23 Years

It's not something I think about every day myself. But every year on January 28th, I do. I guess you can't expect the 23rd anniversary would be a headline. Maybe in two years -- on the 25th -- it will be.

I would have liked to have seen some recognition of it today though. I checked today on the web sites of MSNBC, CNN, FoxNews, and several other key news agencies. Nobody had even a mention of it.

But after 23 years, people forget. People have moved on. You go up to a teenager today and mention it, and many may not even know what you're talking about.

I was in sixth grade at the time. We were out of school that day. I can't remember whether there was snow on the ground outside, but I remember it was cold. I think it may have been a teacher workday for us. We were over at one of my mom's friends' houses. If I recall correctly, said friend had a daughter my sister's age and the two girls were playing around the house. Dad was at work.

The first teacher in space was supposed to go into space that day. We weren't watching the launch of the Challenger on STS-51L -- it was on the TV in another room.

I just remember suddenly hearing voices of confusion talking on the TV.... "obviously a major malfunction" (that ended up being the understatement of the century) and I ran to the TV.

All I saw were white plumes going off in separate directions. 'That's weird, the SRBs don't separate like that - it was too early for them to even release,' I thought.

There was a big multicolored cloud of orange, red and white in the center of it all. They were saying things on the TV that I really didn't pay attention to at the time. My eyes were transfixed. I couldn't believe it.

They went on saying that they are looking at the situation, but we all knew what had just happened.

Scobee. Smith. Resnik. Onizuka. Jarvis. McAuliffe. McNair. All are names that are burned into my mind.

The loss of the Challenger crew devastated families. It destroyed careers. Some NASA administrators walked away in shame. Some engineers and administrators at Morton Thiokol walked away in disgust.

It broke the hearts of millions, myself included. But it never dashed my belief in space exploration.

Since a young age, I have always been fascinated in anything that could fly and/or go into space, and the concept of exploration itself. But despite the loss of the Challenger and its crew, my faith and belief in the mission of our space program remained strong -- in fact, it has gotten stronger over the years. As has my admiration for the men and women that put those spacesuits on and go out there among the silence of space - to float. To watch. To look ... at all the awesomeness.

Two years later we crowded around a TV in our school library on a September day to watch the Discovery launch on STS-26 as the space shuttle program returned to flight. We were all overjoyed when we heard the words "Discovery has cleared the tower."

Then I waited to watch what happened when they said the words that still make me flinch - "Go at throttle up."

We watched as it burned a trail of white smoke across the sky and soared into outer space. We were screaming cheers. Everyone was clapping. It was an awesome sight.

Seventeen years after Challenger we went through another tragedy -- the loss of another shuttle and its crew of seven.

I'm going to save my political beliefs on space exploration and the losses of the Challenger, Columbia, and the Apollo I and their crews - and my portion of the blame game - for another time.

January 28, 1986 is a day I will always remember. Whether the newspaper, news websites, or whomever, include even a small headline or not about its anniversary, I will always remember.

I sometimes find myself turning away from the TV when they show clips of the STS-51L launch. I know what happens next once those words "Go at throttle up" are spoken.

But I'll continue to look up to the heavens, thinking about how far we've come in space exploration and the things we have yet to achieve - wondering what's out there - and admiring those heroes who are daring to explore that frontier for us and are blazing trails across history.

"The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch the face of God'." - Ronald Reagan, Jan. 28, 1986

25 Things About Me

The following post is a cross-post of something that I posted on my Facebook page, after being tagged (call it 'challenged', whatever) in a similar post written by my friend Tracy to do the same.

The Facebook version has generated some interesting comments from my friends, so I decided to post it here. I'm waiting to see who will respond to me tagging them with the same challenge.

Those of you who are regular followers of my postings (rantings, if you will) here on MM already know some of what is written below about me.

Ordinarily, I would just leave this on Facebook and just leave the chat and laughs from my friends there. But I'm interested to see what other types of comments this might get on MM, if any.

So here it is: 25 Things About Me

Oh, and feel to free to write a 25 things about you and send me a link so I can read about you too.

1. I was born in Pennsylvania, moved to North Carolina the summer between 5th and 6th grade, and to South Carolina the summer between 9th and 10th grade.

2. I am very conservative in my political beliefs, somewhat to the point of being stubborn about it – but I believe what I believe and will put anyone to task in a debate. If I ever vote for a Democratic president it will only be under extreme duress. I have autographed copies of books written by Newt Gingrich and John McCain.

3. My wife is my best friend. I consider myself very lucky in that regard. I do have some really awesome friends otherwise though, some going back as far as elementary school

4. I like fast things – planes, rockets, cars, and music. Probably why I speed so much when I drive.

5. I split my lip open when I was three trying to climb over a baby gate to get into the room where my parents had put our cat and her new kittens. I still have a scar from that.

6. My favorite subject was always history. I was on my middle school’s History Quiz Bowl team when I was in 8th grade; we went to the state tournament but lost early in an early round.

7. I had my first girlfriend (as far as what you consider a girlfriend when you’re in elementary school) in 1st grade; her name was Richelle. She was a year older than me.

8. I have an odd paranoia about the ocean. I won’t get in it. It just creeps me out. No, I’m not scared of sharks. I just think it’s weird to put my body into a body of water in which dead people, various types of undiscovered marine life, shipwrecks, refuse, and who knows what else are all in.

9. I used to design home floorplans as a hobby when I was in elementary and middle school.

10. I was born with a congenital heart defect. I had open-heart surgery when I was 20 months old. I still have a heart murmur.

11. The first movie I remember seeing was the original Star Wars. I saw it at the Drake Theater in Oil City, PA when I was 3. It is my all-time favorite movie. And despite what anyone says, Han will have always shot first.

12. I have always been a staunch supporter of the American military and our space program from a young age. I was in AFJROTC in high school (the only drawback was trading in long hair for short). My ideal career would have been to go into the Air Force to fly fighters and then go into the astronaut program. But I couldn’t because of both my heart murmur and my eyesight.

13. I have two absolutely adorable nieces and two extremely intelligent nephews.

14. I jumped off a dam (about 30 feet high, concrete, on Lake Hartwell) while in college and skinned my leg on it in the process.

15. The first concert I ever saw was a Tiffany/NKOTB concert at Carowinds when I was in 9th grade. My sister was there to see the NK; I was there to see Tiffany. It rained. But the show went on.

16. Although my wife and I have two cats, I like dogs better.

17. I was scared to death of roller coasters and thrill rides up until late in middle school; then my sister went on Thunder Road at Carowinds – that was the straw. Since then, I have developed an extreme love for coasters and thrill rides and various types of high-adrenaline activities.

18. My favorite hobby is photography.

19. I drive a 2000 Saturn with approximately 150,000 miles on it, which I’ve had for a little over 5 years. I think it’s getting close to time to buy a new car.

20. My favorite food is lasagna and Italian foods in general. But the weird thing is that I don’t like tomatoes. I think it’s the texture; tomato sauce is the exception. I will pick tomatoes out of any food I am eating that has them in it. Generally speaking, I don’t eat a lot of vegetables either and will do my best to pick them out of things – that includes and is not limited to spinach, asparagus, onions, olives, radishes, zuchinni, squash, and peppers of any kind.

21. I am a Clemson University graduate; Clemson will always feel like home to me. It played an important role in my life in many ways.

22. Probability dictates that with an infinite universe, there are an infinite number of planets capable of sustaining life. Therefore, I believe that there is absolutely no way we are alone in the universe. And more than likely our planet has been visited by aliens, multiple national governments are aware of this with some possibly having contact with aliens, and they are hiding this fact. But they really do need to in the reason of protecting the general public’s best interest and preventing mass hysteria.

23. I am an Eagle Scout.

24. I love to write (does it show?) My 8th grade English teacher told me I ought to be a writer when I grow up. My junior year English instructor (who was also our newspaper advisor) once told me I write the most flowery BS she has ever read. She persuaded me to join the newspaper staff my senior year. I won two S.C. Press Association awards in 1999 while working as a newspaper reporter.

25. My wife and I desperately want to have a child soon. She’s tired of me being the only child in the family.