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

Exploring the Unknown 329
McDivitt
One superseded the other.
White
That’s right. One problem became of much higher magnitude than the other. So
this was the time that we started working.
[4-50]
I knew what I had to do. I knew I had to work the gain lever in sequence with the
handle again, just like we had when we opened it. We both had an inkling that this
was going to happen when we opened it the first time. But this posed the problem
of when I reached up with my left arm to work the gain lever. It takes a great deal
of force. This isn’t the direction that the suit is designed to reach in. And it takes
a great deal of force to lift your arms up in the vicinity of your helmet to operate
something there. In so doing it pulled me back up out of the seat. And I think this
is the time that Jim noticed that I was up higher than I had ever been before, and
he actually felt that my helmet was up against the hatch. I tend to agree that I was
up in that position.
McDivitt
Yes. I actually pulled Ed down in the seat by pulling on the --.
White
I think so.
McDivitt
I did it in steps. I’d pull down and Ed would come down. Then I’d pull some
more, he’d come down some more.
White
I was actually pushing up with my left hand, and my helmet was wedged right up
against the hatch. I had a little bit of area in which they actually see the dogs that
I was working with up there.
McDivitt
You could see them though?
White
Yes, I could see them. At least I could see what positions they were in. I could see the
little lever operating under the spring -- where I was actually operating the spring
on the gain lever. This is where I think we got some very good teamwork, because
it was necessary that Jim pull down in con junction with the time that I pulled down
on the closing handle and operated the gain lever. I just hope that the tape worked
because I can remember I was in there. Jim was talking to me, and then when it
came to the point when we really had to make the big pull I felt a little torque on
the handle. I knew that we had it at that time if we could only get the hatch down
close enough so that the dogs would engage. And I can remember giving the old -- I
think I was yelling HEAVE! HEAVE! Is that what I was yelling?