Found a neat picture of my grandfather

DavidWhite

DavidWhite

Final Approach
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I posted this on Facebook, but I figure it's probably worth posting again here.

I found a cool picture of my grandfather inside one of the Mercury capsules (I think this was Freedom 7 - the one now in The Smithsonian) He was a doctor in the Life Systems Division in NASA for the whole of project Mercury. He volunteered to test the systems before they put any astronauts in it.

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The second picture is my grandfather and Alan Shepherd during a practice launch. This picture is from an article in the September 1961 issue of National Geographic - an article that my grandfather wrote about Alan Shepherds flight.

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Very neat. Thank you for sharing. Living in Huntsville Alabama we are pretty entralled with space here.
 
I've always loved flight/space. I would have liked to have been an astronaut (my grandfather would have liked to, as well!) but he had lots of nerve damage from shrapnel in WW2 and he couldn't be a pilot. One of these days I will scan all of his letters that he sent home during WW2 and put them up on the Internet - they really give a good idea of what life was like back then. There is one from May 26th, 1944 - the next one is from June 15th, 1944 written on paper with a Red Cross watermark. Apparently the Germans weren't all too keen on him and his buddies landing on Omaha beach and caused quite the ruckus. A mortar landed near him and he caught some shrapnel, but he picked up one of his buddies who got knocked down and carried him to the base of the seawall where they could get some very basic treatment. He got the Silver Star for that.

After he recovered from that, he moved to an engineering unit. I'm not too familiar with military terms, but everyone in his 60ish man group got wiped out besides him and 2 other guys on D-Day. He got a battlefield commission and a post in a quiet forest in Belgium - the Germans didn't seem to care too much for them being around there either and attacked. The second time they wounded him it was bad enough to knock him out of the war - same deal with a mortar. This time he didn't just catch a little bit though, he got a lot. That's when he had the nerve damage - he always walked with a limp.

Went through all that just to have cancer take him. I really wish Id known him better. He used to buy me books on how to make paper airplanes and even bought me my first joystick for flight simulator.
 
Is your grandfather still around? If so this sounds like a good subject to discuss with him while recording the discussion if he's OK with that. The picture and the recording will be of great interest to your own children someday.
 
Unfortunately he passed away in 2001. With both my dads parents health failing I learned way more about them in the last 6 months than I did in any of the time before that. My Grandpa passed away in November and the doctor has given my Grandma a few days. I knew that my grandfather on my moms side worked with NASA and was in WW2 but I never knew how involved he was until I started digging around in family history. I really wish I had known him better, I think he would have loved to go flying with me.
 
Very nice, David. Your grandfather was a hero in more ways than one.

Also, you look a bit like him.

-Rich
 
I guess with the oldest generation of my family sliding away I wanted to learn more about both sides of my family.
 
Great story.

I have missed my grandparents for years. The last surviving grandparent of mine died in 1994. I flew over to VRB two weekends ago to have lunch with my big sister, we probably spent half of lunch talking about our grandparents and how we missed them and our fond memories of them. My fathers father made a cassette(those little square plastic things)tape of how he entered the country, his childhood, and his life memories about a year before he died in 1978, and added to it about a month or so before he died. It is a cherished momento. I asked my parents to do the same, and hopefully they will. Unfortunately, my parents are not as much into their grandkids as their parents were, and I feel so sorry for my kids for the experience they will never have. Some of my favorite memories are those of my grandparents. I think grandparents are great!
 
RJM62 said:
Very nice, David. Your grandfather was a hero in more ways than one.

Also, you look a bit like him.

-Rich
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His sister always said I looked like him, I didn't believe it until I saw a picture of him when he was close to my age. I can definitely see the resemblance.
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I'm pretty sure that picture was taken when he was in medical school though, so he is a few years older in that picture than I am now.
 
DavidWhite said:
Unfortunately he passed away in 2001. With both my dads parents health failing I learned way more about them in the last 6 months than I did in any of the time before that. My Grandpa passed away in November and the doctor has given my Grandma a few days. I knew that my grandfather on my moms side worked with NASA and was in WW2 but I never knew how involved he was until I started digging around in family history. I really wish I had known him better, I think he would have loved to go flying with me.
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Sorry about your grandparents. Never easy to see them go.
 
Awesome pictures and cool story David. I completely understand your desire to have been able to talk more with your grandfather and know him better.

Jenn's grandfather was an extraordinary gentleman as well but died long before I knew Jenn when she was still in middle school. I still think about the stories he could have shared and the things I could have learned from him. I just googled him and found his obituary from the New York Times in 1989. Here's a link if you're curious: http://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/18/o...chairman-of-sperry-at-time-of-big-merger.html

If you google Lucky Lady Bett there's a web page that one of Jenn's cousins put together with information about his plane, crew, and missions from WW2.

Keep digging for details about your grandfather's life. I'd be curious to hear more over a beverage next time I see you.
 
What an amazing life he had. Truly the greatest generation.

You should be really proud.
 
Your grandfather was a hero from the most selfless generation to date. Thanks for sharing!

Now, if you will, imagine YOUR grandson in a forum like this, 70 years from now. What record will he have to reminisce about old Grandpa David?

I'm turning 50 in a couple of weeks and other than my wedding pictures, I have very little record of my twenties because I didn't, at the time, realize the importance. I teach my sons to document EVERYTHING. Not just weddings and birthdays, but the every day stuff. Video, photos, letters(it's sad that we don't write letters like we used to, but that's another thread) save it all. Our descendants have the means not to wonder, but to know what our lives were like. Don't take your youth for granted. As weird as it sounds right now, think of your grandkids.

Sorry about the soapbox. I had a videography business many moons ago and my slogan was "documentation is everything"...Again, thanks for sharing.
 
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