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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.
“Nevers”36 pages
Johnson Space Center Oral History Project James A. McDivitt 29 June 1999 12-4 And so, I really didn’t have much choice. And since I—when I was at school, I thought I’d like to go on and get a Master’s degree. I’d been straight A’s all the way through school. And I’d read a brochure that the Air Force had put out, or I guess it was a monthly newsletter or something, about somebody who had really good grades and they were going to allow him to go on to school for one more year. The Air Force policy was two years at a time but no more than three years total. And since this other guy—I’d found out the other guy was—another guy was going to do it, I thought, “Well, I’ll try that.” So, I was really focused on getting a graduate degree; and I applied for that, and all of a sudden it was turned down. And I had an assignment to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base [Ohio] into a Project Office as an engineer, which is about the last thing in the world I wanted to do! Ed [Edward H.] White [II] and I, the fellow I flew with on Gemini IV, were going to school together. We lived just down the street from each other. And he was going on to the Test Pilot School. He’d applied for it years before and been accepted; and normally it was about a year to two-year process to get the application and get accepted. Well, this was already like April or May. I thought, “Heck, I’ll do that!” I had a squadron commander who had been through the Test Pilot School, oh, at one time and I liked the way he flew and stuff, and so I put in my application, I think in either April or May. And I heard back in about two weeks that I’d been accepted, which was a whole different route for my career! WARD: Was Ed White a big motivation in your going that direction? MCDIVITT: Well, no, he was going to do that. We were friends, and it was a better alternative than going to Wright-Patterson as an engineer in a Program Office! But it was a non-flying job, and it didn’t sound like a good deal to me. So anyway, we went out there. We were in the same Test Pilot School class.
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