Aeronautics Industry

Jim Oberg · Guest

First women astronaut trainees snubbed by NASA to be honored

May 6, 2007
http://wkbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=6475933

OSHKOSH, Wis. They thought they were going to be America's first women
astronauts. Instead, their space dreams flamed out.

U-W-Oshkosh officials are hoping to erase some of the sting the Mercury 13
suffered in the early 1960s by awarding them all honorary doctorates at
spring graduation Saturday.

The Mercury 13 were 13 of America's finest female pilots at the dawn of the
space age. They trained to become astronauts, but NASA cut the exercises
short, saying they had more than enough men waiting in line.

The women are still bitter about it. One of them, Jerri Truhill, says she's
not used to honors like the one UW-Oshkosh plans to bestow on her. She says
she's just used to rejection.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

UW-Oshkosh home page: http://www.uwosh.edu/ and program page
http://www.uwosh.edu/mercury13/

"In the early days of the Space Race, 25 women were asked to train in secret
as astronauts." FALSE. Some women were asked by Dr. Lovelace, independent
of NASA, to undergo physical screening similar to that used for the Mercury
astronauts. There was no "training" for space flight. There was no
significant "secret" about it -- their activities, their names, and the
controversy of changing existing astronaut requirements so women could be
admitted, were all well publicized in 1962-1963.

"In summer of 1961, just before leaving for the next phase of training at
the Naval Aviation Center in Pensacola, Fla., the women received telegrams
telling them not to come. Due to the prejudices of the times, the project
was cancelled." FALSE - there was no "next phase of training", only some
additional medical screening sponsored by Dr. Lovelace, who had reserved
time on the Pensacola facilities but could not come up with funding for
their use [these were tightly scheduled facilities that were allocated to
various projects that could pay for them]. There was no existing project to
GET cancelled - the lack of any budget shows there never HAD been a formal
program beyond Lovelace's professional interest. Conjuring up 'prejudices of
the times' is political propaganda, not legitimate history.

"In honor of their pioneering spirit and efforts in the advancement of women's
rights" is fine for feel-good sentimentality, and for genuine respect for
their motivations and commitment - so mazel tov for the honorary doctorates.
Just restrain the phony history-rewriting and rah-rah-rhetoric, please.

Link to: http://www.mercury13.com/

"The "actions" or "comments" of John Glenn are just one more example of the
moral cowardice that so often manifests itself when it is easier to just go
along than do the right thing."

"Thanks to you for your website and shame on the NASA for what these women
have been through. I feel like saying "and again the Story of Humanity is
written by men." Like children they just erase what disturbs them."

"It is amazing that after many months of checking the NASA website
regularly, I have seen no mention of the Mercury women."

"Thanks for your commitment bringing this hidden gem of space history and I
pray that Mercury 13 are given their just due...."

"It is never too late to right a wrong no matter how long ago it was. Put
these women in space!"

"If I were an American, I would not want to support them any more for this
lack of recognition and second really dirty slap in the face."

"If the fact the disgraceful chapter in the space programme was to be
covered up is true, then it was done extremely well..."

"I have only recently become aware of the mercury 13. You deserved a
misson -- I burned with the unfairness of it all."

"I was so angry a couple of years ago, when I first read about these
remarkable women being excluded because of GENDER! What a patronising
attitude they endured."

"Stupid macho thinking prevented the US from launching the first woman into
space - the Soviet Union was indeed advanced at this period of time, not
only in terms of space technology, but equally in mentality."

NASA fact sheet (March 25, 2005) by Elaine Marconi, NASA KSC

http://www.nasa.gov/missions/highlights/f_mercury13.html

Correctly identifies study leader as Dr. W.R. Lovelace, who "helped
develop the tests for NASA's male astronauts" - but was not a NASA employee
[not made clear].

Describes the screening, but does not make clear that it was all
performed (and paid for) by Lovelace's clinic, not by NASA.

States, "thirteen women were chosen for future training," but by Lovelace's
team, not by NASA. And the statement implies that the women received no
training - just the prospect of future training with hoped-for NASA approval
that never came.

Further details are here: http://history.nasa.gov/flats.html (aug 17, 2005)
where the program is identified as "Lovelace's", a "short-lived,
privately-funded project." The

US Air force was initially interested

May 1, 2007 story in the Star-Telegram,

http://www.star-telegram.com/407/story/86937.html

Still reaching for the stars

By ADRIENNE NETTLES

Star-Telegram staff writer

KELLER -- Wally Funk begins opening suitcases on her bed.

The green luggage is waterproof and resembles something the military would
keep top secret information in.

She fumbles through the cases, revealing countless photos of a girl with
pigtails, in a flowing pale-blue gown as a teenager and in her 20s as a
pilot.

Piled in between the photos are old magazines and letters written to a Dr.
Randy Lovelace of NASA.

Judging by the care she takes to not get the contents out of order, it's
evident that these aren't just any photos or letters.

For Funk, 68, they're a record of her life and the years she held a secret
from the nation.

She was just 21 when she was sworn to secrecy to train as one of 13 women
selected to become the nation's first female astronauts. The group would
become known as Mercury 13. Funk was the youngest.

The women's achievements will be recognized May 12 when they are awarded
honorary doctorates during the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh's
commencement. A panel discussion is also planned.

In her Keller bedroom, Funk pulls the Oct. 24, 1960, issue of Life magazine
from one of the cases.

"I saw [renowned female pilot and astronaut trainee] Jerrie Cobb in Life
magazine and wrote Dr. Randy Lovelace personally," Funk said, turning to the
article. "If Jerrie was doing it, I wanted to do it. I wanted to go into
space and be a pioneer."

Lovelace was head of life sciences for NASA and had trained male NASA
astronauts at his clinic in Albuquerque. His interest in how women would
fare if tested led to the first women-in-space program in 1960. Cobb was the
first pilot he chose.

Twenty-five women would be chosen in all. But only 13 would qualify,
including Funk, who volunteered.

"The program's age limit was 25-years-old, so my parents had to sign for
me," she said.

Only a dream

Once testing began for the women in early 1961, they were sworn to secrecy.
They were tested separately or in pairs, for the most part never meeting
others in the program.

Tests were administered in phases; the first were physical tests followed by
psychological tests. The third phase was spaceflight simulation.

The group never finished the last phase. In the summer of 1961, the program
ended shortly before the women were to train at Naval Air Station Pensacola,
Fla. Some say NASA called the testing off, while others speculate that the
order came from the White House.

The women unsuccessfully fought the decision, said Martha Ackmann, author of
The Mercury 13: The True Story of Thirteen Women and the Dream of Space
Flight. Congress later ordered that NASA astronauts come from the ranks of
military test pilots, ruling out women altogether, she said.

The first American female astronaut, Sally Ride, didn't go into space until
1983.

Funk said she went on to complete the last phase of the testing on her own,
paying for it herself. Cobb also finished the final phase of testing, Funk
said.

"We were ahead of our time," she said.

Mercury 13 member Jerri Truhill, 77, of Richardson said the program's ending
was devastating. Truhill, who began dreaming of flying at age 4, said she
wanted to prove that women were just as capable as men at being astronauts.
And the Soviets were beating Americans at everything, she said. The Soviet
Union sent its first woman into space in 1963.

"In 1960, the first man hadn't been in space," she said. "I think we all
wanted to help our country get into space any way we could," said Truhill,
who was in her 30s when she was chosen for the program

The 'best-kept secret'

Mercury 13 members met for the first time in 1995 when Dateline NBC aired a
story on them, Funk said.

"We were the nation's best-kept secret until Dateline interviewed us all
together," she said.

The University of Wisconsin wanted to honor the women because their efforts
in the 1960s align with the school's beginnings in 1871 as a university for
women, Chancellor Rick Wells said.

"We were part of the first set of institutions, outside of private women's
colleges, to provide mass opportunities for women to become professionals,"
Wells said. "Here we have 13 women who pioneered aviation, particularly for
women in space."

Jane Hart, Jan Dietrich and Funk, who has a scheduling conflict, will not be
present. Jean Hixson and Marion Dietrich are dead.

"We're used to rejection, so this is something new for us," Truhill said.
"I'm thrilled and honored."

Ackmann, who will moderate the panel discussion, said that even after 46
years, there are many Americans still unaware of Mercury 13.

"It's still a relatively unknown piece of history," she said. "Now people
are saying that it's time that these women are recognized. Some want to see
something on a national level for these women like the Congressional Gold
Medal, which was just recently given to the Tuskegee Airmen."

Still flying

Funk often speaks at universities and gives flying lessons across the United
States, including in North Texas, she said.

She has lived in Trophy Club and trained at Bell Helicopter in Fort Worth.

Flying is still in her blood.

Funk, a native of Taos, N.M., grew up with a love for flying and guns,
horses and outdoor sports. She remembers making model airplanes as a child.

"I was flying as a child at age 5, jumping off my daddy's barn in my
Superman cape," she said.

Model airplanes line the bookshelves in her Keller home, and flying pins are
tacked on her wall.

"I knew at age 5 I wanted to fly. I had the freedom of growing up ... in the
spirit of the Taos mountains that gave me the drive to have a full and
exciting life."

When she was 16, her parents sent her to Stephens College in Columbia, Mo.,
where she earned her first pilot's license, she said.

Funk went on to attend Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, earning a
bachelor's degree in secondary education and completing her flying and
instructor licenses.

Her first job after college, at age 20, was at Fort Sill, Okla., as a
civilian flight instructor for Army officers, she said.

When testing ended for Mercury 13, she moved overseas, traveling to 59
countries in three years and lecturing in Europe, Africa and the Middle
East.

She has logged over 17,000 hours of flying time and been featured in Life,
People and numerous other publications for her career achievements.

She hasn't given up her dream of one day traveling into space.

"I might be 70, but I'm going," she said.

Online: www.ninety-nines.org/funk.html

anettles@star-telegram.com
Adrienne Nettles, 817-685-3820

Factual errors in the Nettles story:

"letters written to a Dr. Randy Lovelace of NASA." Lovelace did 'space
medicine' for a number of clients, including NASA, but he was an employee of
his own clinic in Albuquerque and did none of the women's testing on behalf
of, or funded by, NASA.

".a record of her life and the years she held a secret from the nation." The
testing was never a secret and all the names of those involved was widely
publicized in 1962-1963.

"[Funk] was to train as one of 13 women selected to become the nation's
first female astronauts."

False - nobody was selected by anybody to 'train' for any space flight - it
was purely medical screening.

"Some say NASA called the testing off, while others speculate that the order
came from the White House." Lovelace scheduled testing at a US Navy facility
who asked him who would pay for it. When no sponsor stepped forward, the
Navy cancelled Lovelace's reservations at the facility. There was no need
for "an order from the White House" or anywhere to STOP a project that had
never been STARTED.

"Congress later ordered that NASA astronauts come from the ranks of military
test pilots, ruling out women altogether, [Funk] said." The White House
made that decision in 1959, long before the women were even initially
tested. The first non-pilot selection, for scientist-astronauts, was made in
1965 (and again in 1967) and as far as I can determine no gender constraints
were in place officially or unofficially.

Matt · Guest

On May 7, 12:16 am, "Jim Oberg" <job...@houston.rr.com> wrote:

Mary Pegg · Guest

Matt wrote:

<snip 300+ lines of quote>

FFS, trim, will ya?

--
"Checking identity papers is a complete waste of time. If anyone can
be counted on to have valid papers, it will be the terrorists".

Matt · Guest

On May 11, 4:38 pm, Mary Pegg <inva...@invalid.com> wrote:

Mary Pegg · Guest

Matt wrote: