In fact, no clear evidence was ever found that the crew cabin depressurized at all. "For the first few weeks, we were called fairly regularly," he remembers. The boat was by then involved in a blackout of a different sort. He is a space enthusiast, which is virtually a requirement in an area that refers to itself as the Space Coast and where pictures of spacecraft of various sorts adorn the signs of automobile dealerships and motels. ", "Probably 80 percent of the stuff you were looking at had nothing to do with the shuttle," says Capt. asks Reeves. "Some Coast Guard guys knew the media were listening in, and were just screwing around with them." (It was later determined that there was not an explosion as such, but rather a violent breakup and fire. "We have the feeling that nothing much has changed. It has been used in searches involving the submarine USS Scorpion, which disappeared near the Azores in 1968, and the loss of a Strategic Air Command B-52 bomber loaded with hydrogen bombs off the coast of Spain. The remains were safely stored in the morgue at Patrick, and there was confusion about what would happen next. It was only after Betty Grissom, widow of Gus Grissom, filed suit that it became clear that the three struggled in agony for more than a minute. [Commission member] Gene Covert and I went over Crippen's head. Some had taken on a waxy, soapy texture, due to a hydrolysis reaction that takes place in seawater over time. -- and all of it NASA's fault -- was the last thing NASA needed. We are talking lots of pieces of deer and pigs, bones from meals people had on boats, that sort of thing. He wanted to protect the families. It was crucial to keep that exposure to a minimum while also trying to minimize or even reverse the deleterious effects of immersion. Already they'd found the right wing from Challenger, the left side of the shuttle's fuselage and a lot of other debris. I got up at 4 a.m. and was told about the cabin debris, which was found the night before. your patience.) Be Nice. Dr. Ronald Reeves had been scheduled to begin work in the Brevard County Medical Examiner's office as chief assistant on Feb. 1, but when the Challenger went down, he came in a few days early. Though the crew of the USS Preserver was accustomed to duty of this nature, this was somehow...different. They are signed by James S. Logan, chief of the medical operations branch JSC. "You don't understand," he told a reporter. (One witness says he remembers Overmyer actually driving the truck himself, which the former astronaut, now with McDonnell-Douglas, denies. Whether eagerness to be mentioned by the president the night of Jan. 28 resulted in a corresponding eagerness to launch that day despite unfavorable weather conditions remains unclear. But no locating transmitter. And the local medical examiner. Local Radio Shack stores quickly sold out of receivers that could monitor Coast Guard frequencies. It stabilized in a nose-down attitude within 10 to 20 seconds, say the investigators. But Patrick Air Force Base, including its base hospital, is an area of exclusive jurisdiction. What Bailey had seen was the lower half of an empty space suit, aboard Challenger for use with the Manned Maneuvering Units, which allow astronauts to go outside the crew compartment. Be Proactive. There was even film that proved it. We knew they were dead. Every aircraft that flies in this country is required to carry what is called an ELT, for emergency locating transmitter. Drivers on A1A that night and morning, those who could still focus their eyes, probably didn't much notice the Navy truck. "The people at NASA were upset about this," says Hotz. One was James Bagian, whose wife, too, is a doctor. But more important, its absence in the Challenger was an indication of a basic discrepancy between what NASA said and what it did. When the Preserver had put back to sea early that morning, it carried proper containers for such further remains as might be found: long aluminum boxes of the kind employed when the remains of MIAs are returned from Southeast Asia from time to time. It looked as though the cabin had been blown up by a bomb, then the pieces swept together into a pile on the ocean floor. Ohio University President offers top administrator Nico Karagosian $95K retention bonus as it projects millions in losses, White House reports show Athens is the only Ohio locality that’s remained in COVID-19 “Red Zone” in recent weeks, Indicted lobbyist claims Jay Edwards is ‘Representative 8’ in HB6 affidavit, report says, Ohio University students in quarantine, isolation could be criminally charged if they leave their dorm, contract says, Ohio University president nearly doubled his chief of staff’s salary in recent years, Welcome to Our Grand Opening Event 23-24 Oct. To view our latest e-Edition click the image on the left. He is a textbook overachiever. (On occasion, the delay Beyond that, NASA said, it would make no statement. This would have been relatively easy if the story had simply been the truth, but that wasn't what the agency planned. It was terribly broken, and was spread over a 60-foot oval. How To Use Jing, He attended the Navy's Fighter Weapons School in Miramar, Calif., and not only did well, but actually became a "Top Gun" instructor. "It was extremely fortunate that we had Jim Bagian aboard to dive with us and that he is a doctor," says Devlin. "How the hell can they do that?" Though the official report, made by Dr. Joseph Kerwin of NASA's Life Sciences branch in a news conference July 28, 1986, indicates that no cause of death could be determined, there is little doubt among investigators that the crew of Challenger remained alive until impact, even if the cabin lost its pressure. Copyright © 1995-2020 eBay Inc. All Rights Reserved. About 11 a.m. on Saturday morning, March 8, two divers from the USS Preserver dove on Target 67. Given local conditions and an impact point, it will predict where floating objects will be found. The gallows humor didn't have its biting edge, and it simply trailed off, unanswered. Its job is to fish things out of the water. "It came down within five degrees of vertical." There wasn't' anything we could do about that. Among the things that did make the manifest of the Challenger were 700 embroidered mission patches, more than 1,600 flags of various sizes, countries and states, a video disk, an assortment of medallions, a deflated soccer ball, the town seal of Framingham, Mass., 47 copies of the U.S. Constitution, and patches, pins, ornaments and assorted other things for organizations that wished to have something that had been in orbit aboard the shuttle. But the official story was that the crew had been vaporized, and that was that. ", Says an astronaut: "I used to be so proud to say I worked at NASA. The doctors from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology were told to say nothing. A top master-sergeant from Patrick was there. The cabin nose was tilted a little to the right when it hit the ocean, just enough to send the cabin crashing onto its left side. Please write and submit your comment, and after a short delay it Format: BOOK. Those involved in the investigation say it probably wasn't the first and certainly wasn't the last deliberate falsehood to come from NASA during the post-Challenger era. Off went the truck, headed south, followed by a car carrying Bagian and others. "By that time, there were helos [helicopters] from Patrick on the scene, as well as a C-130 fixed-wing. The M.E. A couple of lines about the space program were included in an early draft of the address, but soon even they were excised. It had begun the day before, aboard an old but seaworthy Air Force vessel called the Lucy, a nickname she had gotten because she was an LCU: landing craft, utility. "There is a specific form for death certificates. It resembled the crew compartment in the same way a crushed insect resembles what it had been. Once you get painted with that brush, you're out of a career.". "They asked us to sign death certificates," he says. ", At least some of those involved decided among themselves that they wouldn't lie and wouldn't destroy evidence. Later, at a meeting with the Air Force legal staff, Reeves complained about the apparent contradiction. Sure enough, by day's end the announcement would be made: The bulk of the crew compartment had been found and yes, it contained some remains. It looked as though this was it. So, on March 12, NASA issued a press release: "Brevard County Medical Examiner to Participate, "NASA has confirmed that Brevard County Chief Medical Examiner L.E. "He was pretty freaked out," remembers Hardman. I don't know how to make it any plainer or what good it will do. The Preserver finished its work by early April. "I'd like to help you," Col. Springate told a reporter. Thank you for reading! Later, an astronaut stopped by and, using gentler language, asked the crew to understand the delicacy of the situation. Those remains were being guarded by guys with M-16s -- how were we supposed to get them out? Because even if he went to work for a different company, the company management would wonder when he would find something wrong with them. Nor could they have guessed that it carried something everyone in the country had speculated about at one time or another during the past six weeks. This was not taken well in some quarters at NASA, because two newspapers, The New York Times and The Orlando Sentinel, had filed suit to get certain information. Dr. Ron Reeves was beside himself. C Frost Lipstick, But even at this point some in NASA were pointing out that there was no more than six or seven pounds per square inch of pressure exerted on the crew compartment during breakup, and the compartment had been proof tested to 20 pounds psi. After getting his medical degree, he became a Navy pilot -- not an easy thing in itself. NASA had been anything but forthcoming in the days following the Challenger disaster. Each time, it would run a gauntlet of still and television photographers lining a sort of informal parade route at the entrance to the port, in an area called Jetty Park, normally a popular campground for recreational vehicle owners and one of the area's nicer beaches. The invitation was withdrawn.

the plant requires a set number of successive short days for flower initiation. Bagian probed the heap of broken material. NASA was strangely noncommittal about who would do the autopsies. The families would have to be told. It certainly is not very inconsistent with other behavior they have displayed.". Don't knowingly lie about anyone The Lucy had been pressed into salvage duty for low-priority targets on the ocean floor, in 75 feet of water. She had a crane and winches aboard. There is a statistical possibility that one or more of the crew may have gone into cardiac arrest due to depressurization, but this phenomenon is uncommon and would not have affected the entire crew. The astronauts were torn from their seats and thrown to the left, which was now down. When the Preserver reached Port Canaveral, Cmdr. Be Truthful. Such soft tissue as remained had become almost gelatinous and very delicate. This device is a crash-activated radio beacon that summons aid and provides a precise location if there is a mishap.