Susan reminded me of something that happened a while back that retrieved a memory of astronaut and Navy Cmdr. Willie McCool. Though I never met McCool, this story really sums up what I’ve been hearing about him from people who knew him.
Three summers ago, before Adam’s junior year in high school, he and McCool’s son Chris wanted to go to Waco. A friend of theirs on the Clear Lake H.S. debate team was attending a debate camp at Baylor University, and on the spur of the moment, they decided it would be fun to drive to Waco to visit their friend. They had no hotel room reserved, since no hotel will book a 16-year old into a room unless there is an adult present, which in this case there would not have been. In short, they wanted to drive to Waco with no guarantee that they would have a place to sleep.
Being the conscientious and generally cautious parents that we are, neither Susan nor I were wild about what seemed a rather half-baked idea. Wanting to see what Chris’ parents thought about this idea, she called Chris’ father. Willie McCool, as we soon discovered, was a bit more adventurous than your average bear. He was all for Adam and Chris making the trip to Waco; he thought it would be a great adventure for them. In the end, we agreed to let Adam go, and it turned out that McCool was right. Nothing untoward happened, everyone had a great time, and Adam and Chris came home in one piece. Without McCool’s endorsement, Adam would have stayed home. I’m grateful that things worked out as they did, because all of us now have a very pleasant memory of a man who died tragically and far too soon.
One other note, this one regarding yesterday’s memorial service…. One of the highlights of the service was the missing-man fly-over, where one of the planes peeled off the formation and flew straight skyward. In 1986, NASA held a similar ceremony for the Challenger astronauts. Willie McCool was part of the fly-over crew that day- he was the pilot of the plane that peeled off the formation and flew skyward.
