Word: deked
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...Dear Deke...
...perform on the road to heroism. They went to Africa to broil in the sun. They lived beneath the sea, whirled in Centrifuges, flew X-15's. There must have been reasons for these exploits, but the true motivation was to make heroes of these astronauts. There was Gus, Deke, Wally, and Scott. They were good men, and true, not the old wrecks the Russians sent into space from Dark Siberian plains. Neither were they for that matter the bible punching sissies who reached the moon last summer. These Seven drank and loved. Here was excitement. America needed heroes...
...became business for corporations and convenience for the housewife. After political interferences, the men in the program had changed as well. They could not manage to get their pre-rehearsed first words from the moon straight. No one dared anymore to put a sign in the capsule window reading, "Deke Slayton is a turtle." The entire enterprise seemed fanciful and wasteful...
Fortunately, only the astronauts felt frozen. On their last night in space, they donned two pairs of thermal underwear apiece to ward off the chill; Lovell even put on his bulky moonwalking shoes to keep his toes warm. Because they had slept only fitfully, Deke Slayton, NASA's director of flight-crew operations, suggested that each crew member take two Dexedrine pills to keep him alert for busy and fateful moments ahead. Said Lovell: "It's going to be an interesting...
...possibility of replacing Mattingly with his back-up crewman, John Swigert, who was found to have immunity against rubella. But Swigert had trained only with the back-up crew and there was doubt that he could properly coordinate with Lovell and Haise on such short notice. Said Astronaut Chief "Deke" Slayton: "It was sort of like trying to put Glenn Miller into Tommy Dorsey's band. Both are great musicians, but each has a different style...