Selected by Extraterrestrials
My life in the top secret world of UFOs.,
think-tanks and Nordic secretaries
William Mills Tompkins
CHAPTER 10
AFTER THE DM-18 LAUNCHES
The night air was weighed down with heat and rippled lazily against the pebbled inland waterway dock. Cliff tried to rub the sweat from his burning eyes. I said, “Cliff, here we are back at the Cape in NASA‘s brand new Complex 37. You are pulled off studies out in Engineering and I am pulled out of the Tank. We are trying to check out our six engine Apollo Saturn S-4 stage in another humid, mosquito-infested, fungus-lined open hangar again.”
“Yes,” Cliff added, “I know it’s new but at least they built this blockhouse above ground. We still have another lousy underground type blockhouse with all the grandsons and granddaughters of those big orange spiders.
“When we finally get our Douglas S-4 control stage checked out in the open hangar, we’ll lift her up with the new erection crane on top of the service tower, and install it on top of the Chrysler 8 engine first stage booster.”
“That’s right, Cliff.”
“Yes, and then the first launch with this configuration will be the Saturn 2 Vehicle, No. SA-5.”
“It will be orbiting a payload that will represent the heaviest weight sent into space by the United States.”
“Yeah,” Cliff added, “A 163.5 ft. high vehicle, total weight will be 37,700 lb.
“All that sounds great, but, remember the impossible time we had trying to get all six of those RL10 engines start switches to turn on at the same time in NASA’s Complex 34 hangar?”
Their wind-blown open hangar, filled with salty sand and moisture, provided literally no protection. Even with the doors closed, the condensation was unbelievable.
“We can’t continue to use A/N (Army and Navy) standard components and expect our manual electronic control units to function reliably.”
“Should be automatic, like our DM-18 missile.”
Bill called our checkout and launch staff together.
“Cliff is back from Santa Monica, said for us to meet him over at our old S-4 hangar,” Rolf said.
Cliff jumped right in, “NASA’s smoking pot again. We finished the study you asked for, Bill.”
“Damn - you were right - there’s no fucking way we can depend on NASA’s specification. The one that guarantees we will be able to restart all six of those RL-10 Engines after separation in orbit to rendezvous with the command module.”
“We can’t even make them all start at the same time down here on the test stand.”
“The complications and reliably of all six RL-10s on our stage is insane.”
“Our guys at Santa Monica have been pushing Rocketdyne to a restart of our DM-18 J-2 engine.”
”Okay, Cliff”, I said. “Don’t let it get out; we’ll add that to our unsolicited proposal back to NASA.”
“Lean over close, you guys, and listen very carefully,” I said.
“Now, you guys all know we are the fourth stage of the proposed five stage Apollo Saturn Moon vehicle; the fifth stage being the lunar lander and command module.”
“Right, Bill,” Cliff added.
“Okay, listen to this very carefully. Suppose we throw out the third Stage of Apollo entirely. Throw out all of NASA’s RL-10 engines on our S-4 Stage and replace them with a single J-2 Rocketdyne engine. It has at least forty percent more thrust than all six of the old RL-10s on our S-4 and the S-3 stages combined. Then force NASA to use the J-2 engines on the North American S-2 Stage.”
“That will make us the third stage of a four-stage Saturn vehicle. Right, Cliff, it will cut down all of those problems of multiple motors not starting in the right sequence and simplify everything. This new Complex 37 is the same as old 34, still trying to checkout and launch sophisticated space vehicles exactly the same way those hard-headed Germans did in 1933 for Hitler. It seems to me that Huntsville engineering’s technical progress curve is flat lately; no protection for sophisticated elements of the vehicles or the GSE. Many times I have suggested to them that we must control the environment from the smallest electronic micro- switch to the entire vehicle stages during every operation.”
“Remember, Cliff, when we were first in engineering? Keep it simple and stupid.”
Bob Demoret always told us to do that. The Germans are damn good in many engineering details, but they are way off base in this systems area.
1 S-IV at Complex 34
LUNAR AND THE EARLY SATURN'S AT PAN AMERICAN FACILITIES.
Kennedy gets permission to go to the Stars; who okayed it? In August 1965, the first successful launch of the Apollo Saturn C-1 Spacecraft, the smallest of the series consisting of an S-1 NASA / Chrysler booster and an S-4 DAC Control Stage and a boilerplate payload, was launched from NASA’s LC-34 Launch Operations Center at Merritt Island Florida. It had been checked out and assembled in the old horizontal hangars at Cape Canaveral.
I’m back at 34,000 feet again, flying back from the Air Force Missile Test Center. At that time it was called Patrick Air Force Base, the Cape Canaveral Missile Test Annex, in Florida. This was the location where NASA had their Complex 34 and 37 built for research, development and launching of the Saturn 1B Apollo vehicles. I remembered my frustration from climbing on and looking over the 340-foot service structure nightmare at Complex 37, shown here.
One of the DAC field engineers was looking over another NASA “J Box” that had failed preparing for a pre-launch. He said: “This one’s fucked up, too.” I agreed and muttered under my breath, “Well, we have our work cut out for us, don’t we?” This checkout service structure was designed to service the Saturn 1B and 2A vehicles out near the launch pad. Another NASA rep had just reminded me that it was also to be used for Apollo V. It’s also supposed to allow research and development changes to remove and install updated hardware. Now, it did have what are called “silo enclosures,” at many levels up to 340 feet. These were like clamshells that come around the vehicle measured in three-story, open-air frames, eighteen feet high. The entire structure looked rickety, as if it was about to fall over with a slight gust of wind. There were also some hurricane enclosures on the lower levels. When closed, even a 35- mile per hour wind gust would penetrate through all the cracks in the enclosures, allowing all of the moisture, sand and dust to get into the electronics.
I remembered a discussion with a mission planner from Huntsville, Alabama during that trip. He grabbed me and asked, “Hey, aren’t you from Douglas?” He seemed to be concerned, “How can we ever get a production launch program implemented?” He believed that much of NASA – as well as the contractors - did not understand that this was not research and development; it was production. Research and development spent years of trying different concepts and approaches to build a successful system. Production was much like Henry Ford and the assembly line. Large numbers of the same equipment for the same purposes. Hey, what did the small print on NASA’s contract really say? It said “production to the moon, mars, planets and the stars in Phase II.” WE KNOW WHAT NASA WANTS BEFORE THEY DO
2 In denial
Unknown to most of us in 1945, the Douglas Aircraft Company was “sole-source selected.” It was given an above top secret RAND contract to study and locate military satellites in earth orbit (unofficially, alien threats). The Advanced Design Section in Engineering was extensively expanded to accommodate this massive problem. The first galactic Think Tank on this planet was formed. This contract provided almost complete access to, and support from, nearly all of the technical individuals and organizations in the U.S. They had the highest, secret clearance, even above the nuclear bomb. This RAND contract thrust Douglas into fantastic, technical programs. They defined the alien threats and researched every possible method and technical task for the people involved in Naval defense and offensive missions. They were methods designed to conceive Naval space missions and battle groups, and to design space vehicles/spacecraft carriers and weapons to combat the alien battle groups. It was to be supported technically by North American Aviation Inc., Northrop Aircraft Company, Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, SRI, MIT and CalTech.
What we knew was dwarfed by all we had to learn.
3 U.S.S. Saratoga CV-3
Thinking back, how did I get here? No, wait a minute, things just don’t happen this way. Yes, your Navy was developing new ways to protect us people back home at a staggering rate. It had only been a few weeks of space-time since the Wright brothers had flown their fabric-covered, winged plane. Nobody had accomplished that feat in 300,000 years on this planet, at the start of homo sapiens. Here the Navy was, already tossing that fabric out for another new metal; they called it aluminum, only last week.
Congress had authorized the conversion of the Navy collier Jupiter into an experimental aircraft carrier. No home should be without one of those, right? That’s a big ocean out there; in fact, the planet has got a hell of a lot of ocean. The Navy really needs a ship to fly off of. All kidding aside, U.S.S. Langley CV-1 had become the world’s first full-length flight deck aircraft carrier. At the same time, two high performance battle cruisers were at the preliminary construction stage. The two Lexington class unfinished battle cruisers were completed as aircraft carriers and formed the basis of the ship-based Naval Air Force.
For many years Lexington and Saratoga were two of the largest warships in the world. An enormous step forward was accomplished in the accommodation of ninety aircraft compared to Langley’s twenty-four. All ninety aircraft could be parked on the aft flight deck (that’s the back, for all you nice land-lovers), leaving ample space for unassisted take-offs.
The Navy’s Pacific Fleet had just been stationed at Long Beach. On Saturdays my Dad drove my older brother and I down from Hollywood to the Long Beach Navy Loading Docks where civilians were allowed to board the Navy launches (boats). We rode out to the destroyers, cruisers, battleships and the two aircraft carriers: U.S.S. Lexington CV-2 and U.S.S. Saratoga CV-3, all anchored inside the new Long Beach breakwater.
It was a cold January morning in 1937. The ride out to the ships was always fun, but coming alongside the 888-foot-long aircraft carrier U.S.S. Saratoga, with its seven story high, smooth hull, was absolutely the most impressive sight ever seen by a little kid like me. This is like a 900-foot- long, ninety story building floating above our little boat, bobbing up and down in the windswept, rough, white-cap water spray. The wind was blowing hard and the water was rough. Even inside the breakwater our boat moved up and down in the swells. We had to jump when the swell pushed us to the top of the swell. We had to climb out of our boat onto a 4x4, wet platform. Then, we had to climb a narrow, steep, four-story high outside staircase (the Navy calls them ladders) to another four-foot-square platform, to enter a small, open, watertight door (they call them hatches) on the outside of the ship’s hull, still in the cold wind.
Now, we were inside out of the wind, with an absolutely wonderful warm feeling of being completely surrounded in an enormous solid structure, one that, in my mind, could easily move up and out into space just like Flash Gordon’s spaceship in the Sunday newspaper. Only this was a real Navy aircraft carrier. We climbed up several more ladders to the enormous hangar deck that had many bright silver aircraft, with two wings that were covered with yellow cloth, and soon to be replaced by newer, allmetal aircraft.
Back in the cold wind again, we walked aft from the massive very long seven story-high and funnel (smokestack) structure. We passed more carrier aircraft to the first of the big, five-inch anti-aircraft guns that were located over the side of the flight deck, one deck down. The Sara, as the Navy refers to her, is a massive ship, about which I read all I could in the library, before making scale-drawings and a model. The ship had eight 8-inch guns mounted in four turrets, two forward of the bridge and two aft of the ten story high smoke stack - the largest ever built - and twelve, 5-inch classified AA (anti-aircraft) guns in gun mounts, six forward and six aft.
Back in 1931, the first arrestor system was installed on the flight deck, with eight steel wires stretched across the aft deck. As newer, heavier types of aircraft were introduced, the number and spacing of wires changed and became classified. In my devious little mind I was looking for a method to locate the hooked aircraft flight deck arresting wires that stop the aircraft when landing (so I could add them to my model of the U.S.S. Saratoga). Looking on the aft deck I found the furthest forward arresting wire mounted about ten feet forward of the aft five-inch AA’s mounts. I then walked aft and found that there were six arresting wires, spaced sixteen apart. “Hot dog!” I got it. I wrote the dimensions onto a small sheet of paper and proceeded to look for other equipment, like the location five-inch AA guns, range finders, and the big steam-powered catapult. I was not sure of its location or size. Then there was this massive radar shadow on the flight deck that was easy to walk off and get an accurate size for my model. There was no electric catapult; it was removed in 1931, having been replaced, later, by two hydraulic or steam catapults.
All fifty-three of my first Navy ship models were built to the latest ship configuration of that time. The Saratoga was no exception, necessitating that I continue to study the latest armament and aircraft then available and build them before the model was completed.
The U.S.S. Saratoga was a very large ship. It made a tremendous impression on this little boy. Not just because of its size, but because of what it could actually accomplish in a war. It became the largest ship in my collection, and the vehicle that put me in Navy Intelligence for four years.
CHAPTER 11
LOST TIME AT WALKER PASS
I took over the task of defining the Saturn upper fourth stage check and launch test operations. Reviewing our tasks with Cliff and Bob, I said, “Now, you guys know I am unclear as to why I have been driven to always wear a white shirt and tie in engineering. But I have. And it was not to look like a big shot. I traded my Ford in for a nine-month-old Cadillac, too. You guys know a Cad is what the President rode in, right? I have done this since early in my career in engineering at Douglas.”
This thing of buying a nearly new Cad every two to three years continued for my entire professional career. The Cads are infinitely important; having one handy almost every month, to assist the Admirals to and from the airport, gave me time to present a totally different concept to their threat problems. Like army general Gates, whom I picked up at airport back on the NIKE ZEUS Program. He said he was amazed at the depth of our knowledge of threats to his mission. Well, it was the Moon and planets program now. So, we went back to Wilshire Motors in Beverly Hills, where I acquired a ninemonth old Cad that some big money man had turned in. As usual, it carried a three-year warranty. My wife, Mary, and I had rented a cabin in the fall for a three-day weekend up in the Kern County Mountains. We left Woodland Hills, in the San Fernando Valley, with our three kids and headed out to Highway 14. We usually took that route to drive up to Lake Tahoe in the summer. We passed the secret desert Edwards Air Force Base and on north to the intersection of Highway 14 and 395, which is the entry-point to the enormous, classified China Lake Naval Weapons Center. I did a great deal of advanced weapons research there when I was in the Navy.
At that junction we turned west up in to the Sequoia National Forest, up Highway 178 towards Walker Pass. We reached Walker Pass at 11:45 pm and it was very cold. Before we were able to actually go over the summit, an enormous light appeared on the other side of the pass. It was even brighter than the sun. It continued to brighten up from the deep valley, past the other side. It wasn’t just daylight, because everything on our side was shadowed. All of the trees, rocks, mountains and crevices were lit up from the other side of Walker Pass. My brand new, bright and shiny ElDorado sedan stopped. The engine quit, the headlights went off, the radio turned off, and, unfortunately, the heater went off as well. It was extremely cold. The kids woke up and we all started covering ourselves with extra blankets, which we fortunately had on the back seats.
Four to five minutes later, the radio and the lights came on. I turned the switch again and the engine started and the blasted heater came on. Surprisingly enough the enormous light source started to dissipate. Then it was gone. We drove the rest of the way, down the pass, through the valley, and up to the cabin that we had rented. We all felt exasperatingly tired. We put the kids in the bunk beds and went to sleep. We spent our three days enjoying the atmosphere. The kids had a ball. We drove back home Monday evening. Well, you guys guessed it: I called the Cadillac agency on Tuesday and made an appointment that afternoon to have the car’s electrical system checked. This particular Cadillac agency is one of the largest in the country, with the most sophisticated testing. They gave me a new loaner, which I had for the rest of the week. They called me the next Friday. They said that my car was ready and detailed and that there was nothing wrong with the car. I drove the new one over to pick up our car. I discussed what had happened at Walker Pass in an attempt to establish that there must have been a loose wire or something. I talked to the vice-president of the service managers. He was puzzled about my problem with the car and called all three effective service managers. They all assured me that there was absolutely nothing wrong with my new Cadillac. I then realized that this was a classic vehicle abduction. I know that we should have looked at our clocks and checked our time. We were so tired that we didn’t. It is known, now, that in a normal vehicle abduction we could have been gone for two to four hours, rather than just minutes. What effect this had on all five of us, we really didn’t know.
1 Early Apollo
FIRST SATURN C-I EARLY SUMMARY
The Apollo Saturn C-1 Spacecraft, was the smallest of the series, consisting of an S-1 NASA/Chrysler booster, an S-4 DAC control and a boilerplate payload. It would be launched from NASA’s LC-34 Launch Operations Center Merritt Island, Florida. All work in this rough configuration would be checked out and assembled in the old open horizontal hangars at Cape Canaveral.
The proposed Apollo Saturn V (C-5) Moon Vehicle will be nearly 400 foot high in its vertical launch configuration. It will consist of the Boeing 5 engine S-IC first stage, Interstage I, North American 4-engine S-II second stage, Douglas S-IVB third stage, Interstage II and the Apollo Lunar/Command Module, containing the Lunar Landing Module and the returning astronaut capsule.
2 Six-foot broad shoulders
Cliff Noland, that brilliant six-foot, broad-shouldered, hunk that I was fortunate enough to have as my Apollo senior section supervisor, would continually come up with suggestions for major design problems nearly as quickly as Jessica. Sometimes it was uncanny. With a wide smile he would walk into the review meeting conference room late, half full of Section Chief’s secretaries.
Jessica said, “With those big blue eyes he looks straight into every girl’s eyes in the room and literally strips them naked.” Each lady would start fingering her hair and cross and uncross her legs, controlling the meeting. Cliff always had the latest style sport jacket, dress shirt, classic design tie, and sharp creases in his slacks, with dress leather boots or shoes.
“Oh, you noticed those things too, Jessica,” I said.
“Well, yes, I think he is cute, but don’t tell him that I said so, Bill.”
3 Complex 34 - terrestrial
In August 1965, we accomplished the first successful launch of the Apollo Saturn C-1 spacecraft, the smallest of the series. It consisted of an S-1 NASA / Chrysler booster and an S-4 Douglas Control Stage and boilerplate confutation payload. It was launched from NASA’s LC-34 Launch Operations Center at Merritt Island, Florida. It had been checked out and assembled in the old horizontal hangars at Cape Canaveral
4 Problems on the Tower
NASA’S EARLY PLANS FOR THE HEAVY MOON VEHICLE AND THE CONFUSINGLY DEFINED CONTRACTS
NASA’s early plan for the Complex 39 Assembly was to use the Complex 37 Tower to assemble and check out on the launcher the Saturn vehicles. What they were going to do was to close in the entire service structure with sheet metal. However, when I discussed that concept with the Air Force’s meteorologists they felt that, because the tower was on wheels, it would not be sustainable in hurricanes. The NASA guys had not resolved this problem of ensuring smooth operation of the tower under unusual conditions.
5 Girl on Complex 37
A few days after another NASA Saturn C-2 failed to launch, Kirk Swanson and I were examining the Complex 37 service tower. We were on a lower level, about 120 feet up. Suddenly, we were distracted by the sound that high-heels make on steel, scaffolding steps. We noticed a girl walking towards us into the enclosed structure. She proceeded to speak, “I suggest that you do your homework. The approach that you are using needs to be conducted in an entirely different manner.”
The air was freezing; both Kirk and I were wearing heavy flight jackets and shivering. She was dressed in a flimsy mini-skirt that revealed everything when the wind blew through all the separations of the sheet metal enclosure. It was hard not to stare. She proceeded, argumentatively: “These operations should be conducted in a white room.”
Kirk then muttered to me: “Who the hell does she think she is?”
He then exclaimed to her, “Back off lady. That’s why we’re here. To correct the electrical problems.” Not saying another word, she made a 180 and walked off. Instead of using the elevator, she started to walk down the stairs. We finished our assessment in another ten minutes and went down the elevator.
On our way down Kirk said to me, “When we get down I’m going to give that hot piece of tail a piece of my mind, and maybe something else if she’s lucky.”
When we arrived on the ground floor we stopped by some of our crew. Kirk asked them, “So, what happened to that girl with a mini skirt and an attitude?”
One of the crewmen replied, “We haven’t seen anybody but you guys go up this morning.”
With numerous problems unresolved, I didn’t think anything about it; I almost forgot the incident until a few days later. Kirk and I were working in one of the Complex 37 blockhouses. I asked him, “Hey, did you ever talk to that girl on the tower again?”
He looked perplexed and said, “What girl?”
I tried to explain the scenario again, but he had no interest in the subject, so I dropped it. Still, as it lingered in the back of my mind, I wondered about these extremely good looking star girls who seemed to know even more than us. Why did they show up out of nowhere, give us a few bits of advice on how to do our jobs, and then leave just as mysteriously?
Later again, at Complex 37, I was standing 300 feet in the air on a rickety platform with the wind blowing, and thinking how difficult it must be trying to install electronic components under these conditions. The sad thing is that half the time we didn’t even have the right wires or connecters. We had to hike down the stairs, drive over to the Douglas field component storage, locate the parts, then return back up the original platform and see if this one would fit and solve the problem.
Kirk said, “Look at the photos; this structure, like everything back in those days, was filthy. There was obviously insufficient light for even minimum service at night. Black, dirty, boilerplate. H-sections, steel beams supporting the entire structure and it resembled a grungy steel mill.”
The people at NASA were planning on using all of these old, dirty complex facilities to check out and launch all of the early Apollo vehicles, even into the early production program.
Even Fred Durham, my Atlantic Missile Range supervisor (AMR), said these people were insane; it was never going to work. An absolutely driven sensation came over me while looking into the faces of the NASA engineers. We needed to do everything in a white room. All of the electronic components necessitated a sterile environment as clean as an operating room - much like my uncle, Doctor Harding showed me at Santa Monica Hospital when I was a kid. We had to isolate the entire service and assembly areas around the vehicles. Not just from dust and sand, but also from EMI (electromagnetic interference).
6 L – Shaped module
The purpose of all of this was to create a reliable production launch program from the start of assembly and through to launch countdown, and without any holds. This meant no more working on electronics in open hangars and on open service towers. We needed stage vertical check out and assembly in air conditioned buildings.
So, back in Santa Monica Douglas engineering, with a copy in my hand of the Air Force’s Complex 37 definitive isometric service structure, I proceeded to present my own thoughts and concept to my section supervisors and senior staff at a special design meeting that I called.
“If you would look at the layout of the service structures you can see that we need to provide a closed environment for all phases of operation at the Cape.”
Cliff Noland said, “I know what you’re going to say, Bill. You want to recommend the use of your vertical assembly, L-shaped Module.” This is shown clearly in the nearby figure. To the right is the author’s design for a contemporary printed circuit card installation that eliminated eighty-seven percent of the electrical contacts.
Then I replied, “Cliff you’re absolutely right; you know where I’m going with this.”
I pulled out my “L-shaped module” vertical assembly drawing, checked out the designs, and spread them out for all to review. They included the theater system control concept.
Henry Slater exclaimed, “We can use your console and package design from the DM 20 missile program. Hell, we’re in production of those now, over 6000 and counting. We’ll also go with your EMI isolated floors.”
The first L-shaped module is our engineering system integrating building, under construction at our massive new production center in Huntington Beach. I made certain that this center would be designed on a modular basis, to accept change for operations through 1983.
I flew back to LAX on a United DC-7. This was after successfully managing another complete checkout, countdown and launch of a WS-315 THOR Test Missile. It was undertaken at the Air Force launch Complex 32 Launch Operations Center, at Cape Canaveral Missile Test Annex, Florida. I personally pressed the red firing button, rocketing it out over the test range to- precisely the center of the target. I was contemplating the magnitude of the anticipated NASA Mission to the Moon, with the seat rolled back. Not being a drinker normally, I had a vodka gimlet in one hand, while I discussed our technical penetration into deep space with a Douglas Vice President. I had been talking to him for about ten minutes when I realized that he had absolutely no idea what the hell I was saying. I could have said the same thing to the show salesmen sitting in front of us and they would have understood more. I felt totally alone, flying at 28,000 feet, realizing how few people on this airplane - or for that matter, in the entire Douglas plant - had any concept of the fantastic mission we were about to embark on.
Did the United States have any concept of the fantastic mission we were about to embark on?
We would be working with an industry completely made up of inexperienced major and subcontractors. They would not only be changing every department in Douglas, they would be changing the 400,000 employees that were supposed to support these fantastic Moon, planetary, and star missions. The development concept for a production operation of a program this complicated could only be successful if we proceeded by utilizing the new Air Force 375 System Engineering Management Program again, based on our old Douglas missile functional-flow-block diagrams. We at Douglas Engineering should have been the principal systems engineers on the entire Apollo Program. That 375 had to be recommended and accepted by NASA - vulnerable, confused, and desperately in need of direction – meant it was time for me to utilize the competent design of my design section.
After the successful launch of the Air Force WS-315 IRBM Missile Program, Stanley Paterson, Engineering Vice President, promoted me again, this time to Engineering Section Chief. I got my “short badge,” a symbol of management. Paterson and some of the other top corporate managers were very pleased with the way I had designed the most advanced ballistic missile weapon test, checkout, and launch system. As well as the way I had reverse-engineered elements of the German V-2 mobile launch equipment, and then presented it in the final Interim Operating Capability (IOC), thus selling the weapon system. Utilizing my system engineering knowledge from the concept phase, definition phase, acquisition phase, to operation phase provided me with an incredible understanding of the entire weapons system. This allowed me not only to brief the top AF managers, but also to detail virtually every operation of the entire weapon system. My precise understanding of what needed to be accomplished by DAC, coupled with my ability to redefine the entire program and clearly present it to engineering (and later the Air Force) proved to be instrumental in the success of this program. I had presented it in a way that they would be willing to accept the concepts of a far greater weapon system capability, one that would ensure much smaller cost to the Government.
7 Different approach
In yet another staff meeting of my design section, we were waiting for a telephone call from NASA. It was with regard to a question we had about the electrical power on complex 34. Silence prevailed as we waited. We were angered that these flights down to the Cape to solve problems on Complex 34 and 37 were pushing the program up and down like a rubber ball. This head-in-the sand-attitude was driving us crazy. Many of my engineers remember being in the dust of those old hangars at White Sands Army / Navy Missile Test Range and the dirty old Air Force concrete missile block houses and the Launch Pads LC-17 and LC-17-B. Specifically, the ones at the Atlantic Missile Range, and the Test Centers at Point Mugu Naval Missile Range with the bugs, scorpions and mold infesting our electronics. All my staff agreed that we needed to take a different approach this time; using the old German V-2s and boiler plate methods would never let us get to the Moon and other planets.
CHAPTER 12
REPTILIANS IN MANUFACTURING
Douglas Manufacturing continued to buy obsolete test equipment for their final production test and ‘buy– off’ for their S-V Stage systems. They did not want to utilize our engineering specifications. (At that time, Manufacturing ran Douglas). The empire-building within the Douglas organizations was unbelievable. We in Engineering had that same type of manufacturing problem on the Air Force 315-A Missile and the Army’s NIKE ZEUS anti-missile programs.
It is difficult to understand the magnitude of the problem that I was faced with, having nine major companies and 14,000 subcontractors on the Apollo program, all with the same internal manufacturing management and contracting problems. The magnitude of the quality-control functions produced the most complicated technical challenge ever attempted by man on this planet. There was no way it was going to work.
Before an informal classified Engineering/Manufacturing S-IVB proposed systems production checkout review with my guys, at the old assembly manufacturing line electronic checkout and test area, Henry Slater said, “Those two guys, they look like Jessica’s Brothers. Bill, look at their eyes: they have that Zombie look.”
I said, “Don’t look at their eyes.”
Cliff said, “Yes, but I thought aliens only came in girls.”
The two of them looked up as they approached and then glanced away.
I responded again, “Don’t look into their eyes.”
“Knock it off you guys; that’s the VP of Manufacturing with them,” Ed added, nodding.
“This is a tight security area, I know the entire top manufacturing people and I never saw them. Those must be subcontractors that Assembly used on NIKE ZEUS,” Jim said.
“Damn, we don’t want those kinds in our discussion now.”
Jim gave a knowing glance, “They’re not human; those guys seem evil to me, and that tall one gives me the creeps.”
I nodded, “They’re looking at us. Hey, this whole thing seems weird. And where is the Manufacturing VP’s two department heads? He never goes outside without big gun protection.”
“What are they doing here?” Bob asked.
“I have no idea,” Rick said.
I added, “It would take much too long to explain, but those two are not human.”
“What do we do,” Bob asked.
“We confront them,” I responded.
“Here they all come, but where did those two Zombies go?” Bob whispered.
I said, “They disappeared. Back off: manufacturing wants to start the meeting.”
After the meeting was over, Bud said, “Bill, what’s going on?”
“Drinks at Carol’s place at six thirty - the cocktail lounge near LAX-and I’ll fill you in.”
“The meeting didn’t go as well as we expected, but it’s a start.”
Ed said, “I understand Manufacturing using those thugs from Cicero to back him up, but if Jessica is on our side, then who the fuck were those aliens guys that looked just like us before the meeting?
“Well just as they disappeared, both of them turned into reptilians - the tall one with no sound yelled back, his face twisted with hate, while the other one appeared to hiss.”
“Yes, Bill, for just a moment I think the tall one clawed at us too.”
“Did you see their grotesque-looking feet?” Dan chimed in.
“I have been trying to get in Jessica’s sister Crystal’s panties for months. I know she and Jessica are helping us. But I am confused, who were those two other alien guys?” Bob asked.
“Yes we all know, Dan, that you are easily confused. But, this time, we all are. And no, you aren’t going to get Crystal’s panties down, bragging to her that you have ten inches. She and Jessica are smarter than all of us.”
I said, “Remember what Ralph Malone said: ‘We are dealing with far more than just company politics.’ I am saying that we must realize the potential consequences of different aliens, some with white hats and some with black hats. Complicating it even more, they - the extraterrestrials - have different agendas. What is their eventual influence on are Apollo Moon missions?”
I was convinced I had to take drastic action. I was fortunate in my space checkout and Launch Test System Design Section to have 140 top thinking engineers who were willing to implement totally different design concepts that I came up with: to redesign the Apollo Moon Program. During an Apollo Section briefing I said, “Read my method to sell a new concept to Douglas management and to the customer. After extensive studying and exposure to the problem, I first define the mission, conceive a method to accomplish it and establish its configuration. Then prepare two trade-off studies, systematically select out of the three an approach that is most likely to meet all the mission requirements. Lay out the design; prepare specifications/reports that define all considerations. Prepare physical perspective drawings, build three dimensional scale models and design well-supported drawings and photographic documentation supporting my proposals. I then recommend to engineering management that we go with an unsolicited proposal package to engineering management and acquire approval.”
After extensive Studies I did precisely that and created the then two famous Douglas documents PURPOSE and REPORT SM-42107, dated August 1962 and showing the approval page with my signature.
1 S-IV at Launch Complex 34
Here we are again out of the Tank, back at the Cape trying to launch our small Apollo six-engine S-IVB Second stage on top of NASA’s Chrysler booster. This time it’s from another underground concrete block house at Complex 34. I asked Cliff Noland; “Do you remember all the time we spent twenty meters under the sand trying to fire our old DM-18 missiles?”
“I certainly do Bill. Somehow it seems like this is just as bad now under NASA as it was way back then in 1955.”
“How do you mean, the same?”
“Oh, come off it, Bill. You know it’s the same stupid blockhouses with this humid, slimy, green stuff all over the walls and floor, same cobwebs and, oh yes, the same big brown ‘n’ black spiders.”
“You forgot the water moccasins crawling into our launch control consoles.”
“Only just kidding you, Cliff, but we got almost the same launch team now as we had back then.”
“I remember we had beaten out von Braun’s German V-2 Rocket cronies at Redstone Arsenal at Huntsville, Alabama."
"Remember we won the production contract on The Air Force’s Intermediate 2,400 mile Range Ballistic Missile Program. Our Douglas DM-18 Thor Missile and mobile launch system was an order of magnitude beyond anything the Huntsville team could come up with.”
“That’s right Bill. As the assistant group engineer on the DM-18 test systems, you were responsible for managing the launch test program and overseeing the launch crews and that included me.”
The test programs were conducted at the Air Force’s Test Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Our DM-18 2347s were located on Launch Complex Pad 17 B, near the center of Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) Row, for three weeks. Our Igloo-shaped blockhouse was 230 meters from the launch pad. It was 3.2 meters thick at the base, with twelve meters of sand on top. The visual from above appeared to be just a small dune of sand.
2 S-IV at Complex 37
I said, “Here we are, pulled out of AD, and again back at the Cape in NASA‘s brand new Complex 37, trying to check out our six engine Apollo Saturn S-4 stage in another humid, mosquito-infested fungus lined open hangar.”
“Yes,” Cliff added. “I know the checkout and assembly building is brand new but we still have another lousy underground blockhouse with all the grandsons and granddaughters of those big orange spiders.”
“When we finally get her checked out, our Douglas S-4 control stage will be lifted up by the new erection and service tower on top of the Chrysler 8 engine first stage booster.”
“That’s right Cliff.”
“Yes, and then the first mission with this configuration will be the Saturn 2 Vehicle, Mission No. SA-5.”
“That could take years at the rate NASA is trying get their Chrysler first to fire. It will be orbiting a payload that will represent the heaviest weight sent into space by the United States.”
“Yes,” Cliff added. “A total weight to be lifted by the 163.5 ft. high vehicle will be 37,700 lb.”
“All that sounds great but remember the impossible time we have had trying to get all six of those RL-10 engines start switches to turn on at the same time in NASA’s Complex 34?”
Their open hangar, windblown, salty sand and moisture provided literally no protection. Even with closing the doors the condensation was “unlivable.”
“We can’t continue to use Army/Navy surplus components and expect our manual electronic control units to function reliably. Should be automatic too, like our DM-18 missile.”
Bill called our checkout and launch staff together.
“Cliff is back from Santa Monica, said for us to meet him over at our old S-4 hangar,” Rolf said.
“Cliff jumped right in NASA, smoking pot again. We finished the study you asked for Bill.” “Damn, you were right. There’s no fucking way we can depend on NASA’s specifications. The one that guarantees we will be able to restart all six of those RL-10 Engines in orbit to rendezvous with the command module.”
“We can’t even make them all start at the same time down here on the test stand.”
“The complications and reliability of all six RL-10 on our stage is insane.”
“Our guys at Santa Monica have been pushing Rocketdyne to provide restart capability of our DM-18 J-2 engine.”
“Okay Cliff,” I said. “Don’t let it get out, but we will add that to our unsolicited proposal back to NASA.”
“Lean over close, you guys, and listen very carefully,” I said. "Now you all know we are the fourth stage of the proposed five stage Apollo Saturn Moon vehicle; the fifth stage being the lunar lander and command module.”
“Right, Bill,” Cliff added.
“Okay, listen to this very carefully. Suppose we throw out the third stage of Apollo entirely. Throw out all of NASA’s RL-10 engines on our S-4 Stage and replace them with a single J-2 Rocketdyne engine. It has at least thirty percent more thrust than all six of the old RL-10s on our S-4 and the S-3 Stages combined. Then force NASA to use the J-2 engines on the North American S-2 Stage.”
“I’ll buy that.”
“It will make us the third Stage of a four Stage Saturn Vehicle. Right, Cliff, it will cut down all of those problems of movable motors not starting in the right sequence and simplify everything. This new Complex 37 is the same as 34, still trying to launch sophisticated space vehicles exactly the same way those hard-headed Germans did in 1933 for Hitler. It seems to me that Huntsville engineering technical progress curve is flat lately - no protection for sophisticated elements of the vehicles and ground support equipment. As many times as I have suggested to them that we must control the environment from the smallest electronic micro witch to the entire vehicle stages during every operation – they still don’t get it.”
“Remember, Cliff? When we were first in engineering? Keep it simple and stupid. Bob Demoret always told us to do that. The Germans are damn good in many engineering details, but are way off base in this area. We have got to completely redesign every function in the Apollo operation. That means, not just the Moon Saturn V vehicles. We have got to also redesign every operational facility required for manufacturing, test and launch, or we will never get to the Moon, let alone the solar planets and our twelve closest stars.”
3 Jessica plunged down the steps
(I wasn’t there but back then I saw the whole event in one of my flashes and in full color. My psychic perception was absolutely real.) OK Girl, settle down? Back off; Come on now just quiet down. Remember who you really are? First of all it’s 1960 “their time.” Whose time? “Their time, you little bitch, their time! Oh for Gods sakes Samantha; you are Jessica; it’s 1960; you are way out on the southwest arm of quadrant 27 of their galaxy.
Who’s galaxy? The one they call the Milky Way Galaxy. Who the fuck are you? I am your boss, lady. I thought Billy is my boss? I am your Commander; what star? What planet? Now you are coming around it’s their star that they call their Sun.
Samantha; you are Jessica now; on Earth their third planet out; remember? Well, now I seem to? It’s clearing up a little now. Good. You are Lieutenant Samantha Erickson of the Nordic Galactic Navy, NAVSPACE 1239 Reagan.
You have been assigned a mission to pull those Earth people up technically. Specifically, to educate some of them, that asshole Tompkins for one. Samantha you are supposed to fill the other 99 percent of his unused brain with the capability to conceive starships; like our Andromeda class spacecraft carriers. Get them to build them. Then join our Naval Battle Group Forces; help us with the reptilian problems.
Samantha – no I mean Jessica – you are William Tompkins’ secretary in their Douglas Aircraft Company Space Division in Santa Monica California USA. You tripped; fell down on those dumb 2 x 8 - foot wooden stairs in their converted hanger. Some of them are so dumb. They just built that hanger way too close to their runway. Then they converted it into a classified engineering building for 500 designers. The second floor where you and Tompkins work is full of splinters like the steps you tripped on.
“But sir, those big splinters stuck in my open-toe four inch-high heels. Stop whining Samantha – I mean Jessica – you’re 2,000 of our years old. That’s 18 of their years. You’re just an f—g teenager; they’re still using some guy’s foot to measure with. I don’t know how they’re going to accomplish getting off their planet without a metric type measuring system” “Billy is not an asshole; he is very nice to me.”
That’s Jessica she hit her head. Tompkins Secretary. Are you OK honey? He put one arm around her tiny waist; the other on her little bottom.
Somebody is fingering my ass; here, let me help too, she heard another guy say. I’ll take her legs lifting her up. Boy; look at those legs, they are gorgeous. I know I wait at the bottom of the stairs every day to watch her come down to the blueprint files. Me too; she is in one of those real short skirts. Oh, my God, look at her panties they’re just elastic strings; I know my hand is on her bare little cheeks. That’s my hand you’re touching another voice said. I think she is coming out of it. Should we carry her over to the dispensary? I don’t think so; somebody else said no! Just set her down in that chair. I am not taking her out of my arms; never! Come on guys set her down she is waking up now . . . Hi guys what happened?
👽 👽 👽
The author says the previous event took place and he saw it in his mind many months later as a “flash.” –Ed.
4 UFO over Douglas
“How would John Wayne handle this?” Max Stanley thought. He’d chosen it, my job, for the atmosphere. Bullshit. He was doing it because he liked it. His jacket seemed lousy; he’d fix it later. There was no time now, but he didn’t like this part. It would be okay; he got the thumbs up.
Max was sitting twenty feet above the ground, in the top-floor office of a massive, silver…thing. The downstairs office was jammed to the ceiling with eight electric instrumentation clusters. Just one man was required to maintain control of these computerized systems. Another man was supposed to help him actually control the monster they collectively created. At least it was a beautiful morning.
Max stretched his arms. It was always great weather, he thought. That was why they did this stuff out here on the coast. The sun was out, the beach was sparkling; it was twelve o’clock. They should have started at 10:00 a.m., but the first time to do something like this was always delayed.
Max was the chief test pilot at Northrop Aircraft, Hawthorne, California. Sitting in his aircraft’s bubble canopy, he remembered all the times he’d driven the taxi runs at maximum speed. At the last minute, he would call reverse thrust, but these GE’s didn’t have reverse thrust capability, so he would cut the engines, jam on the brakes, and screech up to the damn fence, burning off half the rubber on his tires as he did so.
There’s the thumbs up, he thought. He nodded. “Here goes.”
“Full thrust on all eight engines,” he called to Pete, the flight engineer. The giant machine started to roll, roaring as the plane took off down the short runway. He swatted at the thoughts banging around inside his head. He wished those maintenance guys had pulled down that chain-link fence at the end of the runway.
He remembered flying the Lockheed F-80 single-engine jet fighter. It had the same GE engine, but this huge flying machine had 8 of them, at 100-times the weight. Max wished GE would deliver on their high-thrust engines. Maybe it won’t ever give that thrust. Why can’t we use Pratt and Whitney’s jets? They’re more reliable.
“Hey Pete, come on!” Max yelled over the noise. “I need full thrust.”
“I already have full thrust on all eight engines,” Pete responded.
As Max’s speed increased, the noise sounded like he was stepping on a thousand tin cans. The vibration from the uneven concrete runway was deafening, and it bent the aluminum skin on the outer wing panels. Max had never heard a sound like this before. He wondered what the difference was. His intercom headset was basically useless.
In the back seat, co-pilot Ted was counting. He yelled, “We’re at 120. We need 138 to lift off. There’s no time left. Pull back on the stick, Max; pull up now or we’re going to hit the fence. Pull up, pull up, pull up!”
Max pulled back on the stick at the last second. “We’re clear? We’re clear!” Ted called. “We have another massive X B-49 experimental flying wing bomber in the air.”
“Damn it, Pete, give me more power,” Max hollered. “We’re going to stall the son-of-a-bitch.”
“Numbers seven and eight are only at sixty-percent RPM. That’s all I’ve got,” Pete yelled back, over the roar of the engines.
“Get the fucking gear up, Ted,” Max called. “It’s a bomber, not a fighter.”
“The engines are way underpowered,” Ted yelled to Max. “Go between those eucalyptus trees.”
“Can’t bank now. The wingtip will hit those telephone wires. I’m going straight through them!”
“Don’t do that,” yelled Pete. “The leaves will plug your engine air intakes.”
“Oh shit! We’re going down!” The main landing tires clipped the top of the trees with a swish and a bang.
“Hey, we made it!” “I got the gear up,” said Ted.
“Piece of cake,” Max added.
“That’s okay for you,” Pete returned, “but I’m going to have to clean up my messy seat down here.”
“Oh ye of little faith,” Max replied, sweating. “This is the most advanced aircraft on the planet, but it doesn’t have enough power to keep itself in the air. I’m cutting over to the ocean, shorten the flight test plan, get us over Redondo Beach, then up past Santa Monica. I’ll see if I can climb the Santa Monica Mountains to the runway at Edwards AF Base Test Center.”
Then he said to Ted, “You take it now. I’m going to raise the starboard trim tabs to give me more rudder.”
“Can’t do that, Max,” said Ted. “We don’t have a tail or a rudder. And if you didn’t notice, we don’t even have a fuselage.”
“Okay, you fucking asshole, I mean the elevator. Of course, I noticed that manufacturing forgot to put a tail on this wing. Do I have to think of everything?”
“Hey Max,” Ted replied, “We’re still too low. Did you see that girl in the pool?”
“Nope. Was she cute?”
“Nude, I’d say.”
“Want me to turn around and drop down for a real close inspection?”
“Hey, guys,” Pete said, “This is serious. We had you take off with limited fuel in order to minimize the weight.”
“What’s new?” Max rolled his eyes.
“I don’t think we can make it to Edwards on low thrust with two engines and limited power,” said Ted.
“Why don’t we set down at Santa Monica airport? We could watch the beach girls in their bikinis on the way down. There’s a Santa Ana wind now. We could make a straight-on approach from the beach.”
“Can’t do that,” Pete responded. “Douglas has their new engineering building sticking out too close to the runway. You could clip a wing and mess up their pretty white building.”
“Holy shit! What the fuck is that?” Ted yelled. “One of those UFOs; maybe the same ones that cut in and out of our Navy cruise missile test program?”
“No, this one looks like a virtual cone,” said Max. “What the hell is he doing parking in front of us?”
The UFO was flying backwards, at the same speed as the aircraft.
“The cone’s upside down,” Max added, as it zoomed over the top of them.
“He went right behind us!” exclaimed Ted. “I think it’s under us now.”
“No, here he comes, to the front again.”
Back and forth, up and down, the craft zipped all around them.
“If that’s what turns him on.” Max shrugged.
It was flying perfect circles around them. The FAA was not going to like this. Squirming in his seat, Ted asked, “Who is this alien hotshot? He must be from a different extraterrestrial race. Are they the ones who fucked up our entire Navy missile flight test program?”
“No,” said Max. “Those aliens have already photographed everything we can possible accomplish with an airplane or missile. I hope Bill Conway records all of this on his F-80 chase plane gun camera, because nobody is going to believe it, otherwise.”
At the same time, Roger Thorp, from the Douglas Space Division, was headed for Douglas in the Corporate DC-3 area, with some dignitaries. They were flying right next to the B-49, approaching Santa Monica airport from the south, at a slightly slower speed; they were planning to land. In the XB-49, Max Stanley tried to cover his face. The little alien in the vertical cone continued to fly in literal circles around him, essentially giving him the finger. Max was so embarrassed to be seen like this by his aerospace friends.
“Hey Max,” yelled Pete, “We don’t have enough altitude to get over the mountains.”
“The cone is right under us now,” Ted called.
“Look at your altimeter,” said Pete. “You’re climbing.”
“Something’s pushing us up!” Max exclaimed. “The cone …he’s forcing us to a higher altitude!”
“I’ve lost all the instruments,” said Pete.
“Oh God,” Ted confirmed, “Me too.”
“Lost mine too,” Max added. “I’m cutting inland. That alien guy in the cone isn’t actually touching us; must be some kind of electromagnetism coming from his craft or something. If he keeps pushing us up, we’ll clear the mountains.”
“Clearing now,” Pete announced.
“The cone is on our wing now,” Ted said.
“Get his number and I’ll call his boss and get him a raise,” Max answered.
Most of the Corporate DC-3 executives didn’t know enough about experimental aircraft to understand what they had just seen. But dear old Roger Thorp did. He knew what he’d seen was astounding. He only told the story to four people at Douglas: his trusted secretary, Molly, with whom he dictated a classified memorandum of the UFO sighting to me with copies to Elmer Wheaton and Dr. Klemperer, who was also in the DAC engineering Think Tank.
Down below, the girls were laying out their blankets on the warm beach sand. Sharon Collins adjusted her purple string bikini. She loved the look on Andy’s face last week when she had slipped out of her beach wrap.
“You’re really hot!” hollered her friend Jenny.
“Hey, look at that!” Sharon didn’t turn. Jenny was probably foaming at the mouth again at another muscle-headed jock with a hard on.
“Get up!” Jenny yelled. “There are three of them! Sharon, look up!”
Hearing an aircraft, Sharon turned.
“They’re sure close,” said Jenny. “That’s Northrop’s flying wing bomber. The other one is a Douglas DC-3 airliner. I know, because Andy is an engineer at Douglas. He’s been telling me about the big wing. Oh my God! What’s that small one, circling them?”
“Gosh,” said Sharon, “they sure are low. And slow.”
“Andy told me that the wing is a jet,” continued Jenny. “Oh, look at that! What do you think is going on?”
“Don’t jets go fast?” asked Sharon. “They look like they’re standing still.”
Everybody on the beach was watching. “Can you still see them?” she shouted.
“I think they went behind the hotel. No, I see them!”
The little guy had gone under the big wing. It looked like he had locked on for a ride. The next day Andy, a part-timer in Advanced Design, told me what his girlfriend Sharon had witnessed. I decided that I was going to investigate her the following afternoon. Yes she confirmed everything Andy had told me. This is an amazing event.
5 Aircraft carrier cruise
1956 Spacecraft carrier concepts, the Aircraft Carrier Cruise and Combat Information Center study contract.
During the design of the Apollo program, Elmer Wheaton threw me back in the tank. I was to conceive advanced design layouts of navy spacecraft carrier mission operations. The designs would lead us to the briefings to four stars from ONI in three weeks. During design concept studies I used my famous phrase: “Man, if we only had some of those,” we would soon discover operation ideas of large galactic spacecraft carriers. Could control hangar deck air loss in the vacuum of space, allow us to launch or recover fighters and not lose all of the air in one of the hangar bays? That would answer major operational questions. I did accomplish this, during this study, by using an electromagnetic shield to prevent hangar air loss.
While reviewing one of my pre-NOVA very large Class Naval Galactic spacecraft carrier designs, Elmer (looking over my shoulder) said, “Bill, if we build that one, just the shape of it should make the aliens back off. That’s got to be the best ‘show the flag’ ship I have ever seen. You said last year in the CLAG Class design review that this configuration was two kilometers in length. Just imagine a battle group made up of twenty of these cruising into a hostile alien solar system. They would back off without a fight, that’s amazing.”
Tapping me on my shoulder again, Elmer said, “I stopped by because I saw your name on the AIAA, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics / Navy League Carrier Cruse Itinerary next week. I know you, Bill, are heavy in your Navy League and arranged this off site-cruise. Bob Conway (DAC test pilot) is going to fly John Casey (flight operations manager), his daughter Crystal, Pete Duyan (Electronics Section Chief), Cliff Burgess (marketing), and you and me down to San Diego on Donald’s plush twin engine R-3D. You won’t have to drive and hassle the security guards at the base gate; you can fly with us. As you know, Bob is a full Navy Commander and still active in the reserve. Through his buddies he got permission to land on base at the Naval Air Station North Island where your carrier, the U.S.S. Shangri-La CV-38, is tied up for our operations cruise. She is 1,000 feet long, Bill.”
“Yes, I know all about that ship, Elmer; and it does not belong to me, that’s granted. Thank you for the lift, Elmer.”
Boarding Douglas’s plane was very enjoyable for me. Crystal gave me a big smile and pushed in front to climb up the retractable steps. She was wearing her mini-skirt that exposed her blue string thong and gorgeous bare cheeks. The flight down to North Island was smooth, except for the disturbance that I got from Crystal. She had popped down in the seat opposite from me and just couldn’t keep her legs from crossing and uncrossing. Her giggles and flirting smile, all the way down, showed how much she was going to enjoy exposing herself with all those Navy boys.
It’s bright and clear, 6:00 a.m., after a really big breakfast and still holding my second cup of hot coffee. Two days out, heading into the wind, and standing on the open bridge, six levels above the flight deck, I got cold. I felt like I had done this before, only it was inside and it was a much larger bridge, on a massive, six kilometer Nordic star ship, somewhere interstellar.
“I can’t believe this, Bill,” Pete said putting his hand on my shoulder.
“I lost my thought, but yes I had been out there, way out of the Galaxy.”
The forty-two bright blue Douglas A-1 attack Skyraiders were taking off one by one, rendezvousing at 6,000 in V formation fly-bys. “Very impressive,” Elmer commented to Captain Parker, a nice looking officer in his fifties - our skipper.
Also on our small bridge was Crystal, who said, “And, yes the only thing you got room for in here is that big old wooden sailing ship steering-wheel. Did you take it off the Star of India in San Diego to save money? It’s almost too big for that cute sailor to turn it.”
Captain Parker saved the day, saying, “You’re right, young lady, this is only a navigation bridge. We have our combat mission operation stations located in other areas of the ship.”
Elmer said, “Where is your mission control center"?
Admiral Shapely a surprisingly young looking, handsome man added, “We have a CIC that controls some of those functions but we are not well organized like the Air Force underground SAC Command Post that I understand is under development now.”
Elmer said, “That’s one of Bill’s concepts; he designed that center in 1954 in our Advanced Design. Can we see your CIC, Admiral?”
“Yes but it’s small. Fifty percent of our information stations are located throughout the lower decks.”
Casey’s 17-year-old daughter Crystal interrupted again, “The view is beautiful up here but I like it down in your garage where I saw all those nice sailors,” adding, “but where are all the girl sailors?”
Captain Parker answered her, “We are working on that but throughout the U.S. Navy’s history it has been a policy not to subject women at sea to potentially severe combat injuries.”
Crystal said, “My father told me that you people sometimes stay at sea for twelve months. That’s way too long for boys to be away from girls.”
Admiral Shapely added, “If what Mr. Wheaton has been telling me is any indication of the Navy’s future, ten year coeducation space missions are in the wing. The possible evaluation plan to have a crew consisting of twenty-eight percent women on the Shangri- La this year may provide us with a solution to very long deployments. Bringing women on board a carrier is a major change to the entire capability of successful missions. Don’t you agree, Mr. Swanson?”
Master Chief Swanson, who accompanied us to several of the CIC stations, said: “Admiral, you know damn well if you bring those GD prick-teasers on my ship nothing will ever get done. They will be shaking there little asses at my men all day and all night, sir.”
Admiral Shapely laughed adding. “Gentleman, you can see we are all in agreement on this issue. The Master Chief really does run large Navy ships, even though a carrier crew consisting of hundreds of commissioned officers.” He added, “Swanson, you know if we are ordered to do this - yes, you - are going to have to straighten all the little darlings out, ha, ha.”
“Sir, don’t let NAVSEA use my ship like a fucking whorehouse. You know how narrow our passageways are. It’s our personal policy when passing each other to face the other crew members; those girls will rub their teats on my men just like Mr. Casey’s daughter just did coming in from the Combat Information Center (CIC). And Admiral, think of them climbing our ladders. They will always stop halfway up to the next deck so my men will run their faces right up into their little asses. Those bitches will jump in the men’s billets and bunks before I can even muster them. And Admiral, what do we do when we go to General Quarters, or even worse when we sound battle Stations? My men will be so excited from trying to satisfy the sexual desires of all those fucking girls they can’t even make it to their battle stations. My question to you, sir, is why are you considering putting women out to sea?”
In the back of my mind I knew the answer. We needed women for intergalactic space missions to populate the universe. A gradual shift. Fortunately, John Casey, and his sweet little daughter, were still back at CIC with a young June grad when all this came down. They just came back when Admiral Shapely said that the Navy better get serious about training women in all the technical positions required, even on this boat.
In an adorable way, Crystal said, “Oh, Admiral Shapely, this is not a boat. My dad told me to always refer to them as ships.” That broke up all the personnel in the CIC center and we retired to the officers’ mess for hot coffee and another briefing on their advanced radars.
I spouted off as usual on one of my pet concepts, that everything is going to change and that their CIC is not even going to exist on board Navy ships in its present form in the 1970’s because of all the new threats and advanced electronics that are under development. Admiral Shapely said nothing. Pete said very quietly to me, “Shapely is thinking.”
After an excellent lunch in the officer’s mess, I cornered Admiral Shapely and said, ”We in Advanced Design are convinced that your Navy, with men and women crews, will be performing missions to defend this planet in deep space. But why do you feel it is necessary for the navy to be considering combining crews of men and women now?”
“Well that’s not my expertise, but you might consider contacting Bobby Inman and sharing your thoughts on that. I understand Naval Intelligence is heavy in to that area.”
Admiral Shapely escorted us through the CIC and fourteen cubicles of stations supporting the CIC. He said that the Midway class carrier that is a larger ship than his World War II ships will be the last to have these very small bridges. He was familiar with all the new Navy bridge studies that have resulted in a new much larger bridge, which will be installed on their recently-commissioned super carrier, the U.S.S. Forrestal.
He said, “As you said earlier, Bill, the final CIC, radar and electronic configuration is not frozen, as there are so many advanced communication systems, and even intelligence systems still under development, they are now designing a bridge that will be much larger. This will have a major effect on their final configuration.”
We DAC types were all impressed with Admiral Shipley’s knowledge on their new CIC.
Elmer asked the Admiral how he was such an expert in command systems. Shapely said, “He had been putting his recommendations in to the powers- to-be every week.”
Elmer turned to me and said, “Bill, I know you’re snowed but could you gather an unsolicited bid on one of your command centers using your systems design functional flow block diagrams? We will submit it back to ONI and ONR.”
Admiral Shapely chimed in, “I heard that, Elmer; step aside for a minute. Look, I know you marketing types usually hit ONR first with your hot new toys and I am okay with that. But some of us NAVAIR types have been reviewing potential missions and systems into the 1970s and putting together our thoughts as to how to implement these into something like the Air Force SAC Headquarters aboard a ship - only ours is more compact.”
Well, it turns out he has been on the advisory committee for several years. Admiral Shapely made arrangements with Captain Mike Fillips for me to review their ten-year Battle Group carrier operation development plan at the Bremerton Naval Base in Seattle, Washington, where another one of the Essex Class Aircraft Carriers - the U.S.S. Lexington - is in dry dock for modernization and a hull scraping.
Three weeks later…
Captain Mike Fillips, from Bremerton, Washington, was another prince and also a carrier pilot with a desk job. He was trying to make changes to the major updating of an old World War II carrier into a modern attack ship, one that could handle heavy swept wing supersonic long range nuclear bombers that were still on the drawing board. Mike explained to me the current chain of command to build a new carrier or rebuild an old one. He said the Office of Naval Research (ONR) gets its requirements from the ONI, the War College and The Pentagon. Then they go to a System Program Manager (SPM) at Crystal City in D.C. and then to the Bureau of Ships. And, in our case, to Newport News Shipping in Virginia.
Many of the Bureau of Ships changes were already obsolete and the Bremerton contractor people had already installed elevator supports that were only capable of supporting aircraft that were too small and too weak to support the nuclear bombers.
Mike said. “It’s easier for me to show you this than to explain it here in the office.” So he escorted me out to the Lexington dry dock, into a freight elevator down into the bottom of the this really big dry dock. The carrier was enormous. Looking up at the bottom of the hull, it was supported by steel supports; you could see right through to the other side of the dry dock. It reminded me of movies of the 700-footlong U.S.S. Akron dirigible, hovering twelve-feet above the San Diego Naval Air Station North Island runway. That was amazing and this was amazing, too.
It was overwhelming. Again, I got a flash and found myself in a small space fighter located in one of the eastern arms on the other side of our galaxy. I was flying up under the hull of my enormous kilometer space battle cruiser. My automated entry guide sensors were out and I was trying to locate spacecraft entry port 24-S. Our recon mission return guidance system and capital ship area entrance control had operated perfectly all day, but the unmarked electromagnetic suction entry port on the starboard lower hull was not activating.
Captain Mike interrupted my thoughts with, “Are you okay, Bill?”
“Well, yes. I was just thinking that everyone should somehow instigate an opportunity to see this massive ship. It’s overwhelming from down here."
“You’re right about that, but think: this carrier above us now only displaces 28,259 tons at combat load and our new U.S.S. Forrestal will displaces over 78,400 tons at combat load. So, you’re right again, Bill. Everything is changing and even more electronic systems are now required.”
After his swift tour of the CIC - that was still in the rough stages of updating with two of the old bulkheads, already cut out to accept more new electronics - we returned to his office. He showed me his three lists of CIC system items. 1: Existing and approved as of that date. 2: Planned. And 3: What those at combat level felt will need in the next ten years.
Captain Mike said that even with sub micro hardware we will still be locating this stuff all over the boat. I explained our Command Center Concept. He understood, at once, the advantages of having every station provided with the entire battle region status, even the exact locations of all enemy battle groups and supporting platforms (ships, submarines, aircraft, missiles and unknowns).
He said, “That’s exactly what we need, with one exception. If we take a CIC hit we must have a minimum back-up center located in a different section of the ship.”
I answered, “Always.”
Mike said. “You guys go do your thing.”
Elmer said later, “Bill, it does pay to be in the right place at the right time and sound off. That will be a foot in the door and will help us on our submarine launched ballistic missile program.”
next
https://exploringrealhistory.blogspot.com/2021/03/part-5-selected-by-extraterrestrials-my.html
ENGINEERING PROBLEM WITH MANUFACTURING-153s
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