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This is a NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project transcript of astronaut James A. McDivitt, interviewed by Doug Ward at Elk Lake, Michigan, on 29 June 1999. McDivitt talks about flying F-86s in Korea, test pilot work at Edwards, and his first class at the Aerospace Research Pilot School. He also covers turning down Dyna-soar, joining NASA in 1962 and learning to be an Apollo Program Manager. He describes the Change Board and says decisions were not second-guessed.
“The Pentagon”3 pages
Johnson Space Center Oral History Project James A. McDivitt 29 June 1999 12-32 [Michigan]. He was getting a Master’s degree in aeronautical engineering, but he didn’t have an aeronautical engineering undergraduate degree. So, we took a lot of classes together. We started flying together. We had a—there were a lot of Air Force pilots assigned to the University of Michigan—probably about 150, 200 I would guess at the peak. There was a program there called the Guided Missile Program where the guys came in and got a couple of normal academic degrees; but they—it covered all the background you needed to get in the missile business. So, we had a lot of people there. I ended up being the scheduling officer for all the jet pilots. So, I did the scheduling; and we’d get all the pilots together from time to time and lay out the schedule for the next month or two. And Ed and I, since I did the scheduling, I just scheduled us together a lot. And we—so, we flew together. Then we both went to the Test Pilot School and after we graduated, he went to Wright-Patterson as a test pilot and I stayed at Edwards. And I remember when I—when the Air Force had its pre-astronaut—pre-NASA astronaut selection, I walked in the room in the Pentagon and Ed was already there. And I walked in the door and he says, “I knew you’d be there!” And I said, “I knew you’d be here, too!” So, we had that. And then we first joined NASA, we were given, like I mentioned earlier, we were given engineering assignments. And mine was guidance and navigation; his was something about control, flight controls or something like that. From an engineering standpoint, those two things are kind of like this [gestures]. And we also shared an office when we worked in downtown Houston. When we finally went out to the Manned Spacecraft Center, we didn’t share an office at that time. But anyway, we had a very close career all through that time. WARD: Of course, one of the highlights, the thing that is so clearly remembered for today, is
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