Nasa Johnson Space Center Oral History Project Oral History Transcript
NASA JOHNSON SPACE CENTER ORAL HISTORY PROJECT ORAL HISTORY TRANSCRIPT DAVID W. WHITTLE INTERVIEWED BY SANDRA JOHNSON HOUSTON, TEXAS – 16 FEBRUARY 2006 th JOHNSON: Today is February 16 , 2006. This oral history with Dave Whittle is being conducted for the Johnson Space Center Oral History Project in Houston, Texas. Sandra Johnson is the interviewer and is assisted by Jennifer Ross-Nazzal. I want to thank you for coming in today to talk with us. First I’d like to ask you, what motivated you to apply for a position with NASA right after college? WHITTLE: When I was graduating there was a lot of people coming in, and I interviewed with Westinghouse [Electric Corporation] and went up to Baltimore [Maryland]. As a matter of fact, I interviewed with Marshall Space Flight Center [Huntsville, Alabama] and with JSC [Johnson Space Center, then name Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, Texas], and I interviewed with an outfit called Schlumberger [Limited], which people down here probably are familiar with. I had kind of an interest in the space program, which was really just kind of in its infancy. To be honest with you, if it hadn’t been for the Vietnam War, I would have gone to work for Schlumberger. I was already working in the petrochemical, in the oil well/logging industry. I was working for a company that did that. But the draft board was hot and heavy on my tail. They’d already called me in. I’d already had my physical and what have you, and it looked like NASA could get me a deferment.
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