by Kurt Winans
Their joyous reunion was brief, although thirty days together was a wonderful change when compared to the short duration of their honeymoon. As Ross had predicted, he had been selected for a second deployment to Vietnam, so they would have to make the most of his short leave. The many letters both had written to each other over the previous year had been of great comfort, but it wasn’t the same as waking up next to each other every morning. They got together with Jessica on a few occasions for dinner, but for the most part they just enjoyed each other’s company as they rekindled their romance.
BY THE END of July, Ross was back aboard the USS Enterprise for his second tour of duty. He hadn’t been gone long enough to forget the daily routine, so getting acclimated to life at sea again wasn’t difficult. Throughout the next year Ross had seen a few more pilots die, or potentially get captured by the enemy when shot down, but he had been fortunate in his lone mishap.
After recording his fifth overall kill by shooting down an enemy plane, his plane was badly damaged during the same dog fight. There had been roughly a dozen planes from each side involved at the beginning of the aerial combat, but the squadron from the Enterprise had knocked five of the enemy planes from the sky before it was over. The victory had not been without cost however, as one plane from the Enterprise had been blown to bits along with the damage to Ross’ plane.
There was enough left of Ross’ plane to fly away from territory occupied by the enemy, but it was doubtful he could make it back to the aircraft carrier. Ross knew if he could manage to at least get well out to sea before the plane broke apart, his chances of avoiding capture would increase. He took great care, as he nursed the wounded aircraft to keep it aloft for as long as possible. The squadron leader, Commander Harris, had stayed by his side off the port wing after sending the remaining planes back to the Enterprise, and he knew that the damage to Ross’ plane was too severe to attempt a carrier landing. Even if Ross could somehow cover the entire distance, he would still need to ditch in the ocean somewhere near the ship. Unfortunately for Ross, he didn’t make it that far as the plane began to shake violently during what would become the last few minutes of its life. The controls then became totally unresponsive, and he radioed to Commander Harris that he would need to eject.
With his transmission understood and verified, Ross watched as his escort plane peeled away to a safe distance before he pulled the ejection handles located over his head. He was launched into the air high above the smoking plane with tremendous force, and then his parachute opened an instant after he began to fall back to Earth. During his slow descent towards relative safety, Ross watched his plane crash violently into the sea below. With no pilot to fight the controls, the plane had nosed over into an almost vertical plunge downward. It was easy to follow the path of the plane, as a trail of black smoke coming from the damaged craft stood out boldly against the surrounding light blue sky. Ross wondered if he had been trailing that much smoke since he was hit, or had it become that pronounced only during the last few minutes before he needed to bail out. He spotted Commander Harris circling around him as he drifted towards the water, and a gentle rocking, or wave of the wings, signified that his position had been relayed to rescue personnel. Ross realized how lucky he had been to make it this far out to sea, and then braced for an impact with the water that would create a mighty splash.
For the first time in his life Ross finally understood how vast the oceans of the Earth were. He had always gazed upon them from the comfort of the beach, a ship, or various planes, but he had never been this isolated and at the total mercy of the waves before. Ross had followed the protocol of cutting loose the parachute after hitting the water, and swimming away from it so as not to get tangled up in the guide lines as it filled with water and sank. Once at a safe distance, he then untied and kicked off his boots. The idea behind that was to ease the strain on the floatation device, and his legs, by getting rid of the excess weight, because a pilot never knew how long he would be in the water.
Three hours after watching Commander Harris fly away towards the Enterprise, Ross began to wonder when the rescue helicopter might arrive. During that time of helplessly bobbing in the waves, Ross had several quiet conversations with Grandpa Hank, Patty, Jessica, and even his father Robert. He was actually thankful for his present situation, because it was most definitely better than if he had needed to eject over enemy territory, or had been killed when his plane was hit.
The peace and tranquility of his quiet contemplation over his relative luck was then interrupted by the sounds of helicopter rotors in the distance, and Ross knew he would soon be hoisted from the water. A moment later he shot off his flare to help guide the helicopter to his exact location and soon after a rescue swimmer jumped into the water roughly fifty feet away from him. A basket was then lowered, Ross climbed in for the ride upward, the rescue swimmer followed suit, and off they went. It was a long slow ride back to the Enterprise, but Ross didn’t mind as he knew he was lucky to be alive.
Once back on the deck of the ship, Ross was greeted by Commander Harris and a medical team. He would spend the next few days in the infirmary recovering from his near miss, and all the guys from his squadron came by to visit him from time to time. By collecting his fifth overall kill of enemy aircraft Ross had officially become an ace, and had therefore earned himself a recommendation by Commander Harris and the Captain for another promotion to full Lieutenant.
Before he could climb into a new jet fighter and fly again, Ross needed to be cleared to do so by the medical team and Commander Harris. He had suffered no serious injuries such as broken bones or burns when his plane had been shot down, and none of the high-powered rounds fired by the enemy plane had struck him either. The odds were that if one had, Ross would not have survived long enough to get his plane to relative safety.
Ross demonstrated both the physical and psychological ability that was needed to fly again to the satisfaction of those who would make the decision, and he was cleared to fly. Some sage advice then came his way via Commander Harris, as they discussed his brush with death. He suggested that Ross not inform his wife or family members about being shot down until after he returned home. It wasn’t the type of thing that should be put in a letter, and it would only make his loved ones worry about his safety more than they already did. Ross knew he would worry more about Patty if she had added cause to worry about him, and that would diminish his skills and sharpness while flying. He still had roughly eight months remaining on his second one-year tour, so he needed to stay focused. With that in mind, Ross heeded the advice, and kept the news from Patty until he got home.
The remainder of his tour was successful without any more trouble in the sky, and the wonderful news of the end of hostilities came his way four months before the completion of his tour. Ross had managed to get one more kill by shooting down another enemy plane roughly a month after he had suffered the same fate, which brought his total to six enemy planes shot down during the two tours.
Perhaps of more importance to Ross than the number of kills, was the feeling of redemption. Ross knew that the pilot he recently shot down was probably not the same one that had put him onto the ocean, but he needed to think it was in order to obtain some measure of closure.
BY EARLY AUGUST of 1975 Ross was on his way back home to Patty. The long transport flights that had taken him across the vast Pacific Ocean towards his duty station near Vietnam paled in comparison to the ones that brought him back home. He knew the flights were no different; they just seemed much longer because he was anxious to see his wife again.
Patty joined a large gathering of people who were waiting for their loved ones near the tarmac, and jumped for joy when she saw Ross emerge from the plane. As had been the case a little over a year before, he was unharmed compared to some of the less fortunate who had come home on the same flight with him.
Ross helped a young wounded soldier down the stairs from the plane, and then walked with him over to his family. After wishing him
well he turned to begin the search for Patty, but there was no need as she was standing only twenty feet away from him. Ross said, “Hello beautiful” as he began to move towards her, and then she lunged into his arms. From Patty’s perspective, all was right with the world once again, as Ross had been safely delivered back to her in one piece.
Throughout the previous year, much of the social unrest that had become a trademark of life in America during recent times had calmed down considerably. Without a doubt, the most significant event to take place in the country during that time had been the resignation of Richard M. Nixon in August of 1974. He had the misfortune of getting caught up in a scandal that went all the way to the oval office of the White House, and then he became the first President of the United States to surrender his office before either death or expiration of term. Because the former Vice President, Spiro Agnew, had resigned amid the same scandal sometime earlier, the current Vice President had not actually been on any ballot. That led to another first in American history upon Nixon’s resignation, as Gerald Ford became the first President of the United States to have not been elected to either one of the top two spots in the executive branch of the government.
The other significant change in America was how the military was treated upon their return from foreign conflict. Ross had heard first hand from his father and grandfather that they, along with their fellow soldiers, had been welcomed home with open arms after World Wars I & II, and similar respect had been given to those who returned from the Korean conflict. The Vietnam War however, which had been the catalyst for much of the recent social unrest, had been a different story.
For the next thirty days Ross would be on leave, so he and Patty once again made the most of it. She had no idea where his next posting would be, but Ross had assured her he wouldn’t be going back into a combat scenario like Vietnam. The two of them discussed many things during the next few weeks, including Ross having been shot down. Patty was initially angry with him for keeping the information from her, but then understood his reasoning once he explained the situation to her.
As the time grew closer to the end of his leave, Ross received a letter with his new orders. Patty was at work when the letter arrived, so he took a deep breath before opening it. Ross was very excited with the contents of the letter, and rubbed the emblem on his necklace as he thought about how he could surprise Patty with the news when she got home.
That evening over dinner, Ross informed Patty that they would have to give up the apartment and move for his new posting. His leave had been extended an additional week, but he would have to report for duty on Monday, September 15th. They could live together in the housing on base because it was a non-combat location, and if they didn’t have everything packed up by the time he needed to report she could join him at a later date. Patty was in no mood to be separated from Ross again, and vowed to be ready in time. She then took a deep breath and asked him where they would be moving to.
Ross beamed with excitement, as he revealed that they would only need to move about fifteen miles from their present location. He had been accepted into the astronaut program at NASA, and the bulk of his education and training would take place in Houston, Texas. It was the most wonderful news for both of them, as Ross could pursue his dream of going into space someday, while Patty could keep her present job and the friends she had met since relocating to Houston.
The housing subdivision that they moved into near the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center was occupied by several other astronauts and their families, so they felt an instant connection with many of their new neighbors. As they began to unload their possessions from the moving van, Patty asked Ross which room he intended to use for his new office. He walked through each room of the house, and then placed his fishing pole with the red bow still attached and Grandpa Hank’s flag in the corner to signify he had reached a decision.
On his first day at NASA Ross realized he was definitely one of the youngest pilots in the astronaut program, but he had apparently received a few letters of recommendation to help pave the way. He would soon begin what would become many years of rigorous training for something that only a very elite group of people in America were chosen to do. The work would be challenging, but the reward would be something that Ross had wanted to do since his youthful days of talking about space with Grandpa Hank.
ROSS SAT AT one end of the long table that had all six members of the mission crew facing the media. It had been six and a half years since the day he became an astronaut in September of 1975, and he would finally be going on a flight into space as a mission specialist aboard the space shuttle. Ross would be thirty-two years old in a few months, and had worked hard to get where he was. Another promotion during that time had made him a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy, and he was still young enough that he might be able to make multiple flights into space.
The past several years had been filled with great news for Ross and his family. He and Patty now had a four year-old daughter named Aurora who had arrived on November 16, 1977, and Patty was due to deliver a second child in a few months. Jessica had finished her degree at Rice University in the spring of 1976, and had continued on to law school. She was now working at a firm in Houston, so Ross and Patty had a chance to get together with her often.
They were both very proud of Jessica, but Ross thought there were two drawbacks to his younger sister’s prowess. For one, he would probably never win another argument with her as she fine-tuned her trial techniques whenever she could, and two was that she now had a new reason to keep the leg brace on. Ross tried to explain to Jessica that she would get more respect as a good lawyer without pulling on the jury’s heart strings, but law school had taught her to take full advantage of any opportunity that may present itself. Ross thought her leg was fine and she had become a beautiful young woman of twenty-seven who was destined for success, yet she continued to rely on the leg brace.
Most of the questions from the media in attendance were directed at the mission commander or the pilot, but Ross and the three other members of the crew were there for the sake of team unity and photographs. This would be the last of such gatherings for the benefit of the media, as the crew of the shuttle was scheduled for launch in less than a week. When this briefing was over, the crew would soon be on their way to Cape Canaveral for final preparations.
Ross was actually surprised when one of the reporters directed a question at him about the payload of the mission, but he showed his poise by answering completely without rambling on. As the crew rose to exit the room, a few senior members of NASA were in the adjacent corridor discussing Ross. He was unaware of it at the time, but they were adding his name to a list of candidates for a future mission.
It was all Ross could do to keep from screaming “Yee-Haw” as the space shuttle Challenger pulled away from the launch platform during the early morning hours in March of 1982. The awesome power and amazing technology associated with launching something of that size and weight into space was unequaled, and he was enjoying every second of the bumpy and jolting ride. Ross’ steady vital signs had not gone un-noticed by the flight surgeon and senior members of NASA. The monitors revealed that all the vital signs of the other five astronauts were racing wildly from excitement, fear, or outright panic, while Ross remained calm throughout it all.
Eventually the ride began to smooth out, and soon the Challenger reached orbit as planned. The mission of five days was a complete success, and the spacewalk that Ross and one other crew member needed to perform in order to assist in the deployment of a communications satellite went perfectly.
Ross couldn’t help himself after the task had been completed, as he lingered outside of the shuttle on a tether looking down at the Earth for as long as the mission specs would allow before reluctantly coming back inside. As they were helped out of their spacesuits, Ross had a huge smile on his face that couldn’t be misinterpreted. He had finally made it out to space, and he wanted to come back again as soon as the crew rotations would allow
for it.
Once again the crews’ vital signs rose or sped up considerably as the shuttle became a ball of fire during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, but Ross was smiling from ear to ear. There were easier ways to leave Florida on the east coast and arrive in the desert of Southern California five days later, but this had been a much more spectacular way to do it. The Challenger shook violently as it fought its way back towards Earth, and Ross just rolled with the punches.
Safely back on terra firma and at “wheels stop” on the long runway of Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert, Ross couldn’t help it as he said, “Let’s do that again!” The statement broke the tension that all had felt with the landing, and would be one of the last things recorded on the official transcript of the flight. Ross had gained some notoriety with the mission commander and pilot for his work before and during the mission, but was still unaware of how much he had impressed some of the senior staff by his actions.
The debriefing of the crew went well for all involved, and NASA was pleased that the communications satellite was sending back a strong signal. Before long the astronauts had all been returned to Houston, and Ross was welcomed by the warm embrace of his wife and little girl.
Less than three months later Patty gave birth to their second daughter, as Rachel joined the family on June 11, 1982. On the day that Rachel turned three months old, more good news came along. Ross had been selected to join the crew of another space shuttle mission that was slated to launch in slightly less than a year. His preparations for that flight would be significantly different than his previous mission, as he had been selected as the shuttle pilot for an August 1983 launch.