Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in ... - The Black Vault

Exploring the Unknown 159
Source: Folder 18674, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History
Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.
This letter from astronaut John Glenn to then Lieutenant Commander James B.
Stockdale, United States Navy, offers a personal perspective on the early Mercury program
and the role of the astronaut in it. Stockdale, a classmate of Glenn’s at the Navy’s Test Pilot
School at Patuxent River, Maryland, would later gain fame as one of the earliest heroes of
Vietnam when he was shot down in 1965 and was held as a prisoner of war in the Hoa Lo
prison for seven years. Debilitated by torture and maltreatment, Stockdale could hardly walk
upon his return to the U.S. in 1973. He received the Medal of Honor in 1976. Stockdale
eventually retired from the Navy as a Vice Admiral. In 1992, he was a candidate for Vice
President on a ticket headed by Ross Perot.
Lt. Commander Jim Stockdale, USN
VF-24
C/O FPO
San Francisco, California
Dear Jim:
December 17, 1959
Quite a bit of water over the dam or under the bridge since I saw you last.
Saw Phil Bolger at the TPT Reunion a couple of months ago and, in talking about
various and sundry subjects, your name came up naturally. I don’t know if you fall in
the category of various or sundry, but anyhow, Phil reminded me again of something
I had already known before and that was of your interest in the space program. So
I thought I would give you a short run down on what we have been doing.
How are things doing on the USS Boat incidentally? I don’t have any idea
if you are still deployed or not, but I think from what Phil said that this letter will
probably find you still at sea.
This past 8 or 9 months has really been a hectic program to say the least
and by far the most interesting thing in which I have ever taken part, outside of
combat. It is certainly a fascinating field, Jim, and growing so fast that it is hard to
keep up with the major developments, much less everything in the field.
Following our selection in April, we were assigned to the Space Task
Group, portion of NASA at Langley Field, and that is where we are based when
not traveling. The way it has worked out, we have spent so much time on the
road that Langley has amounted to a spot to come back to get clean skivvies and
shirts and that’s about all. We have had additional sessions at Wright Field in
which we did heat chamber, pressure chamber, and centrifuge work and spent a
couple of weeks this fall doing additional centrifuge work up at NADC, Johnsville,
Pennsylvania. This was some program since we were running it in a lay-down position
similar to that which we will use in the capsule later on and we got up to as
high as 16 g’s. That’s a batch in any attitude, lay-down or not.