Pacific Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 19, 1959, Tokyo, Japan Thursday february 19, 1959 the stars and stripes Page 9 space Man nominees Complete first screening phase by William d. Hall Washington up the orders read simply report to room 4-e-1085 of the Pentagon for temporary duty. But most of the Jet pilots who received them suspected what was in the works. They knew for sure when Gen Thomas d. White air Force chief of staff strode into the room and announced he wanted to shake hands with the first american who will reach outer name of the program is project Mercury the purpose to put a manned space vehicle into 30 air Force test pilots were gathered in the Pentagon of fice to shake hands with were among 1-0 air Force Navy and Marine pilots brought to Washington for initial screening. Twelve of them will be chosen to work on the project from the Start. One of the 12to be selected at the last minute eventually will ride a space ship vehicle atop an minuteman flight tests slated for 60, of says los Angeles a the air Force says its program for the minuteman its second generation intercontinental ballistic missile is rolling schedules Are being met Competition for the engine contracts will be concluded before next Jan. 1, and the flight test program will get under Way next year the service says. The minuteman is a solid propel Lant icbms intended for launching from underground silos or hiding places. It would follow the Atlas and Titan liquid propellant first generation of icbms once in place the minuteman will be left unmanned unattended. It will be fired from underground control centers housing two or three men connected with other subterranean control centers. The air Force expects to reduce the manpower needed for ballistic missiles from approximately 100 per Atlas or Titan to seven for each minuteman. Hidden locations the hew missile will be installed in hidden locations throughout the country. To deceive the enemy the air Force plans to build More minuteman holes than missiles. Occasionally too a missile May prove defective and worthless. In such cases the faulty minuteman May be kept in its Hole again for the purpose of deceiving the ballistic missiles division in charge of All the air Force Long Range rockets sees these advantages for the minuteman Over icbms now in production 1it is smaller and lighter than the Atlas. The exact dimensions and weight Are secret.2it will be More easily Dis Persed than liquid fuelled missiles lending itself More readily to the use of shelters that can not be knocked out readily by nuclear weapons. 3using a solid propellant it will be capable of going into action almost instantaneously. 4its simplicity of design will greatly reduce the ground support facilities and manpower needed. Maintenance in the Field will be unnecessary and the preliminary countdown or checkout will not be will be profoundly lower than for other icbms. The air Force says the whole Cost of building underground environmental shelters is not High and such shelters will provide the fairly even temperatures that make for successful missile storage. The minuteman is a three stage missile Slimmer than As Well As smaller than the Atlas. Its rocket engines will provide 2m times Smuch Power As anything yet built propulsion experts half dozen companies Are working on various phases of its development. 4th army band concerts Goeppinger Germany Spe Cial the 4th army div band played four concerts of american music for German schools in the Goeppinger area. Atlas intercontinental ballistic mis Sile and go into orbit around the Earth. How is he going to feel the Day they push the one candidate said the Man who sitting in this thing is going to be scared As hell. But he s not going to Back out. Hell have had a lot of training and if he has gone that far hell go All the Way even though he knows there s a lot of risk involved. It s no snap decision. If it was he d probably have backed out right s probably no Tost Pilot alive who takes up � m w Airali Moho s not apprehensive about his life. But he s trained to do this sort of thing and he s not going Toback out just because he s the pilots had several tilings uncommon. They All wore Tost pilots with degrees in engineering or one of Tho physical sciences and they met certain physical requirements. After meeting with while Ilvy joined Navy and Marine corp pilots in a Pentagon auditorium for a detailed briefing by scientist from the National aeronautics and space administration Nasa. The candidates were assured that this was not a crush put a Man into space deadline the 12 volunteers who arc selected will have a Strong voice in the final design of the capsule that will Curry one of them into space. They also will have a say program Toby n certain first flight can be minimum Chance or. Carl a. Frische left president of the Sperry Gyroscope co., great neck n.y., reviews technical aspects of guiding the nation s first Man in the company supplied the inertial system which will direct the Pilot of the x15 rocket research Craft. Working the equation concerned with extreme velocities to be encountered during air Force space probes is nil nil p. White engineering chief of the company s a inertial navigation Section. Dpi photo trooping the news line ski club plans Alpine Outing Heidelberg Germany Spe Cial members of the Heidelberg International ski club Are Busy waxing to Weir skis As they prepare for a Washington s birthday week end visit to Davos Switzerland. In its third year of pilgrimages to Europe s Best known Winter re sorts the club believes it is the Only american International ski club in have -165 German and Amer ican members and Are looking for More to share our weekend an Holiday fun said club president John s. Kartovsky chief of the administration of the Usa eur transportation Section. Last year the club won the Berchtesgaden Challenge trophy in March at the All army european ski club far this season the club has made three trips to German and austrian ski areas. It has also accepted invitations to joint ski meetings with austrian and Ger Man ski easter time the club plans to make an Outing to Klutz Bushel Austria. Sailor cited for Rescue in Morocco Kenitra Morocco special an electronics technician at port Lyautey has been Given the Navy commendation ribbon with Metal Pendant for helping to save the life of a Young French citizen in the Waters off Mehdia Beach Here. The award was made to David h. Kruse 20, of Waltham mass. He is assigned to the electronics depart ment of the naval communications facility at Sidi Yahia. The citation from the Secretary of the Navy reads for heroism in the rescuing of a youth from drowning at Media Beach on july 27, 1958. Observing the Young French National being swept out to sea by a Strong undertow Kruse who was playing Ball on the Beach with four other servicemen immediately dashed into the treacherous surf. He swam approximately 150 Yards to the Side of the flounder ing youth and succeeded in bring ing him Halfway to Shore where two lifeguards assisted in the res be. New Monitor system installed at Tempelhof Berlin special a new Moni Tor system has been installed Here in the flight facilities office of the1946th air and airways communication service so at Tempelhof Central Airport. The system enables maj Joseph Harkiewicz Squadron commander and capt Vincent Rybaltowski flight facilities officer to Monitor Barracks War being waged by 3d inf div mortar Crew Wuerzburg Germany special High on the third floor of an army Barracks a miniature War is being waged by a fully equipped 3d inf div mortar team. We Haven t blown the roof off once says sp4 Roy g. Mason of Detroit who devised the indoor firing device. Yet he maintains we be been firing and hitting our targets regularly the secret is that the War is fought with mirrors and the target score is recorded by the reflected Flash of Light on an objective. A Light at the base of a mortar travels the length of a barrel Extension tube reflects off a horizontal Mirror and hits the mock miniature terrain below. A Forward observer records hits or misses while other mortar Crew members compute data for accurate firing. Any one of the numerous radio frequencies used for controlling air traffic within the Berlin control area. Bad Cannstatt Hospital opens new lab Wing bad Cannstatt Germany special a new 18-room Labora tory Wing of the 75th station hos Pital has been opened Here. The Laboratory which serves the Stuttgart medical service area i headed by capt William j. Jaffers. Assistant lab chief is 1st it Rob Ert e. Anderson. Tape recorder donated to Nellinger school Nellinger Germany Spe Cial american military personnel and women s clubs donated a tap recorder to a school for retarded German children Here. Officials of the Paulinen school which received the gift said the apparatus would be of consider Able help in aiding students to Correct speech defects. Italian students Given tour of Aviano base As to when the made with the of Accident. Can i lira late out scientists sought to allay the airmen s fear. They pointed out that the Pilot could separate him self from the launching rocket and Parachute to safety a any Tim simply. By pushing a Button. One Young air Force Captain worried about the possibility of launching Accident said that this made me feel a lot belter about the whole said to decided then to Volunteer for Tho program if he qualified. But. Immediately he be Gan worrying whether i could Cut the Mustard survive the Competition with All these talented flown 14 jets he has 2,100 flying hours 1,000 of them in 14 different jets rang ing from the first operational Jet the f80a, through the f.1.04, which holds All records for air breathing he returned to the Pentagon in the afternoon for a Brief medi Cal review and picked up instructions for the second Day of screen was told to report to Nasa Headquarters in civilian clothing to avoid attracting any unnecessary attention. The technical screening took place in a class room like auditorium at Nasa. It involved mathematics from Arith Metic to calculus technical Vocab ulary on everything from electrical engineering to Medicine andean engineering test that would have done Justice to a graduate school. Life history summary after that there was a biographical interview a Complete sum Mary of his life history plus the history of his the third Day the scientists tried to find out what made each Man began with a psychiatric interview. One big question was whether a Man had a wife who was completely opposed to him taking part in a space program. If he did he could t do his Best work. There was a talk with an other psychiatrist later in the Day. Medical interview in Between there was a medical interview. The physician went through each Man s Complete medi Cal history and asked questions about everything from boils to Back injuries. The final part of the screening was a technical interview with three Nasa scientists. A big question was How would you feel if you were selected As one of the 12 for the program and then in the end did t get to Fly special mor Young people Aviano ital than 120 italian from Aviano High school were Given a tour of this . Air Force base visitors expressed most in Terest in their close up views of fido Jet aircraft. The tour was sponsored by the base information services office As part of its Community relations program. In the space vehicle the Captain thought he gave the right answer regardless of whether i get to Fly it the experience would be invaluable and i would be getting in on the ground floor of a new age of candidate then was told to return to his Home base. He hear in about a week whether he was one of 36 to 40 pilots selected for phase ii. Survival gear exhibited wheelus Libya special if you know your survival equip ment you will live to Tell others is the theme of the display Here of survival kit equipment. The display is a project of the per Sonal equipment Section of the 7235th support so
