posted 05-03-2007 12:44 PM               

I first talked to Wally at the Washington, DC autograph show a few years ago. He got a kick out of my collectSPACE "GOT SPACE" T-shirt. "We've got plenty of space, we're just not using it right!" he told me.

posted 05-03-2007 01:04 PM              

If I may share some memories from visits at Cosmosphere:

1. He spoke the day that Bush landed on the carrier in flight suit to state misson accomplished in Iraq. A true Navy man, but a true patriot, Wally said that he was so pround of the Army that he swore he would forego saying "Beat Army" for the rest of the year.

2. During a Q&A, I mentioned fond memories of he and Walter Cronkite covering Apolo 13 (One of my prize possesions is a picture of him and Walter at the Mercury monument at Cape Kennedy. Walter signed it for me later at a Harry Truman event, and Wally signed it "Two Walters".) I mentioned that they had such credibility that if either had said that the sun wasn't going to come up, I wouldn't have bothered to get up the next morning. I thought he was going to come in the audience and kiss me. Everybody likes to be appreciated.
   
   
3. Same night, I popped back stage to have him autograph my 1960 Post Slide Rule. As are many of the early Astronautrs, he had used a slide rule, and had great joy in removing it from it's scabbard and doing some calculations. He asked a nearby 10 year old boy if he knew what it was. The boy said "a ruler". Wally said, "let me tell you how this got us to the Moon" and he did.

4. Another time, I somehow mentioned the stopping of Apollo and an LBJ remark that "the people are just going to piss this (Apollo) all away". He stopped and went serious and asked "where did you hear that?". Replied I didn't know. He went on that he, LBJ, and someone else were on the way to the NASA facility near New Orleans, and he was startled to hear LBJ say that.

posted 05-03-2007 01:17 PM               

When my wife passed this past October, I received a very personal handwritten letter from Wally expressing his sympathy and talking about fate and the need to go on. It was from the heart and not just a "so sorry for your loss" note. It is truly a treasure.

This is a man who was a national hero, sat in the company of kings, queens and presidents. Saw things that most of us will never see, but he took the time to try to make our lives a little bit better during a very trying time and did his best to comfort a friend during my time of loss.

That's truly a great man. He will be missed.

posted 05-03-2007 01:21 PM               

He was smart, funny, friendly, and shrewd. He was a "people person" who seemed to enjoy his fame but not to take himseelf so seriously.

Wally was my hero when I was growing up.

I got to meet him at the UACC meetings in New Jersey and San Antonio and it was a dream come true. I don't think I ever laughed so hard in my life as at the pre-dinner bar session in New Jersey in 2005. Wally, Bill Dana and others were in rare form as the funny stories and jokes poured out. The breakfast I had with Wally, Francis French and others in San Antonio last year was more sober but no less enjoyable.

posted 05-03-2007 02:56 PM               

All of us here at the former Rockwell-Downey Facility will miss him a lot. Capt. Wally was the nicest gentleman amongst the Original 7.

Only three weeks ago Wally 'crashed' the luncheon for the retirees of North American Rockwell. After all the grief and pains he caused these folks 40 years ago, he was welcomed as a friend, as he did what he did so the spacecraft would be SAFE. And after Apollo 1, thats what everyone wanted.

A friend put it the best this morning:

"Everyone in Heaven benefited from Wally's arrival as Saint Peter at the pearly gates was heard to say, 'No, Wally, I am not a turtle!'"