Moments in United States History

 I was just thinking about the moments in United States History that help to shape and define who we are. One such moment occurred today 25 years ago (January 28, 1986). Like the disaster of September 11^th, 2001 or the day fateful day President Kennedy was assassinated (November 22^nd, 1963) people remember the details of their own personal lives rather than those whom were directly affected by such historical occurrences .People tend to remember things like where they were, what they were doing, watching or listening to and how they felt the rest of that day week, month or for some years later. Their lives have been forever changed because of it.  

January 28, 1986 was one such day for me. On this day I was eight years old and sitting in Room D-4 of Williamson Elementary School in Rancho Cordova California. I was in Mr. Tuttle’s 4^th grade class, but Mr. Tuttle was absent that day and we had a substitute teacher that day.  We had a substitute teacher that day because Mr. Tuttle was at Cape Canaveral Florida at the Kennedy Space Center watching firsthand the launching of the Space Shuttle Challenger. I like millions of other school children sat in a dark classroom excited to watch the launch which was being broadcast to classrooms around the country because of the presence on the crew of Christa McAuliffe, the first member of the Teacher in Space Project. Prior to the launch NASA had distributed educational materials to schools across the country in preparation for the launch and subsequent broadcast from Kennedy Space center as well as the Shuttle itself while in orbit. NASA also distributed an unprecedented number of tickets to view the launch in person to educators around the country and Mr. Tuttle, my fourth grade teacher was one of the lucky recipients of such tickets.

As the final countdown continued the excitement in the room and the country built. I am sure I was counting down silently in my head along with television commentator 10- 9- 8- 7- 6- 5- 4- 3- 2- 1, ignition Lift off! The disaster occurred when Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of its seven crew members. The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of central Florida, United States, at 11:38 a.m. EST. I sat and with the country took a deep breath and tried to sort out what I was seeing. The television was quickly turned off and the substitute teacher had the grim task of trying to explain to a room full of eight and nine year-olds what they had just witnessed.



That day President Ronald Reagan was scheduled to deliver his annual “State of the Union” speech to a nationally televised joint session of congress, instead he delivered what I and many others believe to be one of his finest addresses. Seated at his desk in the Oval office rather than the lectern in the House chamber. In his speech President Regan spoke to me when he said: “And I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's takeoff. I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them.”

From then on I had an interest in the Space program; still to this day I love to watch the broadcast of the Shuttle launch. And to this day I hold my breath as do so many others as the beautiful shuttles lifts off the launch pad clears the tower and rockets to the unforgiving environment known simply as “space”. I still have a hard time turning the broadcast off until the shuttle has reached orbit and accomplished the hardest part of a shuttle mission, the launch. But the experience of that fourth grade class room that January morning 25 years ago forever changed my life, and I am thankful for those brave men and women who undertook the challenge of the space program. So it is with pride, joy and thankfulness that I honor in my own little way the lives of the Challenger Astronauts who as President Regan put it “slipped the surly bonds of earth'' to ``touch the face of God.''

Full Text of President Regan’s Address to the Nation on the Explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger, January 28, 1986 http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/12886b.htm