posted 04-28-2024 11:05 AM               

Space Cover 751: The General. Tom Stafford.

With the recent passing of General Tom Stafford we have lost another one of the heroes of the Space Age.

Tom Stafford is remembered as a renowned Air Force pilot, Gemini, Apollo and Apollo Soyuz astronaut, political consultant, and is responsible for stealth technology as we know it.

Before all this he was just a small town boy from Weatherford Oklahoma, a town that is the home of the Stafford Air and Space Museum which houses among other items Stafford's Apollo 10 spacesuit, the Gemini 6A spacecraft, and the hatch through which the Apollo astronauts greeted the Russian cosmonauts during the historic Apollo Soyuz mission.

I had the privilege of exhibiting my artwork at the museum during the Apollo 10 50th anniversary gala weekend.

For show and tell here I have chosen covers from each of General Stafford's mission.

Gemini 9 Beck U.S.S. Wasp Recovery Ship cover dated June 6, 1966 (above).

Gemini 6a Cape Canaveral cancel Orbit cover dated on the launch of the mission, December 15, 1966.

My father Paul Calle and General Stafford were good friends who met during the Gemini period and become much closer when my father was asked by Deke Slayton to document the training of the Apollo and Soyuz crews during training in Russia. He and Slayton had know each other from the early days of Gemini and it was Deke who arranged for my father to sketch the Apollo 7 crew suiting up in 1968, paving the way for his being in the breakfast and suiting up room during Apollo 11 the morning of the launch to the Moon. .

My dad accompanied the American delegation to the Soviet Union, and with his sketch pads created pen and ink drawings of the activities of the astronauts and cosmonauts much like his time with the Apollo 11 crew in1969.

He told me many stories of his time with the astronauts and cosmonauts and how with an introduction by Tom Stafford, he and cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became friends. Leonov would watch over my fathers shoulders as he sketched. One story happened when the Americans and Russians were touring a famous Art museum in Moscow. As the tour was finishing, my father was enthralled with one of the paintings. The astronauts and others were ready to leave and through his interpreter Leonov asked my father what he found interesting about the painting. As they discussed the piece Leonov asked my father why he looked sad, and my father replied, "Alexei, because I could spend days here looking a the artwork". Alexei spoke to a few people, the rest of the delegations left, and Alexei and Paul spent the rest of the afternoon at the museum ending up with the two heading to Leonov's apartment where they continued their discussions about art and life over vodka. Leonov presented my father with one of his paint brushes which was a treasured memento of the trip.

Apollo 10 Lunar Voyage Cachets cover dated on Launch day March 18, 1969 and signed by the crew of Tom Stafford, John Young and Gene Cernan.

I became friends with General Stafford through the various space events in the 2000's and made it a point to try to see him each year when I was in Florida at an ASF event or other function. I never quite knew how to address him, General Stafford seemed so formal but Tom seemed so informal! He told me to call him Tom so I did on some occasions, other times General. It was a privilege to hear him speak about the early days of the Space Race, funny stories with his fellow astronauts, and the amazing friendship he had with Alexei Leonov.

Over the years he confirmed many of my father's own stories, told me ones I had never heard, and added details to a few I already knew like the story about the Apollo astronauts setting off fireworks in Star City..... Ask me about that one next time you see me!

Apollo Soyuz "Union in Space" Space Voyage cover dated July 17, 1976 with a Houston cancel. The cover is signed by the Apollo crew of Tom Stafford, Deke Slayton and Vance Brand as well as the Soyuz cosmonauts Alexei Leonov and Valery Kubasov. Additionally the cover is signed by President Gerald Ford.

Here is an add-on cachet cover produced using one of my father's drawings of Tom Stafford and Vance Brand during the ASTP training, and another cover referencing the Apollo Soyuz crew patch which my father was asked to design. He created some amazing sketches which included a "Peace Dove". I have a funny letter from Deke Sayton to my father basically saying that they appreciated the sketches but at the moment they were not that into peace doves for the patch design. Artist Bob McCall ended up designing the patch for ASTP but I have plans to create a few patches for the Apollo Soyuz 50th anniversary in 2025 utilizing my father's concepts.