“Nevers”36 pages
- p. 1 …the Air Force—I’d
never been in an airplane. Never been off the ground. I…
- p. 3 …Having never been in
an airplane and no idea what it was all about, and I…
- p. 7 …was that the Dyna-
soar Program would never fly. The spacecraft was wrong. They were trying…
- p. 8 …You know, it was a lifting
body concept and the landing thing, but it never flew…
- p. 10 …I wanted you to know that I realize that I should never have threatened you like…
- p. 14 …As soon as we got selected, we were told that, “No more uniforms.” We were never…
- p. 19 …T-38s never had much fuel, and you
- p. 20 …And some—you
know, we didn’t have everything available in the spacecraft, so never was…
- p. 22 …It never existed then. So, there was always disagreement amongst the
astronauts about what the relationship…
- p. 28 …So, there’s
always the thought that, well, maybe he was never going to come around…
- p. 33 …We’d never had a flight longer than 30 hours, or
whatever it was, that Gordo…
- p. 38 …You know, he
never got sick flying airplanes and the crazy motions that we did. And…
- p. 39 …I mean, we would’ve never
gotten to the Moon when we did if we’d…
- p. 40 …He never got
involved in the mission, because the one in the Mission Control Center in…
- p. 43 …Fortunately, we never had to try that!
WARD: Do you think the nature of the ejection…
- p. 45 …And I never did see it again.
- p. 46 …I never did see it until years and years later, when I started getting all
these…
- p. 49 …So, you never see more than one light, or hardly ever see more than one light…
- p. 50 …were able to overcome these problems
and never get down to where we were on our…
- p. 54 …and backup crews did except they were never going to fly. So, they helped us test…
- p. 57 …And some of the North American people maintain to this
day that they were never told…
- p. 59 …And then I never
dealt with him again; and finally he got fired. So, I don…
- p. 64 …We never did find them. You know, we never knew exactly what caused the fire;
so…
- p. 65 …It’s just impossible!” We were never going to get the weight on the lunar module…
- p. 69 …Throttled the engine up
and down through regimes it probably was never throttled at when it…
- p. 74 …Well, that was never my attitude. That was never my attitude. As
a matter of fact…
- p. 83 …It never occurred except for the fire, but I
know I personally expected a lot of…
- p. 85 …I threw him out of my
office and I said, “You are never, ever to come…
- p. 86 …I ran
the Apollo Spacecraft Program I never had a problem with money. We were always…
- p. 87 …And I’d never played baseball in my life!
- p. 91 …I thought that we should never interfere in any way with
the flight crews on a…
- p. 94 …And I think that we would’ve never had an Apollo Program if Rocco hadn’t…
- p. 99 …I never did get my Major’s on my shoulders. He called
Ed up, promoted Ed…
- p. 105 …said who was recommending it but they never said who was
opposed to it. So, we…
- p. 108 …He never second-guessed me. He had a boss. The
Associate Administrator for Manned Spaceflight and…
- p. 109 …And fortunately, my bosses were
such that they never second-guessed what I did. They just…
29 June 1999 12-1
ORAL HISTORY TRANSCRIPT
JAMES A. MCDIVITT
INTERVIEWED BY DOUG WARD
ELK LAKE, MICHIGAN – 29 JUNE 1999
WARD: This is our oral history interview with Jim McDivitt, June 29, 1999. Jim, starting
back early on, you interrupted your college career early to join the Air Force at the time of
the Korean War, then came back to college, pursued it with a real purpose. Do you think that
your career would have progressed the same if you’d done it the standard way? Started with
college and gone all the way through, and then into the military?
MCDIVITT: Well, I don’t really know. I did it that way because I didn’t have any money!
When I got out of high school, I worked for a year before I even went to junior college. I
went to junior college while I got a scholarship to Michigan State, I didn’t have enough
money to go there. So, I had to go back to work. And since the Korean War started on
Sunday and I started my job on Monday, and I was 20 years old, that was—I was prime bait
for the draft. And so, I was going to get drafted right away. And, I don’t know. It just
turned out perfect for me. So, I might add that, you know, that I went into the Air Force—I’d
never been in an airplane. Never been off the ground. I’d already joined the Air Force, was
in the Air Force, was accepted for pilot training before I had my first ride. So, fortunately I
liked it!
WARD: What was your flying career involved with primarily at that time?
MCDIVITT: Well, when I finished up flying school I went to—the Korean War was on, I
went to gunnery school; and over in Korea I flew F-86s. Flew 145 combat missions. I flew