Should have posted this earlier

[river rat]

I was at MCAS Yuma, had just returned a bomb trailer to MAG there.
It was a very beautiful day there. The other ordies and I just kept staring up at the blue like we would see them coming back down or something.
The loss impacted us all.

 

[MMDad]

I was an ET on board USS John Hancock (DD-981) that day, sitting pierside in Charleston, S.C. Not a whole lot of work got done after the explosion.

I knew there was a reason your posts are always so intelligent. I was an ET then too, but I was in IFF C school.

 

[river rat]

I knew there was a reason your posts are always so intelligent.

 

[itsbob]

I was in the Guest house in Schweinfurtl Germany, having just signed in at 1/30th Inf Btn HHC(Recon) 3rd Inf Division.. My family and another were cooking dinner in the shared kitchen, when the others wife ran in and told us to go to our room and turn on the TV

 

[StrawberryGal]

It's hard to believe that it has been 20 years since the Challenger explosion.

I was in second grade when it happened, but I remembered being very confused because I didn't understand why the teachers were crying and everyone was running around like we have to hide under our desks like we are going to get attack by the oncoming bombs. I was/am deaf, so it scared me when I didn't understand what was going on until finally the hearing impaired (HI) teacher came into my classroom and started to explaining to me in sign language. I was in a mainstream classroom (classroom full of hearing students) and I wasn't in hearing impaired classroom very often since I could learn very well in mainstream classroom. Well, when my HI teacher explained and shown me the TV. I was like Oh, I get it and felt very sad. Then, when I got home, my brother sat me down and started to explaining the very same thing as my teacher did in school. He shown me the TV and said those people are a HERO! My brother explained better because he said "HERO" got me understood completely.

My heart go to those heros. I can't believe it has been 20 years now. Made me feel so old, but not as old as most of you.

 

[Larry Gude]

THAT always inspired me...

the pieces continued upward from their own momentum, reaching a peak altitude of 65,000 ft before arching back down into the water. The cabin hit the surface 2 minutes and 45 seconds after breakup, and all investigations indicate the crew was still alive until then.

...as THE horror of it all. I always wondered if they survived impact as well, and drowned.

In any event, I WAS watching. The guy who was teaching me fire alarm (I was a commercial electrician at the time) was a practicing alcoholic and we had started early for lunch, shots of Turkey and draft Buds. We were working on a building in Bethesda, right next door.

We're sitting there admiring how cool it is to be 'elites' who could #### off when we wanted to and having a smoke, drinking, casually watching the tube, flirting up the bartender and...

Go at throttle up.

 

[Otter]

Go at throttle up.

Every time I hear that now, it sends chills up my spine.

 

[Tonio]

When I was a kid, I was hoping we would have half the solar system colonized by the time I was 40. But the Challenger and the Columbia are grim reminders of the hazards of space travel and the bravery of our astronauts.

 

[2ndAmendment]

...as THE horror of it all. I always wondered if they survived impact as well, and drowned.

In any event, I WAS watching. The guy who was teaching me fire alarm (I was a commercial electrician at the time) was a practicing alcoholic and we had started early for lunch, shots of Turkey and draft Buds. We were working on a building in Bethesda, right next door.

We're sitting there admiring how cool it is to be 'elites' who could #### off when we wanted to and having a smoke, drinking, casually watching the tube, flirting up the bartender and...

Go at throttle up.

I was on my way to lunch at the time. The news station had already cut away to regular programing because shuttle launches had become blase'.

I was working at Dahlgren at the time. We studied explosions among other things. When we saw the footage of the explosion, we all said it was "low order" and everyone probably survived. Then some of us quickly worked up ideas of stabilizing and slowing the decent of the shuttle in such an event. We came up with some good ideas. Nothing ever came of any of them.

 

[Hessian]

Teaching...

Stuck my nose in the science lab and was puzzled why all the kids from multiple classrooms were gathered around the TV. Looking over their heads...it sunk in. It was hard to do any teaching in the afternoon.

It seemed like such a sad waste of lives and effort.

Later on I remember a hoax that had a whole dialogue going on because of the claim that the microphones were still funtional & recording...all the way down to the water.

I prefer to hear Reagan's Eulogy.

 

[Larry Gude]

and everyone probably survived. Then some of us quickly worked up ideas of stabilizing and slowing the decent of the shuttle in such an event. We came up with some good ideas. Nothing ever came of any of them.

Ejection seats. Parachutes.

That's what I love about engineering types; y'all don't see accidents; you see problems in need of solutions.

A buddy of mine (engineer) remarked right after 9/11, the next freaking day, that it would have been simple and cheap to integrate some sort of ladder system on the exterior of the buildings for SHTF scenarios; massive fire, some sort of catastrophic failure of the stairwells, terror...

It could have been done to enhance the way the buildings look.

Have a way to get in the building every 100 feet or so...anything but nothing.

 

[2ndAmendment]

Ejection seats. Parachutes.

That's what I love about engineering types; y'all don't see accidents; you see problems in need of solutions.

A buddy of mine (engineer) remarked right after 9/11, the next freaking day, that it would have been simple and cheap to integrate some sort of ladder system on the exterior of the buildings for SHTF scenarios; massive fire, some sort of catastrophic failure of the stairwells, terror...

It could have been done to enhance the way the buildings look.

Have a way to get in the building every 100 feet or so...anything but nothing.

Yeah engineering types.

We concluded that ejection seats or crew egress systems would not be a good solution because of decompression. We figured with some Kevlar wrapping and a separable crew launch quarters and a two or three stage capsule chute system (drogue-steering, high speed braking, braking) that the crew could survive impact with the water. With proper sealing, the separable crew launch quarters would be self buoyant.

I've seen numerous solutions to getting out of tall buildings. Most appear viable. No reason not to have them or retrofit the taller buildings other that economic.