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Aiming at Targets: the Autobiography of Robert C. Seamans, Jr./ Robert C

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Aiming at Targets: the Autobiography of Robert C. Seamans, Jr./ Robert C NASA SP-4106 Aiming at Targets The Autobiography of Robert C. Seamans, Jr. Robert C. Seamans, Jr. The NASA History Series NASA History Office Office of Policy and Plans NASA Headquarters Washington, DC 1996 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Seamans, Robert C. Aiming at Targets: The Autobiography of Robert C. Seamans, Jr./ Robert C. Seamans, Jr. p. cm.-(The NASA History Series) (NASA SP: 4106) Includes index. 1. Seamans, Robert C. 2. Astronautics-United States-Biography. 3. United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration­ Officials and employees-Biography. 4. United States. Air Force­ Officials and employees-Biography. I. Title. II. Series. III. Series: NASA SP: 4106. TL789.85.S43A3 1996 629.4'092-dc20 [B] 96-41906 CIP For sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents, Mail Stop: SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-9328 ISBN 0-16-048907-5 CONTENTS FOREWORD: Willis H. Shapley m PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: v CHAPTER ONE: LIFTOFF 3 CHAPTER TWO: THE NASA YEARS 61 CHAPTER THREE: THE AIR FORCE YEARS I 53 CHAPTER FOUR: REENTRY 199 APPENDIX A: Selected Documents 229 APPENDIX B: Biographical Appendix 257 APPENDIX c: Chronology for Robert C. Seamans, Jr. 267 INDEX 269 ISBN 0-16-048907-5 90000 9 801 FOREWORD Willis H. Shapley ob Seamans originally was inspired to write this book for his family Band friends. That is a large audience. By his own count his imme­ diate family numbers twenty-four, not counting brothers and cousins and their families. His friends are uncounted but surely run to hun­ dreds. As one of them and as a colleague at NASA, I am pleased and honored that he asked me to write this foreword. While written in Bob's unique and informal style, this autobiogra­ phy has significance for many readers beyond his large circles of fam­ ily and friends. Leaders and students of large, complex technological endeavors should be able to learn much from reading how Bob faced the daunting technical and management challenges in his career. As the title of this book implies, Bob has always set high goals for himself and then kept his eyes focused on both the necessary details and the broader picture. His ability to shift smoothly among jobs that required seemingly disparate abilities and skills speaks volumes about his insight, dedication, and enthusiasm for achievement. The book spans a truly remarkable life story. Bob first takes us through his growing up, education, and early professional and family life. Next he focuses on the crucial years when he was the general man­ ager of NASA. Then he moves on to his career in the top jobs at the Air Force, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Energy Research and Development Administration. Finally, he touches on his later leadership activities in the academic and business worlds. Aiming at Targets is a series of fascinating topical vignettes cover­ ing his professional life. Taken together, like broad brushstrokes in an impressionist painting, they give a better picture of Bob Seamans and his work than a detailed recitation of facts and dates could hope to do. lll FOREWORD This is a cheerful account of an interesting and successful career. The book is full of good stories, with many memorable characters. Like the proverbial sundial, it counts the sunny hours. It is a good read. But it has its serious side. Bob's career wasn't all fun. The Apollo 204 fire, which killed three astronauts, was a terrible climax to his time at NASA. As one who lived through those days with him, I can recall the trauma and special sense of responsibility he felt. His account of this period and of the sad deterioration of his relationship with his boss, Jim Webb, is both fair and generous. Those were not happy times, but they should not be allowed to overshadow the fact that in his seven years at NASA, Bob Seamans led the agency to its first successes and laid the groundwork for the greater successes that came later. Also on the serious side, while secretary of the Air Force, Bob had to face policy differences on the Vietnam War, both on the job and within his family. He writes of this frankly and kindly. As the book moves on through Bob's career, there are explanations, spiced with lively anecdotes, of what he did in each of his jobs. These are well amplified in the appendices. All of this is written with unfailing mod­ esty, which understates Bob's accomplishments and makes it all look easier than it was. Most of all, what comes through is the happy and productive life of a fortunate man-fortunate in his abilities, in opportunities to apply them, and in his wonderful wife and family. They, as well as everyone interested in the work with which Bob Seamans was involved, are for­ tunate to have this engrossing personal account. IV PREFACE AND AcKNOWLEDGMENTS porn time to time, friends and family have suggested that I write a L"' book about my professional life. Until recently I have resisted the pressure, although I have participated in a variety of efforts to help document my experience while serving in government. These historical efforts were mostly oral interviews conducted at key points in time. Walter Schier, Deputy General Counsel of NASA, interviewed me along with others in our agency soon after the death of President Kennedy. After I retired from NASA, NASA historian Eugene Emme and I had an exchange. Similar exit interviews took place upon my leaving as secretary of the Air Force and as administrator of the Energy Research and Development Administration. In all cases, a tran­ script was delivered to me for editing. These transcripts are now in the archives of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). For interested researchers, the archival collection in the NASA Headquarters History Office has numerous papers, memos, pho­ tographs, and other records related to my tenure there. Yale University, MIT, and the Air Force Historical Research Center at Maxwell Air Base in Alabama also house some key papers from my career. I served at NASA for over seven years and four months, working first in the Eisenhower administration for Administrator T. Keith Glennan and then in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations for James E. Webb. After we all had retired from NASA, Jim, an ardent historian, sold Keith and me on a program for interviewing thirty or so key individuals at NASA. This record, obtained in interviews with historian Martin Collins, is being edited for future historians by the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. These edited transcripts (in my case resulting from twenty-nine hours of questioning) may be obtained from the archivist at the museum. Retirement, I've found, is not a simple process. One doesn't simply walk through a gateway into a beautiful garden and discover that one now has time to meditate. But several years ago, I realized that I did v PREFACE have more control over my activities. This, coupled with the ongoing pressure to produce a book and the archival experience just described, has led me inexorably to this autobiography. I realized that I had two fundamental reasons for writing, personal and professional. First, I wanted my family and friends to have a read­ able document that would tell them in reasonable depth about my remarkable ringside view of the space program. Second, I wanted to rough out for professionals my firsthand view of the key decisions lead­ ing to humanity's landing on the Moon. Many books have been writ­ ten and TV documentaries produced about this subject, and I have no quarrel with most of these. However, like the blind men describing the elephant, most have told only part of the story. How was the program perceived by those who managed it, and how did they execute their responsibilities? What is known about the forces that motivated four U.S. presidents and leading members of Congress to embark on such a major scientific and technical enterprise? I have attempted to answer these larger questions from the perspective of my place as a participant. Some felt that my autobiography should be stripped of family anecdotes and written for a larger audience. I chose to include these stories because my family life has always been of the greatest impor­ tance to me. Not only has it been interwoven with my professional life, it has fed and nurtured that life. I could not write the story of "my life" without giving my family a prominent place. Since my first years at MIT, my wife, Gene, has played a huge role-as supportive friend and excellent counselor-in all of my endeavors, including the writing of this autobiography. She has become familiar with all of the enterprises with which I've been involved. Most important of all, she has been the fairy godmother holding our family together. Her "Seamans Messenger" is eagerly awaited not only by members of our immediate family, but also by brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews. She has been a motivator and inspiration for all of us. Our five children also have been key actors in this story. Each offered his or her suggestions and wise counsel as I wrote this man­ uscript. They and their spouses are now our closest friends. The twelve grandchildren for whom they are responsible are becoming fascinating individuals. Vl PREFACE Outside the family, I want to thank Martin Collins, whose inter­ viewing and dogged pursuit of the facts provided much of the basic material for the central NASA chapter of this memoir.
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