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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 12-97 my records here. And I’ve been a Captain for quite a long time and I didn’t get promoted in the first time below the zone nor the second time below the zone.” And then you come up for promotion in the regular zone. And he looks at, “Wow!” you know, “Wow! wow! wow! wow! wow!” He finally gets to the last page, and he looks up and he says—he sees my assignment: Manned Spacecraft Center. His face clouds over and he said, “What are you?” I said, “I’m a Captain.” He says, “Captain, I don’t think you have any career in the Air Force. You ought to get out.” I said, “What?” He says, “You’re undereducated. You don’t have any flying experience.” He says, “You’re not the kind of officer we want.” I said, “Thank you, sir,” and turned my back and came back. At the same time, Ed White’s father was a retired Major General, and he knew—he just happened to be a friend of the Secretary of the Air Force at the time, whose name I forget. And so, he called on behalf of Ed and said, “You know, what’s going on?” And the Secretary said, “Well, you know I can’t interfere.” He said, “Yeah,” he said, “yeah, I know that. But can’t you find out what’s going on?” So, he called Ed’s dad back and said, “You know, there’s a whole mass of Air Force officers who are out to drive all these guys out of the Air Force because they think they’re traitors.” We were right at the height of the rules and mission. Who was become the dominant player in space, in manned space? And so much so that there was even a time when they were thinking about having Air Force officers fly in Gemini and they were going to fly as copilots and I, as a NASA guy, not as an Air Force, as a NASA guy, would be the commander of this other Air Force guy, who was no different than me but in reality—but was perceived to be different would have to be my subordinate no matter who he was. So anyway, the—General White called in and said, “You know, the Air Force is out
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