Chapter 6 : Cape Canaveral-Project Mercury

 I checked in with Industrial Relations on the 19th of December
1962. Just driving on to the Cape was exciting. As soon as I had
my ID I was on my way to Pad 14. This was where Mercury would be
launched.  The sign on the front gate read

                                    
   6555TH AEROSPACE      GENERAL DYNAMICS          NASA 
   TEST CENTER USAF        ASTRONAUTICS      MANNED SPACE CRAFT 
 SPACE SYSTEMS DIVISION                           CENTER
                            
 WELCOME
                      TO
                                                      COMPLEX 14
                        THE WORLDS FIRST ICBM
                     THE WORLDS FIRST MAN IN ORBIT

 My new supervisor took me around to meet the department heads.
T.J. O'Malley was running the Cape office for Atlas. B.G. McNabb,
Operations Director was traditionally the last man to shake the
Astronauts hand as they stepped from the trailer to the launch pad
elevator. Cal Fowler was Test Conductor. 

 I found an apartment just a block from the beach. The balcony
looked out over the ocean. Darlene arrived from Lincoln and we
started the marriage adventure. On the nights when a Cape launch
was scheduled we just opened our door, walked out on the balcony,
looked to the left and watched the arc of flame rising from the
pad. It was right out of a Robert Heinlein novel with the slight
improvement of being real. I could hardly wait to really get into
harness and begin my new job.

 Darlene and I went out on a few furniture gathering jaunts buying
some rattan like all Cape dwellers. Darlene brought home a tiny
Persian kitten that jumped up and sunk it's tiny teeth into my
dinner steak and then into my thumb when I tried to recover my 
dinner. My beautiful and long time buddy Stud died with a kidney
infection. Stud came into my life in Cheyenne and had been through
the entire adventure with me.  He was a handsome sable and white
Collie. His life could be the subject for another story, but now
he was gone.

 I turned over my English TR-3 to Darlene who thoroughly enjoyed
running around Cocoa Beach getting a great tan with the top down.
She was a swede who never burned, only tanned. With her white gold
hair and a dark tan Florida was treating her very well.  

 We bought a sailboat.  I wanted something small and easy to sail.
When I saw a little twelve foot boat with a single sail it looked
just right for a beginner. I spent hours reading all the books on
sailing and then went over to the Banana river (intercostal
waterway) to give it a try. 

 I set everything up and in a mild wind launched from the dock.
Things happened very fast. The wind filled the sail, the sail
swung the boat and in an instant I was floundering around in the
water. A dozen tries later I had never made it much past the end
of the dock. I was drawing a small crowed. I left my little boat
chained to the trailer and came back the next day.  The wind had
blown the boat off the trailer and the mast was shattered. 

 Chagrined I brought my little day sailor back to the apartment.
The apartment owner looked over my boat and heard my sad story. He
really thought it was funny that I bought a racing cat-boat to
learn on. It seems I hadn't noticed that the single sail was on a
mast almost twice as high as the boat was long. He fiber glassed
the break and I spent all of my free time learning to sail.

 Each day I would run out to Pad 14 to see what I could see and
make my reports. I was working out of a cubby hole that I shared
with the Security Officer and his secretary. I spent most of my
time at 14 which was were the action was. 

 Soon I began to sense that I was rubbing my boss, the security
officer, and his secretary the wrong way. The Chief of Industrial
Relations was trying to reign me in. The security officer, a
gentleman in his sixties and ,soon to retire, was trying to get me
to quit loading "his" secretary up, with reports to type. His
secretary was supposed to be "our secretary" but was pleased to
have him stick up for her. My work was left undone.

 It came down to this. Mercury had been on line for a while.
Cooper's launch in May would be the last Atlas-Mercury launch.
After that the manned space flight operation would go over to
Martin Marietta with the Titan as launch vehicle. Astronautics
would be left with a few science packages to launch with Atlas. 

 Additionally while Atlas was the launch vehicle, NASA and Pan Am
had the site responsibility. They had their own safety people so,
according to my boss, Pad 14 was not the focus of attention for 
Astro/Safety. The assembly and administration areas were my
responsibility. This meant my job was to make daily and weekly
rounds checking the waste cans for cigarettes, the grinding wheels
for proper clearance. 

 This was the end of the road and they were winding down
operations. I came in charged up from running a twelve site
project. I had also had a well developed ego from supervising,
developing procedures, and briefing top players. In Altus I had my
own secretary and rather unlimited resources. So, simply put,
these people found me knowledgeable, but abrasive, over eager, and
self important. I was also there because home office thought I was
the best Safety Engineer in the field. I was now twenty four.

 My boss had one other, hidden agenda. The Chief of Industrial
Relations in San Diego made him lay-off his Safety Engineer and
take me. The man they were forced to lay off was Ken McCabe. He
was also in his twenties, had done a fine job. He was part of the
original team and was really liked by everyone. He was also my
supervisor's personal friend. I had contact with him regularly as
he had obtained a Safety Inspector's job with Pan Am.