Fred Haise - Never Panic Early : An Apollo 13 Astronauts Journey

Hundreds of books have been written by astronauts, and while reading Fred Haises early, well-written chapters, I concluded that Never Panic Early serves two purposes. First, its the story of the Apollo generation of astronauts. Second, it recounts Haises determination and destiny to become a member of that select group.

I dont remember the first time I met Haise, but we became very close in the post-Apollo years. We are forever brothers in a fraternity of those who have taken flight, and, because we fly, we envy no man on Earth. We all have wings fused to our souls through adversity, fear, and adrenaline, and there is a fellowship that lasts long after the flight suits are hung up in the back of the closet.

Fred Haise and I were both born in 1933 at the peak of the Depressionbanks were collapsing and drought turned the American prairies into a dustbowl. Hitler became chancellor of Germany and Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected the thirty-second American president. During this time, aviation was flourishing in the United States: Wiley Post flew solo around the world; the USS Ranger, the first Navy ship built as an aircraft carrier, was commissioned; and North American Aviation and Air France were formed.

Haise grew up in Biloxi, Mississippi, and I came from a military boarding house in Toledo, Ohio, but we both carried the dream of flying. We grew up in small towns and our work ethic and values were shaped by our parents and our community. We were both paperboys, and we enjoyed the Saturday movies and lived for the newsreels. Freds father was a naval officer who would engage in battle in the South Pacific. Haise played semipro baseball and had an aptitude for sports writing and later, as editor of the Bulldog Barks in junior college, he hoped to obtain a journalism scholarship to the University of Missouri. However, his career would not be found in writing. It began as a Marine fighter pilot, winning his wings of gold in the fabled Grumman Hellcat in 1954.

Never panic early experiences come early and often to young aviators. Haises first calamity arose due to a combination of bad weather and an engine failure, resulting in an emergency landing at a small airport. His was the first McDonnell Banshee jet to land at the Tamiami Airport.

After a tour as a flight instructor at Naval Air Station Kingsville, he decided to become a test pilot. After discharge from the Marines in 1956, he entered the University of Oklahoma to obtain an engineering degree and he resumed flying with the National Guard. While reading the manuscript, I could visualize Haises destiny: A person who takes risks is free, and the day Haise earned his wings is proof positive that his attitude would carry him very far.

In 1959, he was assigned to Cleveland, Ohio, at NASA Lewis Research Center to engage in zero-G testing. Lewis was the starting point for many aviators who subsequently went into the space program. Three years later, he moved to the mecca of flight research, at Edwards Air Force Base in California, conducting single- and multi-engine tests, and supporting Chuck Yeagers lifting body testing as chase pilot. In 1964, he began a classroom and flying test syllabus at the Aerospace Research Pilot School at Edwards.

Sputnik, in October 1957, began the convergence of our individual destinies. Flight was our life and looking skyward, we saw space as our new arena. The words higher and faster took on a new meaning for us.

Returning from Korea in 1958, I accepted a position as a civilian flight test engineer on the B-52 at Holloman Air Force Base. Two years later, when I completed the test program, I joined the NASA Space Task Group, supporting Mercury and Gemini. By the time of Haises selection as an astronaut, I had served as flight director with many of the members of the first four astronaut classes.

In April 1966, Haise was selected for the Fifth Astronaut Class. He spent the first six months in the classroom, visiting contractors, touring NASA facilities, giving speeches, and participating in the field geology- and survival-training programs. Helicopter training and his assignment in December 1966 to the Apollo 2 support crew are some of the events that Haise recounts in detail. Throughout the book, the informal background on other class members often adds humor and provides perspective on the personalities of many of the astronauts I worked with. The story of Bruce McCandless wandering off in the Panamanian jungle to bird watch and his capturing of a deadly fer-de-lance snake, which he hand delivered to the Houston Zoo, offers a rare glimpse of an astronaut the mission controllers worked with on many occasions.

The chapter Life on the Edge of Space, describes Tom Kellys challenges and frustration to assure the quality of the lunar lander before it left the factory. I was the flight director for the successful flight tests of the two lunar modules that Haise developed and tested in the Grumman plant. His description of the Apollo 13 oxygen tank explosion as one of his never panic early experiences relays a close and personal sense of the event. My team and I had faced mission crises beforethe Gemini 8 emergency reentry to landing in the West Pacific was the closest call we had ever faced. Apollo 13, however, was a matter of survival. It was as tough a test as could be conceived and put to flight control. If there was any weakness, the team would have crumbled. But commitment to one another brought out the fight needed to save the crew.