Word: commands
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...apparent precision, there were glitches?those unexpected bugs that seem to plague the 15 million-part Apollos on all space voyages. The astronauts were just about to settle down for a leisurely coast to the moon when suddenly a yellow light flashed on, signaling that the command ship's main rocket, the 20,500-lb. service propulsion engine, had been switched on. Immediately there was fear that the moon landing would have to be aborted, but the experts in Houston soon diagnosed the problem as a faulty switch...
...from the moon's surface. Because of the nagging time lags, Fendell could not afford to look at the TV monitor himself. He had to go completely by the clock. At exactly T-minus-zero, Fendell had to begin tilting the camera upward. Thus, by the time his command reached the moon, the camera would-he hoped-follow Falcon's ascent stage until it drifted off the tube. Then, in order to bring it back into sight, Fendell would have to press an-other button precisely two seconds after liftoff, ordering the camera to pull back...
...exactly how bad is the situation in the ranks? According to an Army study, there may well exist such a profound crisis of discipline that the Army's ability to function is in doubt. So says an unusually revealing Army memorandum surveying military discipline in the entire Pacific Command that is currently being circulated clown to the battalion level...
...most serious factor in the disciplinary breakdown, the report concludes, "is weakness in the chain of command, particularly at lower unit levels" where experienced officers and NCOs are not available and where those who are "may be dominated by the view that a mistake on their part spells career ruin. Within the chain of command, it is well known that communication has broken down." Attempts to bridge the gap through mixed councils of officers and enlisted men have "served to dilute or bypass" the chain of command...
MAJOR ALFRED M. WORDEN, 39, the Command-module pilot, is the crew's freest spirit. He likes good food and drink, plays his baby grand piano for visitors to his bachelor flat (everything from Beethoven to bop) and sleeps in a bed topped with a canopy of aluminum reflectors. "It gets me up in the morning," Worden explains. "I can't stand looking at all those ugly faces." Born in Jackson, Mich., Worden graduated from West Point in 1955, switched to the Air Force and later took a master's degree in astronautical and aeronautical engineering...