When I Meet The President!
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Grady Woodard
When I Meet The President!
President Kennedy's two visits to Redstone Arsenal are the most by any President. He first visited Sept. 11, 1962 and then again May 18, 1963. Three other Presidents have also visited the Arsenal: Dwight D. Eisenhower who attended the dedication of Marshall Space Flight Center in 1960; Richard Nixon, who landed at the installation in 1974 on his way to a speech in Huntsville; and George H.W. Bush, who visited MSFC in 1990.
On his first visit, President Kennedy was accompanied by Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara and Secretary of the Army Cyrus Vance. The men each hold an interesting place in history. Johnson served as President after Kennedy's assassination but bowed out from seeking a second term due to growing unpopularity. McNamara played a critical role during America's war with Vietnam before going to serve as President of the World Bank for 13 years. Vance served as Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter.
Kennedy's first visit included an open-air motorcade tour of 13 Army Materiel Command program-managed missile systems, including the Pershing, Nike Hercules, Sergeant, Honest John, and Hawk. The President also received a classified briefing on work by the U.S. Army Missile Command, including an update on an Army-made laser.
The President didn't arrive at Redstone in Air Force One when he paid his second visit eight months later. After delivering a speech in Muscle Shoals in honor of the 30th anniversary of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the president traveled to the Arsenal via his Army Sikorsky VH-3D Presidential helicopter. His Air Force One Boeing 707 was waiting to take him back to Washington at the end of the visit.
The President witnessed a 30-second test firing of the Saturn rocket during his first visit to Redstone Arsenal.
On his second visit on May 18, 1963, the President was accompanied by Alabama Gov. George Wallace and the state's two Senators, John Sparkman and Lister Hill, as well as Tennessee's two U.S. Senators, Albert Gore and Estes Kefauver. Sparkman and Kefauver had an interesting history. In 1956, the Democratic Party had opted not to nominate the Morgan County-native Sparkman for Vice President due to his stand on Civil Rights, opting instead for Kefauver. Kennedy and Wallace's relationship would go down in history as well. The two would find themselves in a standoff a little less than a month later when, on June 11, 1963, Wallace stood in the school house door to defy Kennedy's efforts to integrate the University of Alabama. Gore's son, Albert Gore Jr., would go on to serve as U.S. Vice President under President Bill Clinton.
The President's group was met by MICOM Commander Maj. Gen. Francis J. McMorrow and MSFC Director Dr. Wernher von Braun, as well as Huntsville Mayor R.B. Search and Madison County Commissioner James Record.
It was reported that Kennedy didn't visit the Army or NASA facilities on his second trip to Redstone. Instead, he addressed more than 10,000 members of the Arsenal's workforce as part of an Armed Forces Day celebration. The speech lasted five minutes. Well, I was present and it was more like 3,000 workers.
President Kennedy arrived on September 11, 1962, for his second visit his speech at Redstone Arsenal Airstrip was to the MSFC selected 400 employees. Later that day, it was modified and repeated at Rice University Stadium on September 12, 1962. In Huntsville, JFK wanted to give the Rocket Team his order to go to the moon in person. I was lucky to have been picked to help welcome the President and to receive the moon order in person. I was a young 32 year old rocket engineer on explosives and rocket engines
It was a warm late Summer Day, the speaker's platform was located near the present Air Traffic Control Center. The stand was constructed specially for the President's visit. Security ropes, designed to keep the crowd back at least 50 feet, were dropped by members of the Secret Service as the Presidential helicopter neared the platform, allowing the audience within 10 feet of the podium.
I was there seated nine rows back in the middle and it was memorizing for me as I took in every word from the President. When I was kid, I built a powerful telescope and the stars and space was all I would think about and space was my dream!
When the President would speak, he would look right at you and it seems to me that you felt the only one he was talking to was you. It was breathtaking and everyone there was doing what I was doing and thinking, it was our chance to do our dream as rocket engineers.
His speech was very impressive with the German Rocket Team members as well, who I worked for and did admire so much. It was their goal in Germany to do space exploration and instead, they were made to build War rockets to kill people. They all were grinning with their eyes sparkling and chest high with pride, knowing they were going to do thunder the skies with rockets to the moon. I’m glad I was there, it was a Glorious Day!
Kennedy was taken to lunch and tour our facilities at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC’s) Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory Missile Assembly Building 4705. I had been assigned to prepare a display of all of the space hardware and brief the President on our flight plans to the Moon. I had everything ready and was standing my post waiting for the President and his group. On display was our C-1 Saturn I, the Jupiter with Explorer IV mounted, the Mercury-Redstone Rocket that placed our first Explorer I Satellite and the first Americans into space, Al Shepard and Gus Grissom. An Historical Photo had capture this only time this space hardware was ever assembled together. Dr. von Braun found it and used it later in an appearance before the U.S. Senate.
Three months after Kennedy's visit, on Aug. 24, 1963, McMorrow would die from a heart attack at the Post hospital. Six months later, on Nov. 22, 1963, President Kennedy would be assassinated during a visit to Dallas, Texas.
A ceremony honoring Kennedy was held the next day at the Arsenal and attended by senior military personnel and civilians, including Dr. von Braun. Only two Officers spoke at the service: Capt. Farley Thompson of Florence and Redstone Arsenal post Chaplain Lt. Col. Wilmer R. Bottoms. Thompson delivered the official written order from Secretary of Defense McNamara: "I have the sad duty of announcing to the Armed Forces of the United States the death of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the President of the United States, who was the victim of an assassin's bullet Friday, November 22nd. The world has lost a gallant spirit whose championship of freedom and opportunity will be recognized by History. All members of the Armed Forces whose welfare was his concern, can pay no better tribute to his memory than to carry on in the tradition which he shared and of which he was so proud. Colors shall be displayed at half-mast for 30 days beginning November 22nd." Well, space is there, and we're going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask Kennedy told us,“ God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.”
We put a man on the Moon on July 20th, 1969, on my Birthday.
“98.91.31.200 16:00, 23 January 2014 (UTC)“
