Remember our Heroes

Chal­lenger Crew

Today is the 23^rd anniver­sary of the Space Shut­tle Chal­lenger tragedy.  Yes­ter­day was the 42^nd anniver­sary of the Apollo 1 fire.  And in four short days, it will be the 6^th anniver­sary of the Colum­bia disaster.

We lost 17 brave, extra­or­di­nary souls with these three mis­sions.  They will never be for­got­ten for all the accom­plish­ments they have made, the lives they have touched, and for those who know them best, their character. The fol­low­ing poem was alluded to by Pres­i­dent Ronald Rea­gan dur­ing his remem­brance speech for the Chal­lenger crew.  May God con­tinue to bless the fam­i­lies of the won­der­ful peo­ple we have lost.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sun­ward I’ve climbed, and joined the tum­bling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hun­dred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sun­lit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shout­ing wind along, and flung
My eager craft through foot­less halls of air.…

Up, up the long, deliri­ous burn­ing blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lift­ing mind I’ve trod
The high untres­passed sanc­tity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

–John Gille­spie Magee, Jr.

Apollo 1

• Vir­gil “Gus” Grissom
• Edward H. White
• Roger B. Chaffee

Space Shut­tle Challenger

• Fran­cis R. Scobee
• Michael J. “Mike” Smith
• Judith A. “Judy” Resnik
• Elli­son S. “El” Onizuka
• Ronald E. “Ron” McNair
• Gre­gory  B. “Greg” Jarvis
• Christa McAu­li­ffe

Space Shut­tle Columbia

• Rick D. Husband
• William C. “Willie” McCool
• Michael P. Anderson
• Ilan Ramon
• Kalpana “K.C.” Chawla, Ph.D.
• David Brown, M.D.
• Lau­rel Salton Clark, M.D.

Never for­get.

Related Posts:

None Found