IAMA 97 year old that worked Apollo missions 1 through 14 and knew two presidents before they were president, AMA

Did anyone ever actually say "Houston, we have a problem." ? And if so what was happening?

Yes, Jim Lovell said it when they had an explosion in the propulsion system.

Why had he only seen his wife one time before the wedding?

Well, I went on leave to NY, and, I had one hell of a time. Wine, women, and song. And I was about to leave and go back to my job and I told my sister "You've got a job for the rest of this war. If I survive it, I want you to find the gal I'd like to marry." I said "you know all my specifications." She said "I don't have to find her, I already know her!" I said "tell me about her!" So the first thing she did is show me that picture. And I looked at the picture and said "oh no, nobody that looks as good as that is going to be very sharp, I don't think I want to meet that girl, I don't think I'd like being married to her." My sister said "wait a second" and she got a letter from my wife to my neice who at that time was 3 months old and it was fabulous. And I read the letter and said "I can't believe this." I read the letter, and looked at the picture, and read the letter again, and looked at the picutre again and said "ok I'll marry the girl." And this was before I even met her. So I went off to my regular job which was in Drewfield, Florida and I wrote her and she wrote back, and so first we started writing once every couple of weeks and before we knew it we were writing once every day. And so we said we had to meet each other. And she was in the marine core, sergeant in the marine core, and worked down in Atlanta, GA and I was a first lieutenant in the army working out of Tampa Florida, so we figured out a place that was halfway between both of em, and we met in Jacksonville, Florida, and the first time we saw each other, well it was before that meal was over that we decided when and how and why we were going to get married. Which we did. Two weeks later.

But it was supposed to be Dec 8th, she never showed up on Dec 8th. I had 1000 people there for the wedding. I had to call it all off. I was scared to death because the weather was lousy, and she had to fly in and she mightn't make it, so I dismissed all of the 1000 people and I get a phone call just around midnight - phone call came from Miami, and it was the tearful voice saying "I'm in Miami." And that was my future wife. So we talked and I told her to find a place to sleep, tomorrow is another day, it's fine. Except I got a phone call about a half hour later, a pilot was going to fly her to Drewfield from Miami. The marriage didn't last long - only 58 years, 7 months, and 14 days.

So awesome. Let's see a picture of the happy couple, OP!

Thank for asking! Here and here and here. Also this, cause it's awesome.

Stalin is pleased.

But seriously, awesome. The quality of that last one is legit. Taken by an Army photog, I assume?

He thinks so but isn't sure. He said the guy on the left is Charlie, his subordinate during WWII. I don't know if this is the same guy or not.

Here is a poem she wrote for my grandfather:

I am not lonely in a quiet room, Nor in the empty hours of the night Nor tremble at the heartlessness of light Nor hesitate in walking toward my doom. I look with pain at life and yet assume A never-shifting fearlessness of eye. Although on slender pallets I shall lie Alone, I shall not cry within the gloom.

This while you love me only, understand! This while you still remember white-hot fires We've made and walked through fiercely, hand in hand This while you still extinguish my desires - When you shall forget, or die, or go away How I shall be alone, I cannot say.

What do you remember about Apollo 13? Did you think they would make it back?

No. But they did. Jim Lovell and Tom Hanks visited here in Washington after the movie was made, and I met up with Jim Lovell again. As it happens, Jim Lovell was President of the National Eagle Scout Association, and we met at the National Press Club because they were promoting the movie. Jim recognized me from NASA. I told him that I hadn't slept for about seven days while he was coming back.

All the engineers and everybody else at NASA in Houston were working hard at recovering the moonshot, and they were in real trouble, weren't sure they could get it back. They got a phone call from a grad student at MIT who said he knew how to get them back. They put engineers on it, tested it out, by God it worked. Slingshotting them around the moon. They successfully did. They wanted to present the grad student to the President and the public, but they found him and he was a real hippy type - long hair and facial hair. NASA was straight-laced, and this was different than they expected, so they withdrew the invitation to the student. I think that is a disgrace.

That makes me really sad that they treated him that way. What was the student's name?

He was actually hesitant to share this story because it made NASA look bad to have the kid be so unknown.

Hate to be a downer, but what were the weeks after Apollo 1 like? How did everyone react?

Well, I'm a bad one to ask because I was just transferring to NASA, I had just gotten out of the army, when the first Apollo burned up. But yes, people were going crazy ape. Understandable. My wife and I arrived the night of a big party and the owner of the establishment came out very disturbed telling us there was an accident at the cape. And this thing was never going into space. And people kept asking me questions and I knew no answers. I was brand new. But we were getting these phone calls from all over the world. And so what I did was put my wife on the television and had her bring me the information while I was on the phone. I got my answers from TV and the people on the phone got the answers from me. I don't remember getting to sleep for another two days after that.

Can't even imagine. If you'd answer another question - what was it like when TV was just getting started? Was that your first time on camera? If not, what was that like?

At first, I refused to have television. Damn fad and I wasn't going to have anything to do with it. So as we found out, it was a lot more than a fad.

Thanks for doing this!

It sounds like you've met quite a few famous people. Who was your favorite? Your least favorite?

Could you please describe for us your favorite meal?

My favorite? I don't know. Barry Goldwater would be one of them. Believe it or not, Ronald Reagan was my favorite. I disagreed with him on everything, but he was one of the nicest guys I ever met.

Least favorite? Nixon. Though I didn't know him directly, I knew of him, and indirectly knew a great deal about him. I was a member of the democratic committee of Los Angelos at the time. He was running for the house and most of my political life at the time, was committed to beating Nixon, something I never succeeded in doing.

I'm not much for eating anymore. At one time it was a good steak, but not anymore, my teeth won't allow it.

Great answers, thanks!

If I could ask one more, I'm a record collector, and have quite a few great old swing records. Did he have a favorite swing/jazz band? If I have any of their music I'll give it a spin tonight in his honor.

No, unfortunately. My wife was very much in favor of both jazz and swing, but I didn't like it very much. She liked Benny Goodman of the Big Bands. She liked the Dorsy brothers, both of em.

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I was in Tinian, and I get a phone call 2 o'clock one morning, and this army Colonel gets on the phone and tells me that he doesn't speak any Korean and none of the Koreans he works with speak any English and that he was going crazy. He wanted to know if I could get together a poker game so that he could speak some English. And I said sure thing Colonel, what sort of thing would you like and he said table stakes pot limit 5 card draw. So he came over and he was the US representative with this Korean division. So anyway he came over and we're playing poker. There were eight people in the game and seven stayed in this hand. I had a pair of deuces. And I stayed. And I took three cards and drew another pair of deuces. And the betting started. Of the seven that were in, two had straights, two had flushes, two had full houses. The Colonel who had called me and was sitting next to me had three aces and a pair of something else. The first two to drop were the two that had straights, all their money was in the pot, the two with flushes put all their money in the pot. They all had terrific hands, every one of them had winning hands, but I had the best. I won $7000 from that hand. The best part is that the Colonel is raising and he says "everything on the table plays doesn't it?" I say "Yes Colonel, why?" He had his hand on the table. He said "ok I'm putting this watch in, plus a two hundred dollar raise." I said "Colonel, I don't want your watch." He said, "you're not going to get my watch." I wore that watch for about 12 years.

November 9th, my wedding anniversary.

My Great-Grandfather passed away a few weeks ago, at the age of 96. He also fought in WWII. The problem is I'm a 20 year old German, and I would really really like to know how you feel about us germans nowadays. And where exactly did you fight in europe, and for how long?

I very much appreciate that you decided to do this AMA! A reply from you would mean a lot.

Had to sleep on this one. First of all, I'm German. My parents were German, my Grandparents were German. I don't think I could get away with not liking Germans. Second, I'm Jewish. But remember that anti-Semitism wasn't limited to Germany. In the US, at the time, most advertisements for good jobs would have the annotation NJNA (No Jews Need Apply). My cousin got a good job on Wall Street but lived in fear that they would find out he was Jewish. Since I'm German, the US didn't send me to Europe during the war, they sent me to the Pacific. But after the war I was stationed in Orleans, France, and part of my job took me to Heidelberg once a month. I loved it and loved the German people, for the most part. I didn't know your great-grandfather so I don't know what to say about him. But any soldier is a young man fighting for his country. That takes a lot of courage no matter how you slice it. Whatever he believed he believed for a reason. 'Nuff said.

I will make sure to ask tomorrow. Thanks for the question.

My grandfather, Stuart Allen Roosa, was the Command Module Pilot of Apollo 14. Unfortunately he passed away on my 6th birthday and I don't have many memories of him. Does your grandfather remember anything about him?

Sorry, no dice :(

How was your Jitterbug?

What branch/job title did you hold during WWII?

How has your opinion of political parties changed over the years?

Thank you for your service from one vet to another.

How was your Jitterbug?

Pretty poor. I didn't like jazz very much.

What branch/job title did you hold during WWII?

Well, basically during WWII I was a company commander, just sheer luck, because it was about the most fascinating job I've ever had. And it was around after WWII that I became a company commander in the national guard before going back to Korea, I turned down any other job they tried to give me. I wanted to stay a company commander, I enjoyed it. Which is probably why I only got to around Lt. Colonel. I was signal corps in WWII. Infantry in the National Guard.

How has your opinion of political parties changed over the years?

Well, I don't think my philosophy changed at all, my political hero before WWII was a guy by the name of LaGuardia who was mayor of NY and a liberal Republican, and I was a Republican and my political opinion never really changed. But after WWII I ended up in California, still a Republican, and I tried to be a liberal Republican in California, but that didn't work. So I switched parties around 1946.

In the past, you could find all over the United States a bunch of liberal-thinking Republicans, but now you can't. I don't understand how any thinking person today can be a Republican. The parties were not so rigid.

What is your opinion when people compare gay rights to the civil rights movement? Do you think it will be looked back on the same way we look back on civil rights now?

Also a great line about learning leadership because you had to.

I think it's a fair comparison. What we are doing by and large is taking away the civil rights of people who are, through no fault of their own, different. Everybody deserves their civil rights. The constitution assures them of it.

What is your secret to looking so good at 97?

He says with a smirk: "I was straight laced and circumspect"

Absolutely not true.

What was your favorite moment during the Apollo missions?

My favorite moment? I think it was Armstrong landed on the moon with that silly remark. And he insists he didn't give that silly remark, but I listened to it and listened to it and listened to it, and he did.

Also, another story. When they got to the moon, Armstrong was the first one on the moon, and Aldrin passed the camera down to Armstrong. When we got pictures back at 4 o'clock in the morning, everybody wanted them for the newspapers and magazines. I had a whole photographic lab standing by to prepare the stuff for issuance. Problem was, I didn't know who was who because everybody looked the same in the space suits. But I figured Aldrin passed the camera to Armstrong, so the famous picture of the astronaut by the flag, I figured had to be Aldrin. So that's who I said it was. When Aldrin came back, he told me no, first thing Armstrong did was pass the camera back to me. So that is Armstrong by the flag, not Aldrin. We sent out corrections to everyone, of course, and some people printed the corrections, but most people and newspapers still think it's Aldrin. I suggested that after that they have some distinguishing marks, so since then the mission commander has a stripe on his sleeve. But I always feel like that was my contribution to screwing up history.

What remark is that? "One small step?"

Yes. He said, "It's one small step for Man, one giant step for Mankind." That makes no sense at all. I listened to it a thousand times. He insists there was an "a" in between "for" and "Man." There wasn't.

What are your opinions on modern technology, mainly communication and computers/phones?

I'm living in the wrong generation - those techniques are way beyond my poor efforts at communication. But I talk to my daughter every day in Hong Kong, on ichat. It is like magic. I keep imagining what my mother would have thought if she could see us.

Ask your grandfather to tell us a funny story from his days on the Apollo program.

Oriana Fallaci, she was a world famous correspondent, particulary a war corespondent, and somebody turned to me and said "Fellaci is coming in, she's going to need a place to stay to sleep, can you find her an apartment?" And I said "hell no! Every apartment in Houston is taken up with hundreds of reporters coming in." And they said "can you help anyways?" and so by god I found her an apartment a mile or two from the plant, a mile or two from NASA. And she fell in love with me. It was a weird situation. And really she was one of those Italians that loved to embrace. The only problem was, I don't think she had a bath in 10 years. And boy, she really stank. Anyways, we had the astronauts being presented to the press in our auditorium, and as the thing went on, Orriana came walking out of the place. She looked at me and said <italian accent> "they are not men, they are machines"... a little while later the Chicago Sun Times came out and made his comment which was funnier - "it's the triumph of the androids."

Love that story!!

Any good stories about the crews? Did your grandfather have a lot of day to day involvement with the crews?

Ehh some. I stayed out of those things. There was a club called the Turtle club. If somebody said, "Are you a Turtle" you had to answer "You bet your sweet ass I am" or owe them a drink. Paul Haney was the Chief of Public Affairs and he made me a turtle. When one of astronauts was in orbit and his voice was being heard around the world, Paul asked him, "Are you a Turtle?..." The astronaut had to say, "Paul, I'm going to have to owe you a drink."

I gotta say, you're spot on about Reagan, he was a really nice guy.

I don't have a question, just wanted to say thank you. I wish I was around in your era.

I was!

What do you feel your biggest achievement is?

Behind my wife and my kids, making Eagle Scout before I was 14.

(Eagle Scout) Most of the kids I see earn Eagle at that age these days I feel have not earned it. Mostly I feel they lack the leadership and most of them do the bare minimum on their service project.

What was your project and do you feel you displayed leadership in your troop at that age?

When I made Eagle there was no project. We had no special project. We had a total of 21 merit badges that we had to have and of those about 2/3rds were prescribed for us. And of course I had picked those merit badges for a reason.

Let's put it this way, the boy scouts today have more adults than boys. Today when they go camping there are almost two adults for every boy. When I was a kid, I took my patrol. I was 12 years old, maybe 13. I took my patrol on camping trips, no adults. You developed leadership because you had to.

Do you think that private companies should be leading the US into space or should it remain the government's job to do that? If you do think they should why? If you dont, why?

I think it should remain the government, but Aldrin doesn't agree with me.

Wow this is cool! I have just one question for your grandpa...what is the biggest regret in life?(personal,loves,schooling, anything) and does it still affect you.

Ok, I'll admit to it. My biggest job was public affairs. I represented the army, in the way as an ambassador. And I wrote articles for the newspapers in Japan. I was a representative of the United States Army, I had to eat with the prefects, and the chief of police once a week, mayors of the various towns. But my biggest regret later on was that I never publicized myself, I always buried my participation under a mass of words. So everything that was going on was Army policy and that was it. So I always regretted not getting any publicity. Doesn't affect me much anymore.

How did you know about two presidents before they were presidents? Is there ALOT of lies and conspiracies going on in the government?

I knew Roosevelt as a governor, I knew him when he was governor of NY. And Reagan, whoever thought he was going to be more than president of the screen actors guild, which was already a surprise to everybody, nobody ever thought Reagan was going to be president. Everyone knew Roosevelt was going to be president. Well, not really. We had a governor convention here in VA, and I was invited, I got to know them all at that point. I was 16 at that point, maybe 17. And I watched the national reporters push these governors around all over the place. And I decided that I was never going to be a politician, I was going to be a journalist. That was at the home of Mr and Mrs. Jay Jo

I knew Roosevelt because we were on a committee, the NY City boy scout commission. Roosevelt had a spot as the governor of New York at the time. Anytime Roosevelt showed up, he was boss of the committee whenever he showed up. And you couldn't fight him. I didn't like him very much. In fact, Roosevelt was very very dominant. When he wanted something it went. And by and large, he didn't know what he was talking about. And I was the youngest on that committee, I represented the boy scouts of Queen's NY.

One of the amazing instances of my life was 5 or 6 years after this committee. I had just gotten this job as assistant advertising manager of a paper bag factory. But the first day the reporters that worked there, they were opening a project a few blocks from the factory. And this was one of Roosevelt's primary projects. And they let everybody in the factory out, so they could see Roosevelt go by. And I got out on the edge of the curb, the road that Roosevelt was going to take to the housing, and he came by in that big open care that he had, smoking those cigarettes that were that long, and he sees me, and I will admit, the guy never forgot a name or a face. He looks over, sees me on the edge of the curb, and says "Hi Sandy. How are you?" And I said, "fine, how are you governor?" He had been president for four years. At which point he laughed, took a puff of the cigarette and moved on. Next thing I noticed was that no one was standing within three feet of me, I was in a big U shaped hole. And they were all standing there with their mouths wide open.

Everybody in the factory knew that I was going to vote for Landon, who was Roosevelt's opponent in that election. And they wanted to know how come I was going to do that because he knew me and I knew him. And I said, that's why.

Is there ALOT of lies and conspiracies going on in the government?

I never was part of any of it, and I was awfully boyscoutish and straight laced, so I never did find out much.

I'd love to hear more details about why you didn't like Roosevelt. This is a really great AMA -- thank you!

Edit: Great username, too!

I think it was the clashing of two strong personalities. Or rather, Roosevelt's incredibly overpoweringly strong personality and my grandpa's youthful strong opinions. But he thought Roosevelt was a very domineering personality who always had to have things his way and who would appoint yes-men rather than people who were really competent. We have a letter somewhere where he describes it, I'll see if I can find it tomorrow.

Edit: And thanks, he loves that song. Here are the lyrics for those that don't know.

He must remember the great depression, and probably has some thoughts about how we got into that depression and how we got out. What does he think about the distribution of wealth now in America? Does he think the wealthy need to pay more taxes?

Yes, I think the wealthy need to pay more taxes. Letting them up from paying any taxes at all is a disgrace. There have been many thousands of words written and spoken about this subject, but I'm in favor of taxing the rich as much as they will bear. The point has been made that nobody ever got there all by themselves. It is what the public has done and will do that has made them rich, and it's time we asked them to pay what they can afford to pay -- and nobody ever mentions what they can afford.

The Great Depression, I don't know... I was just a kid. We got out by all of a sudden having demand exceed supply, when we put hundreds of thousands of people to work supplying what was needed to fight WWII. In doing that, we also put millions into the Armed Services so those were people who were now not looking for jobs. So WWII brought us out of the Depression. Society and its efforts to solve the Depression also had its effects, but before the mass exodus of able-bodied citizens from the employment rolls, we were still in the Depression. WWII pulled us out.

Advice to get out of this one? Re-elect Obama.

Whats his view on abortion. (Sorry if he gets offended)

The whole thing appalls me, and I'm kind of against abortion as such, but I don't see how we can rule it out.

Which presidents did your gramps know before they were presidents? :_D

Reagan and Roosevelt

Tell us all about Roosevelt. That man was a boss. Any funny stories? Stories of epic-ness? And finally, how tense was the moon landing at NASA? That must have been insane to work on that.

Good Roosevelt story below on other question below...

Fantastically tense. Because here was this accident prone pilot, Armstrong, who couldn't find a place to land on the moon. We had less than a minute left of fuel when they found a place to land. And people at NASA were going crazy. We thought we'd lost them.

Thanks for doing this AMA! What a life you have had! What did you do after you retired? How many kids did you and your wife have? Have many grandchildren? Any great grandchildren or great-great grandchildren? What did you study at University of Virginia?

My wife and I started a political communications organization and we represented Democratic candidates. My wife wrote speeches and I did radio and TV spots and we were successful in selling our candidates.

Three kids, ten grandkids, seven great-grandkids so far.

English, at the end. I was an immature kid, 16. I made Dean's List without any effort in the first term at University. At the end of my first term, because of being on the Dean's List I had the school's approval for any failure to attend class. So I had a ball. I went to New York, Chicago, Washington DC. My parents thought I was still in school. When I came back to school, I had to take my exams. I went in to take my Math exam and the professor looked at me and said, "Well, I used to give quizzes every Friday and those quizzes counted at 1/3 of the class. Since you got a 0 on all of those, you have 67% of the course. So you have to get 100% on your final exam. If you get less, you fail." So they gave out the exams and it was a total of 7 questions, and the course was advanced analytic geometry. The first 6 questions I finished them all in the first half-hour. But the last question I could not get to save my life. I tried every way to figure it out. At the end of almost four hours, the answer finally came to me! I started rapidly putting it on paper, at which point the bell rang. There was an honor code at Virginia, so I picked up my pencil, took it in to the professor, gave him the exam. He said, "Did you max it?" I said, "If you give me ten minutes more, I'll max it." He said, "Nope, you fail the course." So I had been a Math major, hoped to be a math professor, but switched to English because of that. I passed all my other classes, though.

What was it like to be a part of the moon program? Also, given the excitement and optimism at that time (moon bases and manned missions to mars), are you disappointed with the current state of space exploration?

Uhh, I don't know. I don't think so. I think that we're still consolidating everything we found out back in '68. It's a long time ago and I don't think they've got everything in line yet. But the next thing NASA has to do is another step forward, Mars, and they have to work that out, and they have to work that out to millions or billions of dollars.

Just a neat photo to share with you from my grandpa! http://imgur.com/lw5X5

Very cool. I showed him. Is the guy on the right your grandpa?

First thank you so much for taking time to have story time with Reddit!

I would like to know what you think has been the best invention ever made?

Also, if you wife liked Jazz/Swing what kind of music would you listen to?

Thank you!

The most impressive invention ever made, to my mind, is scotch tape, because of all of the differences it made in your life.

I listened to show tunes.

You mentioned you represented Queens Boy Scouts. What neighborhood did you live in? Have you been back recently to it?

Far Rockaway, New York. Depends on what you call recent... I was back there in 1970-something.

What was his job for the Apollo missions except for 8 and 11?

Deputy chief of Television and Radio

Do you ever watch television nowadays?

favorite shows?

your top 3 movies?

Assuming you watch some modern shows that are set 60-70 years ago, Mad Men for example, do you find them an accurate depiction of that time?

He's sleeping now but I'll do my best. He worked in big advertising for a number of years actually, a whole area of his life that we didn't even touch on.

All he watches nowadays is baseball. But I've heard my Mom comment that Mad Men gave her a vague feeling of familiarity and she didn't know why. Finally she realized it was because it reminded her of her childhood and the clothes my grandma and grandpa wore.