Evening star., 1961-05-10
TEAM
Continued From First Page

FACET Bland Heberlig team
countered. So they devised
their contour couch and tested
men in the townsville Pa0
centrifuge up to Is 6 without
blackout. Q.E.D.
When Project Mercury really
got rolling, early in 1859, the
need arose for a detail man"
to play the role opposite that
of Mr.. FACETS idea man" The
one selected was James Cham
berlin, a Canadian-born engi-
neer fresh from a stint at Can
ada's big Avro airplane factory.
Where Mr.. FACETS job was con-
cepts. Mr.. Chamberlin'S was
,nuts-and-boltS. More than
anybody else, he made things
work right" is the story on the
Space Task Groups chief en-
gineer.
A man whose concern with
nuts-and-bolts is at least
equally intimate is G. Merritt
Preston, chief of preflight op-
erationS for Mercury at Cape
Canaveral, Fla. When capsules
arrive from the Mcdonnell Air
plane Co. factory in st. Louis.
Mr.. Preston is in charge of
tearing them down, inspecting
them and putting them togeth-
er again. This is a 90-day pro-
cess of tremendous intricacy
In very literal sense, the life
Of the Astronaut was in the
hands of Mr.. Preston and his
team last Friday.
The Operators
On the operational end,
Charles ("Chuck") Matthews
was the key man in Comdr.
Shepard's we" The 40-year-
old Minnesotan. a graduate of
Rensselaer, Polytechnic Insti-
tute, conceived and planned
the worldwide tracking net
work and recovery systems for
Project Mercury.
Mr.. Matthews had at his side !
a perfect detail man in Chris
tOpher Columbus ("Chris") |
Kraft, in charge of the Mer-
curry control center at Cape
Canaveral. Since perfect train
ing and lightning reaction time
were essential for all hands in
the center, Chris Kraft spent
months drilling his crew: He
got the reputation of being the
! sneakiest man on the Cape be-
cause he would 60 into the back
room and introduce bugs" into
the system at unexpected mo-
ments for his men to discover
and correct.
His "Sneakiness" paid off in
the center's clock-like operation
last Friday. On that crucial
day, it was Mr.. Kraft's finger
that lowered over the abort"
button to save Comdr. Shepard
in event of trouble.
Space Agency officials say
Comdr. Shepard's I'VE" should
include a number of men out
side the immediate Mercury
organization.
One of these is Kenneth M.
NagIer, 40, of 1912 Longfellow
street, Hyattsville. chief of the
Weather Bureaus Project Mer-
curry Weather Support Group
at Suitland, Md. Mr.. Nagler, an
MS. in meteorology from the
University of Chicago, COM
mands a team of four at Suit
land, seven at Miami under
Jesse Gulick and two at Cape
Canaveral, where Ernest Am
man is in charge. Mr.. Amman
was the man who turned
thumbs down on weather May
2 and thumbs up last Friday.
The papers were full of
stories and pictures about 1t.
Coils. Stanley C. White and
William Douglas, Air Force
medics attached to the Mercury
project; about Navy psycholo-
gist 1t. Robert Voas, and about
the attractive Air Force nurse,
1t. Dolores ~DeeD O'Hara.
The forgotten medic-but a vi
tai one-is Army Capt. William
Augerson, who sat in the block
house during the long count
down and monitored Comdr.
Shepard's well-being. Capt.
Augerson is that rare bird, an
Army flight surgeon.
There are others in the Mer-
curry team-many others, in
cluding scores in industry. One
of these was singled out for
mention by a man in the know
The reason for singing him out
was one of sheer guts-guts OF
the kind displayed by Comdr
Shepard himself.
His name is Walter Burke
He is a corporate vice president
of Mcdonnell Aircraft, in over
all charge Of that concerns
work on the Mercury capsule
Mr.. Burke is a man in his mid.
die sos of considerable stature
in industry, "but he's got hi'
sleeves rolled up at all times,
as one space expert put it.
The men of Project Mercury
will never forget what this olC
pro did one day late last yea
when MR-1, the first Mercur!
Redstone rocket, hung fire dur
ing a launching attempt. TAX
ing his life in his hands. MI
Burke scrambled UP the gantr,
tower and personally disarmet
the Mercury capsule so anothe
attempt could be made.
This is Alan Shepard's I'VE.