SCHOOL DAZE

In the fall of 1953, Mr. Sims, our high school physics teacher, showed us how the mathematics that we had studied could be used to describe the orbits of the planets and even how  rockets will some day carry men to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.   Maybe those dreams of the Martian landscape are not so far fetched after all.

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In the spring of 1955, I stood beside Dr. Ferdinand Mitchell’s “Gravity-Well”.  I was there attending the University of Alabama’s  Open house for high school seniors.  The Gravity-Well was a large round wooden table whose top sloped from the edge to a hole in the center along an exponential curve.    He invited me to roll a cue ball with a slight velocity along the top of the table.  Instead of immediately rolling through the hole in the middle of the table, the cue ball began to orbit the hole with an elliptical curve that took it from deep within the hole and back near the edge of the table.  Dr. Mitchell explained that this apparatus was to demonstrate and study the movement of a satellite around another body in a gravitational field.  It was built as part of a government project.  When questioned, his only answer was that, we were entering a new era and that today’s students would see men exploring space.  Could it be possible for me to be a part of that exploration!

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In January of 1956, I was in the Physics 102 class at the University of Alabama trying to keep my mind on the lecture,   but I kept worrying that this might be my last semester in college.  My Dad was very sick and all of our meager family income was needed for household and medical expenses.  The professor ended the lecture early as Dr. Eric Rodgers, the head of the Physics Department, entered the  room.   Dr. Rodgers told us about a co-op program that the University had with the U. S. Army.  Under this program, physics students could alternate semesters of study with semesters of work with the von Braun rocket team at Redstone Arsenal.  Well, I  was not sure what a co-op was and I didn’t know where Redstone Arsenal was , but I did know who Werner von Braun was and I needed a job.  I signed up for the cooperative training program and was scheduled to began my first work period with the Army Ballistic Missile Agency on June 5th 1956.