Cinco De Mayo; American Style

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show...(the opening lines of David Copperfield as written by Charles Dickens;inspired by MTM). Or at least this ACCOUNT will, perhaps, have a reflection on whether I'm going to be the hero in my own life.

...don't stand
a devil's chance
to win my soul---beggin Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons

Cinco De Mayo!!! The 5th of May. The State of Puebla, Mexico is the source for why this is significant in Mexican culture. According to the Story of Benito Juárez- Short History of Porfirio Díaz Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico & The French Intervention: The holiday of Cinco De Mayo, The 5th Of May, commemorates the victory of the Mexican militia over the French army at The Battle Of Puebla in 1862. It is primarily a regional holiday celebrated in the Mexican state capital city of Puebla and throughout the state of Puebla, with some limited recognition in other parts of Mexico, and especially in U.S. cities with a significant Mexican population. It is not, as many people think, Mexico's Independence Day, which is actually September 16.

The 5th of May, 1961, is a date of monumental significance in American History. With the tensions already taut between the Cold War and ideological arch-rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, that rivalry now escalated to 'new heights' with the advent of the Space Race. With the Soviets off and running with the placing of the Sputnik, the first satellite launched into orbit, we found ourselves caught off-guard. and with the Soviets additionally launching Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into Space and sustaining 3 orbital flights around the earth, we thought--the skies were falling.

So while the Soviets are sauntering around Space on the likes of a Pegasus, we grab a shetland pony to get into the race!! N A S A(National Aeronautics & Space Administration) and the military have been testing, incessantly, rockets that would have the thrust propulsion capable of breaking the earth's gravitational pull and have a spacecraft placed in space orbiting the earth. The Soviets have the science figured out. They had to. They weren't as good as us, at miniaturization. Their spacecrafts were consistently heavier than ours. The United States, however, still doesn't have the thrust acceleration capacity figured out, yet. The rocket we are placing our hopes on is the finicky and unpredictable Atlas-Centaur. An astronaut, attached to this rocket in their Mercury Capsule, could either be lifting-off in a fiery coffin, or about to embark on the ride-of-their-life!!!

To answer the bell, we put on a dog-and-pony show. We decide to tap into the Army's space arsenal at Huntsville, AL and we use the Redstone Rocket. The rocket itself, is very very reliable and has enough thrust propulsion to get an astronaut into space, but not enough 'kick' to have the weight of the light Mercury capsule sustain earth orbit. With the Soviets already recording two major Space Age accomplishments, we had to demonstrate the ability to---do something.

On the 5th of May, 1961, N A S A has Alan Shepard, one of the Seven Original Mercury Astronauts, in a Mercury Capsule dubbed Freedom 7, sitting atop a Redstone Rocket at the Cape Canaveral Launch Site. He will be launched into space in what is technically labeled a sub-orbital flight. Shepard is to go up to clear earth's atmosphere, enter into the void of space, and allow earth's gravitational pull bring him to a parachuted splashdown to the Atlantic Ocean. While this all sounded simple enough, it was not without drama. It is a sub-orbital flight, for God's sake!!! The whole process wasn't supposed to last for more than an hour; hour and one-half, at best. Shepard had a full blown breakfast at 5AM. With this being America's first human being sitting atop a potential fireball, there is extraordinary attention paid to every detail during the countdown at Mission Control. The countdown is now heading toward the 3-hour-mark. The following detail is provided by THE ULTIMATE SPACE PLACE:
At T-15 minutes it was necessary to hold the count again to make a final check of the real-time trajectory computer. A small electrical part had a problem and this resulted in an hour and twenty six minute delay. Shepard was on top of the Redstone for so long now that he had to urinate. "Gordo!" he said, talking to Gordon Cooper, a fellow Mercury Seven astronaut and principal prelaunch communicator. "Go, Alan." "Man, I got to pee." "You what?" "You heard me. I've got to pee. I've been up here forever."

Shepard wanted to be let out but there wasn't time to reassemble the White Room. Thinking that he could be up there for hours, he told them he was going to do it in his suit. Unfortunately, there was no urine collection system and the medics were concerned he would short-circuit the leads. "Tell 'em to turn the power off!" Alan snapped. Cooper, with a chuckle in his voice said, "Okay, Alan. Power's off. Go to it."

Shepard couldn't hold back any longer and the liquid pooled in the small of his back. His heavy undergarment soaked up the urine, and with 100 percent oxygen flowing through the suit he was soon dry. The countdown resumed.

At T- minus two minutes and forty seconds and counting, Shepard heard that dreaded word again, "Hold". There was a little computer problem. Getting frustrated, he yelled, "I've been in here more than three hours. I'm a hell of a lot cooler than you guys. Why don't you just fix your little problem and light this candle?"

They fixed the problem and the countdown proceeded until liftoff at 9:34 am EST on 5/5/1961. Because of his excitement, Shepard said he failed to hear much of the closing countdown, with the exception of the firing command. During this period his pulse rate rose from 80 per minute to 126 at the liftoff signal. "You're on your way, Jose!" Deke Slayton shouted. "Roger, liftoff, and the clock has started," Alan called out.

Freedom 7 splashed down about 120 miles off the Cape Canaveral coast line in the Atlantic Ocean. Shepard quickly checked the spacecraft interior to see if any leaks had resulted from impact. There were none; it was dry. Now slowly Freedom 7 came to an upright position, taking about a minute's time, and Shepard jubilantly reported to Cardfile 23, the communications airplane, that he was all right. From beginning to end the flight mission had been almost perfect.

The U S Manned Space Program still has an amazing grip on me!!! I was always just fascinated by it!!! I paid attention to every detail; both the Soviet ledger---as well as the American Score Sheet. Those of you who know me well, know that I wear a leather that was purchase back in 1983. And while it is well weathered, I continue to wear it. I do so because I have had sewn onto the leather shoulder area, the NASA patches commemorating the Space Flights of the Original Seven Mercury Astronauts. While the nail-biting and anxiety of space flight isn't of the degree it once was,
these individuals are still extraordinary to me.

This essay is a toast to Alan Shepard; our Cinco de Mayo hero!!!!
--{-=@
Hickok
The Promise