Page Text: Thoughts From Homer Hickam at Skyridge
This is the blog of author Homer Hickam. Skyridge is his home in St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands rebuilt after the hurricanes of 2017
Tuesday, February 8, 2022
Don't Blow Yourself Up - To order click on cover
Many readers have asked for photos to better illustrate my memoir, Don't Blow Yourself Up : The Further Adventures and Travails of the Rocket Boy of October Sky. Included in the stories are some beloved cats. Here they are.
TIKI and TECH - Siamese cat brothers who belonged to my parents and lived in Coalwood, WV during the time described in the memoir.
Only known photo of one of the Siamese, either Tiki or Tech, displaying typical Siamese behavior of climbing up on things
GATO - Homer got Gato along with his sister in Salt Lake City the summer of 1967 as a gift for a friend. She named him Nephi and the sister Amelia. Homer ended up with Nephi who was renamed Gato. Gato was a beloved friend who went everywhere with Homer. He died in Germany in 1981.
Young Gato at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah 1967
Young Gato outside on Dugway Proving Ground, Utah 1967
14 year old Gato, Germany, 1981
BC - Technically not a cat, BC was known as a banana cat in Vietnam. BC lived with Homer at the Oasis, a firebase on the Cambodian border, in 1968, even through a battle during the Tet Offensive. Homer had to give BC away to a medic who was glad to have him.
BC on a sandbag
Homer and BC at the Oasis, 1968
PACO - Paco was Homer's cat from 1986 well into the 2000's. He was a special cat who shared his life with Homer and his wife Linda during most of Homer's NASA career.
Paco after SL-J, the Japanese space mission for which Homer was the training manager. Gato is wearing a Ninja helmet given to him by the Japanese space agency after Paco saved the mission.
Paco on his favorite rock beside his house in Huntsville. He often waited there for Homer to come home from work
Paco with Homer's novel Back to the Moon - He was a character in the novel
Cli ck on cover to order Don't Blow Yourself Up
"The Purposeful Adventurer" part of the new memoir Don't Blow Yourself Up covers Homer Hickam's adventures underseas including his diving on the World War II U-boats U-352 and U-85 discovered off North Carolina's Outer Banks. His primary dive companion on many of these dives was Army Captain Dave Todd.
Diver Dave Todd inspects the U-352 tower. I had placed our scooter in the open hatch after exhausting its batteries
Diver Dave Todd inspects the hold of a World War II torpedoed freighter
Conning tower of the U-85 off Cape Hatteras
Homer Hickam and Dave Todd with scuba gear to dive World War II U-boats and other wrecks
Divers Dave Todd and Homer Hickam
Homer's other diving adventures carried him to Isla de Guanaja in Honduras. His main companion for these dives was his girlfriend Linda Terry (LT). his good buddy Carl Spurlock often went along.
Neysa Holland, Carl Spurlock, Homer Hickam, Linda Terry (LT) treasure hunting on Guanaja
Casa Sobre del Mar, our home away from home in Guanaja. It was built and owned by Ivey Garrett. Sadly, it was destroyed by Hurricane Mitch.
A long climb but worth it - the waterfall in Guanaja
Carl Spurlock, Linda Terry (LT), and Homer Hickam at the UAT
Linda took this shot of Homer Hickam looking up at black coral while visiting the Cochinos in Honduras
The slate used during Homer Hickam's emergency decompression in Guanaja
The back of the slate used during the emergency decompression
A view of Homer Hickam's beach on Guanaja, Honduras.
Our wonderful divemaster in Guanaja - Gilbert Wood
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After requests from readers for more illustrations in my new memoir Don't Blow Yourself Up , I am writing a series of blogs with photos and maps. This one covers Part 4 of the memoir titled NASA MAN which includes my career with NASA from 1981 to 1998.
I was hired by NASA while I was still in Germany working for the Army in Grafenwoehr, the big training base in Bavaria that is used to train combat units. My job was to manage the work needed to keep the base operational. NASA wanted me to come and help the Spacelab Program Office keep track its many work orders and inventory by computerizing the system.
Spacelab rested in the cargo bay with a connecting tunnel.
This I did until the Challenger disaster. I was in Japan negotiating with their space agency for a Spacelab mission when Challenger and her crew were lost. I returned and worked on the solid rocket motor redesign for awhile, then asked to transfer to the Mission Operations Lab and became a payload crew training manager. I also worked in NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Simulator as a diver helping astronauts to work underwater on various space missions. Water provided buoyancy and simulated microgravity.
Homer Hickam in orange wet suit working with astronaut in Neutral Buoyancy Simulator
During this time, I volunteered to design and manage the construction of a small neutral buoyancy tank at Space Camp in Huntsville. We called it the Underwater Astronaut Trainer (UAT). I also designed a suit that students could wear underwater just like real astronauts. With my company Deep Space, we trained Space Camp/Academy students in the evening.
Linda Terry and student in the UAT suit around 1989. I am top left. Linda is LT in the memoir. We were married a decade later.
In the UAT suit
I also went up to New York and trained David Letterman to scuba dive and work in the UAT helmet for a show that unfortunately never happened
In 1989, I was assigned to Japan to help train the first Japanese astronauts. This began many adventures there and I met many wonderful Japanese trainers, engineers, and astronauts
Takao Doi, Momoru Mohri, Homer Hickam, Stan Koszelak, Chiaki Mukai
Spacelab-Japan Training Team. I'm 3rd from left 2nd row.
After Spacelab-Japan flew in 1992, I worked on the Hubble Space Telescope repair mission in the Neutral Buoyancy Simulator. To prepare for the astronauts to train, some of us engineers went underwater in the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) suit to work out the procedures. It was the first use of Nitrox, a mixed gas that some feared would cause the "suited subject" to catch on fire. To make sure it was OK, we volunteered to go into the suit.
Homer Hickam in the EMU suit working the HST repair procedures
After SL-J and HST, I wrote a Tech Study on how the USA could go back to the Moon. NASA had no interest in going and engineers were restricted from helping me but I did it, anyway, by disguising it as a study of the South Pole Station. This study is still on the books and available to the managers and engineers as we finally go back to Luna (let's hope that remains true).
My clever little moon anchor as described in my 1993 (!) study for NASA
My study can be seen here: https://homerhickamblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/1993-study-of-moon-laboratory-by-homer.html
I also got to meet a very special person and give her a tour of the Spacelab module in our Payload Crew Training Complex. Hello Olivia!
Olivia Newton-John and Homer Hickam
Afterwards, I was assigned to the International Space Station as the payload training manager. I was one of a team of NASA managers and engineers sent to negotiate with the Russians to figure out how we were going to build the station and train the cosmonauts and astronauts.
I had an interesting time in Moscow and the environs and made many friends
With a replica of Sputnik 1 and shaking hands with a cosmonaut
In 1998, I retired from NASA. I had 30 years of federal service and it was time to let younger folks take over. I also had a new writing career!
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Homer Hickam Vietnam Service Area - Photos/Maps to Accompany Memoir: Don't Blow Yourself Up
This blog presents maps and photos to accompany the portions of Homer Hickam's memoir Don't Blow Yourself Up that cover his service in Vietnam.
Google Earth Map of Vietnam today. It is considered part of Southeast Asia
South Vietnam (aka The Republic of Vietnam) was divided into four areas by US forces during the Vietnam war. II Corps comprised the area known as the Central Highlands, a very mountainous, heavily forested region. Hickam served entirely in II Corps. While he was in Vietnam, the 4th Infantry Div. and the First Cavalry Div. were the two largest American army forces in the region, the 4th with headquarters near Pleiku, the 1st with headquarters near An Khe.
If you look below the large word SOUTH on this map, you will see the coastal city of Qui Nhon. This was a staging area for the US Army during the war and supplies were carried westward by truck convoys to American and South Vietnamese forces. Look westward from Quih Nhon (to the left) and you'll see Pleiku, the capital of the Central Highlands area. Follow the road north from Pleiku and you'll see the town of Kontum. Keep going and you'll see Dak To. Follow the road south from Pleiku, you'll see the town of Ban Me Thuot. Follow the road west out of Pleiku, you'll see the Cambodian border. Nearby was the Oasis Firebase. Follow the road east from Pleiku, you'll see the Mang Yang Pass. Nearby was Blackhawk Firebase. These were the primary locations Hickam served in the Vietnam War. Hickam flew into Cam Ranh Bay, a giant American base on the sea. In this map, at bottom left, it is designated Ganh Rai Bay.
This is a closer look at the area from Kontum in the north to Ban Me Thuot to the south where Hickam served. Except for brief air hops in and out, he did not serve in or near Saigon.
This is a GoogleMaps map of the Central Highlands of Vietnam with "Dragon Mountain" shown. This was near the location of Camp Enari, the base camp of the 4th Infantry Division.
Artillery Lieutenant Rick Terrell, Texas A&M graduate who taught Hickam how to call in artillery on the flight over to Vietnam
Lieutenant Nick Jarrett at the Oasis. Nick taught Hickam how to lead his men.
Homer Hickam after a day on the road in Vietnam
Hickam with his banana cat he named BC
Muddy lake of a work area at BMT that had to be drained one way or the other
Hickam at shot-up gas station in Ban Me Thuot
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The Illustrated Don't Blow Yourself Up Part 1: Everybody's Favorite Cadet
Now that my memoir Don't Blow Yourself Up: The Further Adventures and Travails of the Rocket Boy of October Sky has been published, I've gotten a number of requests or wishes that there would have been more photos, maps, etc. so that some of the events and places might be better understood and enjoyed.
Since I like to please my readers, I am happy to comply with at least a blog that will help illustrate the memoir. This is being done quickly so please forgive the quality of the photos. Let's start at the beginning of the memoir and that's Part 1, Everybody's Favorite Cadet.
Part 1 of DBYU
This part covers my college years and especially the building of the famous iconic cannon Skipper. Sadly, when I began to research the memoir, it quickly became evident that there is little photographic evidence of the old girl but I'll do what I can.
One question that has arisen is why did I go to Virginia Tech (often called VPI in those days) and not West Virginia University? Mostly, it was because that's where my mother wanted me to go. This was because (1) my brother was already there on a football scholarship and it was simpler for her to keep track of her boys if they were both at the same place, (2) VPI had a really good engineering school, and (3) Blacksburg was a lot closer to Coalwood than Morgantown. Although I don't have maps of that era, here are a couple from today that still illustrates that situation:
Coalwood to Blacksburg
Coalwood to Morgantown
In 1960, the trip from Coalwood to Morgantown was even longer, often involving an overnight. There were no Interstates back then!
VPI was then almost exclusively a men's military college and most students were in its Cadet Corps (unless you were a veteran or, like my brother Jim, could opt out because he was a scholarship athlete).
The first year at VPI, I was one of hundreds of freshmen or, as they were called, Rats. We underwent some harsh discipline which, along with the tough academics, weeded out a lot of us.
Photo taken from the 1963 VT Yearbook Bugle
However, after a rough start which included getting more demerits than any cadet in my class, I began to fit in well and actually started to like it, enough that I became the self-proclaimed Everybody's Favorite Cadet.
Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets formation, 1962
Cadet Hickam, Sophomore year
I saw little of my brother during our years there but I was still proud of his first-string status on the football team.
Brother Jim at VTech
I was a member of Squadron A, class of '64, and we became as close as brothers. Even today, we still are. Here is a photo of us at that time.
That's me upper right with George Fox (fellow cannon builder) causing trouble as always.
One of the big events for our Corps was the annual Thanksgiving game against the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) It was called the Military Classic of the South and was a very big deal.
A Squadron marching through Roanoke for the big game
VMI had a small game cannon they called Little John. They would fire it and then chant "Where's your cannon?" We didn't like that much so three of us decided to do something about it. Ultimately, even though we had no support from the University at all, and were often actively opposed by the Administration, Butch (Ben) Harper, George Fox, and I conceived, designed, and built our own cannon. We named it Skipper after our assassinated young President JFK, skipper of a PT-boat during WWII.
The only known photo (copied from The Roanoke Times) of Skipper the day of the big game in 1963. That's me with my back turned, probably because we were still unauthorized.
Skipper was a huge success. We fired it and chanted "Here's our cannon!"
Cadet 1st Lieutenant "Flash" Hickam, Senior Year
Here's some more information and photos of the Skipper story
Skipper has gone on to become an icon at Virginia Tech. Butch, George (now deceased), and I have returned many times to celebrate it with today's marvelous young cadets. There's even a special Skipper crew now, designated by the red stripes on their pants. Butch and I returned on Veteran's Day, 2021, to celebrate our old Skipper and the new one that still roars at games and special events on the Virginia Tech campus.
Butch Harper and I with the original Skipper and the Skipper crew
Me with the present-day Skipper and its crew in May, 2021. I donated my sabre (it has my name inscribed on it) to the crew and it is carried by its commander.
To order my new memoir, please go here and click on the appropriate link! www.homerhickam.com
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