Special Moments

Scooter, you can bet yers truly was in front of the Telly when Armstrong came bounding down the steps of the LEM and uttered his.....one giant step for mankind. I was one of the major Domos on RCA's building and testing of the LEM for the Apollo program. I had been one of 4 engineers assigned to the Condor missile program at North American Aviation in Columbus. After about a year as the war in Vietnam wound down, we were back in Camden and I was lucky enough to get on the Apollo job. RCA had the LEM and the lunar excursion module. I worked on the LEM. Some of the equipment we built and some that was made by other companies, we had to test and integrate into the LEM. Some of the Astronauts visited Camden to see the equipment they were going to use. However, RCA was using its site at the airfield in Wilmington to do some of the testing, and the Astronauts stayed there for awhile, but it seemed to me, their main interest was in the B-25 we kept there for flight tests. All of them insisted on taking it up for a spin. As I recall, Armstrong wasn't among them.

To say that watching the moon landing of equipment I had worked on was exciting is an understatement. A highlight of my life would be more like it.

From Tampa,Fl, to Ft Lawton, Seattle,Wash via the Lofton tunnel under the Rockies, to Ft Shafter on Oahu and from there to Kwajalein. No airplanes, just train and boat.

Scooter, glad you asked. I couldn't count the many acts of kindness but recently I was using my Texas Instruments TI 89 calculator when Luke was over here for some help in Physics, and I was telling him how I obtained it: Don't know its cost these days but back when I was teaching at P.I.T in Media, one of my students, Kevin Woczhewski, came in on a Mon morning and handed me one. Kevin was an older student as were most of them, around 50 or so, and ran a construction business, mainly laying cement foundations and cement walls. I'd help him calculate the amount of “rebar” needed. Rebar is/are the iron bars used with the concrete to mitigate cracking under temperature extremes. Also, having a Pa PE license I was able to testify for him a couple of times in court. Kevin was an inveterate horse player, and when Phila Park opened in the spring, Kevin was there every Sat. He was a hunch player even though buying the Morning Telegram on Saturdays. He loved to play the Trifecta, parlaying 3 horses. First horse winnings are placed to the second horse, and that total goes on to the third horse. One Sat he picked the first horse based on its name being the same as his wife's dog; the second horse had a well known jockey who Kevin knew would get a good horse; the third horse's name was Mr Ed--you remember that TV show--so based on my name, Kevin picked it. He placed a 50 dollar bet and won about 10k when all three came in. So he bought me a hundred and fifty dollar calculator, based on Mr. Ed winning that 3rd race. Forty years later, that TI 89 is still dear to me. Am besten Calculator with an algebraic operating system.

It was while I was in the army; my platoon had a baseball team and I played center field. In the 9th inning our team was leading 6 to 5, the other platoon was up at bat, 2 out and a guy on second. A long flyball to center field and looking like a sure triple or homer. I ran and ran and ran, finally catching up to the ball, put up my glove and hauled it in, mirabile visu. Outfield was my strength-couldn’t hit worth a darn.