and several of us were standing around, watching Neil Armstrong step out of the capsule. Just as his foot hit the lunar surface, a group of horseback riders rode past. I was struck at the time, how far mankind had come in a short time. My grandfather was born during the horse and buggy days, yet he had lived long enough to watch something that had seemed impossible just a few years prior, that a human would be on the moon.
Growing up in the 50’s and 60’s, with my Dad in the industry, I suppose as a family we were more aware of the space program than many. It seemed to me that people in space and men on the moon were normal. Looking back, I realize how large the strides were in how short a time, to accomplish those goals. It was truly an amazing thing.
I’ll second Jessie’s recommendation to read AB Facey’s “A Fortunate Life”.
My boyhood hero was Douglas Bader, the WW2 fighter pilot who lost both of his legs when his bird caught fire. He learnt to walk on “tin” legs and was shot down by the Germans and captured. To prevent him escaping the Germans had to confiscate his legs!
Bader came to Hobart some decades ago. He was a keen golfer and boasted the best golfing stance on the planet. He had a special pair of “tin” legs, one shorter than the other.
While playing the Bellerive golf course, he was recognised by a golfer who was driving a golf buggy. The driver of the buggy asked Bader if he would like a lift up the hill. Bader gave him a withering look and said: “What hill?”
For those too young to recall Bader, Paul Brickhill wrote a biography “Reach for the Sky”. For the illiterate, Lewis Gilbert made a movie of the same name when The Git was five years old. Memories…
I performed advanced materials testing for the Saturn SIV-B, a very small, basic part of the space effort. The job was frustrating in many respects, but it was cutting-edge technology, and I’m glad I was there. I could sit and watch these videos all day.
Westerner says: “…I do not know why the United States has lost its self confidence…”
There is no simple answer, of course, but I think the seed is shown in the videos. While disciplined men in ties and pocket protectors were cooperating in mankind’s most challenging endeavour, others in Haight-Ashbury (and many other places) were taking drugs, disrespecting the United States and its flag, pushing leftists agendas, preaching disloyalty, breaking laws, and spouting Red slogans as if they were great wisdom.
The media not only gave large amounts of time and space to these parasites, they idealized them. We saw “peace loving,” idealistic, Anti-American young people on the cover of Life Magazine. We didn’t see the pathetic, diseased victims that were the reality, some of them institutionalized for life by brain-destroying drugs. The media continue to spread anti-American, anti-scientific disinformation even today.
In 2009, I watched the videos of the Tea Party march on Washington–hundreds of thousands of people, up to a million and a half, who had a lot more in common with the old NASA staff than with the freaks of 1960’s (and 2011) San Francisco. The next day, the headline in my local paper read: “Thousands March in Washington.” It’s the media, Westerner.
Really enjoyable documentary, thanks for the links.
Magic Times, miss them.
Shucks, we’re even going to miss the shuttle 🙁
jorgekafkazar said @ur momisugly May 30, 2011 at 11:42 am
“There is no simple answer, of course, but I think the seed is shown in the videos. While disciplined men in ties and pocket protectors were cooperating in mankind’s most challenging endeavour, others in Haight-Ashbury (and many other places) were taking drugs, disrespecting the United States and its flag, pushing leftists agendas, preaching disloyalty, breaking laws, and spouting Red slogans as if they were great wisdom.
The media not only gave large amounts of time and space to these parasites, they idealized them. We saw “peace loving,” idealistic, Anti-American young people on the cover of Life Magazine. We didn’t see the pathetic, diseased victims that were the reality, some of them institutionalized for life by brain-destroying drugs. The media continue to spread anti-American, anti-scientific disinformation even today.
In 2009, I watched the videos of the Tea Party march on Washington–hundreds of thousands of people, up to a million and a half, who had a lot more in common with the old NASA staff than with the freaks of 1960′s (and 2011) San Francisco. The next day, the headline in my local paper read: “Thousands March in Washington.” It’s the media, Westerner.”
Speaking as one of those “freaks of the 1960s”, we believed, and I still do, that the parasites are the government. The “pathetic, diseased victims” I see are those who are “loyal” and believe the bullshit that Big Government and Big Pharma et al. are pushing. Yes, we break the law. For example I have a picture of my son at the age of six wearing no clothes apart from my gumboots while helping to prepare the family meal. I am sure you are horrified by this, but many of my friends have similar photographs of their offspring.
This “parasite” as you call me happens to grow his own food and fuel (firewood), built his own world-famous house and utterly rejects the concept that the government should be allowed to tell me what to do and what to think providing what I do harms no-one. A pox on your nannyism!
Well Pompus Git, my Father-in-Law Drove a Sherman Tank, -had five shot out from
underneath him- pushed into Nazi Germany, liberated one of Dachau’s Satellite Camps,
then went on to build cars in Detroit for 38 years.
He did that just so you could “Do your own thing.”
Your right.
Defended by the people you think “work for the man”…
If they didn’t win, we’d be going:
Lady in Red says:
May 30, 2011 at 7:56 am
Lady in Red, I understand your pain and reticence to believe “big pharma” but if you’re a firm believer in science (and I assume you are if you’re here), please don’t let your pet suffer unnecessarily.
There is no evidence that Vitamin C kills cancer cells: http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Cancer/c.html
And interesting note from the third study by the Mayo Clinic:
I’ll put in a small plug for the Non profit I’m starting with some dear friends.
http://veteransfreedomfarm.org/
Douglas DC said @ur momisugly May 30, 2011 at 2:46 pm
“Well Pompus Git, my Father-in-Law Drove a Sherman Tank, -had five shot out from
underneath him- pushed into Nazi Germany, liberated one of Dachau’s Satellite Camps,
then went on to build cars in Detroit for 38 years.
He did that just so you could “Do your own thing.”
Your right.
Defended by the people you think “work for the man”…”
Well Douglas DC, my father was interned in Dachau, though he escaped rather early in the War with no assistance from your father-in-law. However, your father-in-law may have been the American who late in the war shot my father “because he spoke German”. Nasty stuff wars.
Most of my life I have been a self-employed small businessman. I provided employment to people who needed it. My business folded when the government introduced a new tax designed to put, I was told, 40% of people working in my area, out of business. The conservative Prime Miniature who introduced the tax (John Howard) had pledged to never introduce such a tax prior to the election. Sound familiar?
Of course, if I was “loyal” to the government, I would fervently believe that Catastrophic Global Warming (Climate Change, Climate Disruption) can only be stopped by yet another tax, just like they tediously and continually tell me. But I don’t; I’d rather think for myself thank you.
So go ahead, believe what the government tells you to believe. I won’t stop you, or even attempt to. Just leave me out of it.
Jeff Alberts….. Thank you for your kind wishes, but know I will NEVER tolerate pain for my lovely Great Pyrenees! This is off-topic, I understand, so let me keep it brief:
Quackwatch IS big pharma! Yesh!
Mayo’s research was badly flawed: only oral, not IV. Big difference!
(Think getting all your AGW info from Real Climate and Joe Romm.)
Google “Riordan IVC protocol” or just “Intravenous Vitamin C”
Below is a stunning intro to the subject by “Dr. Ron,” one of the most amazing, modest, brilliant doctors I have ever known. (Think Anthony Watts and Steve McIntyre.) ….smile.
I’m a long time, proud owner of “Final Exit” myself and, no, Hippomenes will never suffer. …….Lady in Red
I have a question that I hope the engineers, scientists and history buffs can answer or point me in the right direction. I’ve done some searching but couldn’t find the answer.
Why did mission control underestimate the blackout time during Apollo 13 re-entry?
The answer I found was that re-entry angle was shallower, than previous missions causing a longer period of radio disruption (by ~1.5 minutes). That makes sense, but surely mission control knew this and would have compensated, right?
Thanks Anthony for this post and the video links. I wasn’t alive during Gemini and Apollo and I found these video’s of mission control’s work and dedication inspirational, to say the least. I’d love to hear John Aaron, Gene Kranz, or Chris Kraft speak about their experiences, or heck, anything they’d like to talk about. They make me proud to be an American.
Thanks!
Lady in Red
I think the best that can be said about IV C is that it is inconclusive. It doesn’t seem that there have been any proper studies done.
The Mayo studies weren’t flawed, they just tested one aspect, oral C. Pauling’s studies WERE flawed because they were not double-blind placebo controlled, etc. His studies also used oral in addition to IV.
That’s all I have to say on the subject here.
All the best for you and your pet!
Instead of my own poorly written thoughts, I offer the words of John Stuart Mills, who said what I think better than I can. A couple of sentences from the last paragraph of his 1862 treatise, The Contest in America:
I will only paraphrase Samuel Adams (by replacing “slavery” with “government”): I believe that no people ever yet groaned under the heavy yoke of government, but when they deserved it. The truth is, All might be free if they valued freedom, and defended it as they ought.
Unfortunately, the detested “government” might not be some evil ugly monstrous beast, it might be just our neighbors, our fellow citizens, and ourselves.
OK S.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/05/30/memorial-day-2011-americas-finest-hours/
Thanks for this thread Anthony.
There was something that got lost in the publicity of the OBL killing but should be noted on this Memorial Day. Less than one month ago the very last World War I combat vet passed away …
Claude Stanley Choules, the last know WWI combat veteran, dies aged 110. Also see FreeRepublic which has more photos.
A quick look at wiki shows that 65 million soldiers were mobilized. Can you imagine being among the last of 65 million combatants! Absolutely stunning.
Note: there are still two surviving non-combatant veterans remaining alive.
Farewell sailor.
🙁
\____
Pompous Git says: May 30, 2011 at 11:35 am
Thank you for Bader reference, I will read this, looks to be a fine reading.
My girlhood hero[ine] was, and remains, Madame Marie Sklowodska-Curie. Her curiousity, humility, approach to science and perserverance did it for me.
My grand father, an Italian soldier, was a POW in Germany from october, 1943, to april 1945, in a prison camp somewhere near Lipsia.
He was liberated by American soldiers, and returned home in july 1945, bringing home some C rations the GI’s had given to him: that corned beef was the first meat my mother (born in september, 1941) was able to eat, after years of famine during the war.
I just wish to say “THANKS” to all the Americans.
Lady in Red
I watched a 4 year old die of Leukemia when I was 15.Thanks to big pharma,not so many 4 year olds die of leukemia now.
I love big pharma,They are the reason I am able to walk and sit here on my laptop.
Pharma and big oil,love them both.
I sincerely hope you will have the courage to do the right thing by your companion if he regresses.
My little dog will be put down on Saturday morning.Arthritis.Painful as any bone cancer in some cases.
Big pharma has kept him going,for a couple of years,but I’ve promised him no more suffering.
He will have the mind fogging drugs before the needle,aren’t I cruel to want him to be unaware of most of what is happening?
“Uniquely American can-do ingenuity”… really, only American? I wish the US would share some of it’s unique grey matter with us foreigners over here in the global dunces corner.
Good on all of the Allied soldiers everywhere – and their families.
I don’t think we’ve lost anything guys, we just have so much information and so many distractions (and options) we don’t have that group experience we used to have when there were three TV stations and everyone watched the same shows and news broadcasts, no internet, no video games, YouTube, digital cameras, and only a couple new movies a month, etc. You got your social networking by talking to an actual person.
Think about the magic box you are looking at right now and how absolutely mind boggling that would have been in 1969. Or even 1989. Think about how much information you have access too RIGHT NOW. Think about how amazing Google is. The abilty to search hundreds of millions of pieces of information in a fraction of a second. Think about how much more we know about our Universe than we did in 1969 due to Hubble, Chandra, Swift, and the hundreds of other projects undertaken by gov’t agencies and private universities and the masses of data that can be processed becuase of the magic box. 😉
It’s not as glamourous, or daring, for sure, but the first set of photos from Hubble told us more about our world/universe than all the probes and manned missions up to that point. Technology has made science if not risk-free, pretty close. Really think about the technology the average person can afford and have access too in 2011 compared to even 1991. Then 1981. Then 1941. The last 100 years has had mind boggling progress, the last 20 has been blinding. The technology I had growing up in the 1970s was closer to 1911 than 2011.
I think we also need to realize that barring some totally unforseen and earth shattering revelations, interplanetary travel is limited to Mars, and even that is looking near suicidal (although I’m sure volunteers would be no problem). Interstellar travel just ain’t going to happen in a single lifetime. Multi-generational colonization mission… maybe… but man it’s hard to imagine a ship that big and powerful.
K-Man said @ur momisugly May 31, 2011 at 7:40 am
“Uniquely American can-do ingenuity”… really, only American? I wish the US would share some of it’s unique grey matter with us foreigners over here in the global dunces corner.
————————————————
Here’s a few Australian dunces’ inventions:
Boomerang
Didgeridoo
Woomera (the fastest weapon in the world until the invention of the self-loading rifle in the 19th century)
Pre-paid postage
1843 – Grain stripper
1856 – Refrigerator
1858 – Australian rules football
1874 – Underwater torpedo
1876 – Stump jump plough
1877 – Mechanical clippers
1889 – Electric drill
1892 – Coolgardie safe
1894 – Powered flight
1902 – Notepad
1903 – Froth flotation
1906 – Feature films
1906 – Surf life-saving reel
1907 – Thrust bearing
1910 – Humespun pipe-making process
1910 – Dethridge wheel
1912 – Surf ski
1912 – Tank
1912 – Self-Propelled Rotary Hoe
1913 – Automatic totalisator
1928 – Electronic Pacemaker
1930 – Clapperboard
1934 – Coupé utility
1938 – Polocrosse
1940 – Zinc Cream
1943 – Splayd
1948 – Rotary Clothes Line
1952 – Lagerphone
1952 – Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer
1953 – Solar hot water heater
1955 – Distance Measuring Equipment (DME – electronic)
1956 – Pneumatic broadacre air seeder
1957 – Flame ionisation detector
1957 – Wool clothing with a permanent crease
1958 – Black box flight recorder
1960 – Plastic spectacle lenses
1961 – Ultrasound in medicine
1965 – Inflatable aircraft escape slide
1965 – Wine cask
1970 – Staysharp knife
1971 – Variable rack and pinion steering
1972 – Orbital engine
1972 – Instream analysis
1974 – Super Sopper
1978 – Synroc
1979 – Digital sampler
1979 – RaceCam
1979 – Bionic ear
1980 – Dual flush toilet
1980 – Wave-piercing catamaran
1981 – CPAP mask
1983 – Winged Keel
1984 – Frozen embryo baby
1984 – Baby Safety Capsule
1986 – Gene shears
1989 – Polilight forensic lamp
1991 – Buffalo fly trap
1992 – Multi-focal contact lens
1992 – Spray-on skin
1993 – Underwater PC
1995 – EXELGRAM
1995 – Jindalee Radar System
1996 – Anti-flu Medication
2000 – Wi-Fi
2002 – Scramjet
2003 – Blast Glass
Maybe “Uniquely American can-do ingenuity” just sorta, kinda forgot to invent all this stuff 😉