Grissom - White - Chaffee Apollo One

It has been 40 years today and the fire that consumed the lives of these three men still stands as a history lesson of importance, documenting the character and commitment of America's people of that time. Less than 10 years after Sputnik had educated the American people of the consequences of failure to take space seriously, we were well on our way to winning the race to the moon.

In that short decade we had reformed education, tripled the number of scientists we were graduating, built NASA into a pool of engineering and scientific geniuses unrivaled in the history of man . . . and in our rush made some mistakes. I still feel with many others that they were mistakes worth making.

Losing these three patriots was a sad day. However these men did not die in vain. Their deaths proved the statement that has been a truth for all pioneers throughout history. It was one of Gus Grissom's favorite sayings, "We learn more from our mistakes than we do from our successes."

That lesson has not been learned by our current generation. We are rapidly becoming a nation that demands no progress be made if it comes at a cost. Gus Grissom would not have liked our current attitude. It assures that progress will be made by others. We must turn this around. Thinking about the history of this day brings us to an important question. Is there any goal today that we care about enough to die for?

There is a famous story about Grissom that I think describes how such men come to be. While testing sidewinder missiles the death of another pilot was blamed on the sidewinder failing and turning around and shooting down the jet that fired it. Pilots were told to bail out and let the missile destroy their plane if the sidewinder turned on them. Grissom thought it through and believed that he could dodge the missile until it ran out of gas. If he was wrong he was dead. However Grissom did exactly what he said would work when a missile turned on him. He played tag until the sidewinder running out of gas proved him right.

Everything in his life tells us that Grissom was an intelligent man who had thought things through and knew what he was doing. I am not surprised that he once said of his Apollo assignment, "If we die, we want people to accept it. We're in a risky business, and we hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life."

The kind of man who is dedicated to pushing the envelope, smart enough to figure out what others have not figured out, strong enough in his own beliefs to trust his own judgment, steel willed enough to put his beliefs to the test, and does not flinch from the price if he is wrong or even if things happen outside his control . . . that is the kind of man we should admire.

All three of these men were outstanding men, outstanding Americans, outstanding representatives of the human race. They were willing to risk and even lose their lives for goals they found important. I salute them. They are not forgotten.




Mary C. White (no relation to Ed White) has written detailed biographies of the three NASA Apollo One crew members. Click here for her introduction, Roger Chaffee biography, Gus Grissom biography, Ed White biography, or Epilogue.