We all have anniversaries of events that impacted our lives in some way. This time of year is an odd sort of trifecta for me.<\/p>\n
January 23, 1968: The USS Pueblo was attacked.<\/a><\/p>\n January 30, 1968: The Tet offensive kicked off.<\/a><\/p>\n I was deployed and involved in both, although time and fading memories (and THIS venue) preclude me from offering up iffy details and\/or even good Sea Stories.<\/p>\n The third item is bit clearer and far more recent<\/a>…<\/p>\n On Jan. 28, 1986, 19 years and a day after the Apollo 1 fire<\/a>, NASA’s space shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds after liftoff due to an O-ring failure in one of the orbiter’s twin solid rocket boosters. The malfunction allowed hot gas to escape the rocket booster, ultimately causing the shuttle’s external fuel tank to explode.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n While working at the NASA Tracking Station on Kauai during the early ’80s I worked on the first 8 or 9 Space Shuttle missions. In the run up to one of those launches we were visited by a team of astronauts for a “meet ‘and greet”. One of those visiting was Ellison Onizuka<\/a>.\u00a0 I knew from his bio that he had been an AF test pilot before becoming an astronaut so I asked him, after more than two adult beverages apiece, how he thought it would feel to just ride the shuttle after flying jets.<\/p>\n He paused and offered this: ” How would YOU feel if YOU sitting on top of a huge potential bomb waiting for someone to light the fuse?” Okay, that IS a paraphrase rather than a direct quote, but the gist is valid. We all laughed.<\/p>\n So every year about this time it is hard to ignore the flood of memories, and memories of memories. I’ll be breaking my alcohol fast one day this week and raise a toast to those who dared and for those who did their duty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"