January 28, 1986
I woke up with a mean hangover from a party that ended just a few hours before. In other words, it was a normal morning. I was stationed on a remote US Air Force base near the DMZ in South Korea. There were maybe 1,000 US airmen on this sprawling base filled with indigenous foreigners. I was 20. The Challenger explosion occurred in the middle of the night where I was. When I saw the news on the only English TV station we had (military TV) I just sat and watched it explode over and over. As a kid growing up in Florida and watching the old Apollo missions lift off into space from my front yard, this event moved me. It was my JFK assassination moment. Before 9/11, it was the tragic American moment of my lifetime. Around noon, I contacted our base commander and asked whether we were going to put our flag at half-staff. A half-hour later, it was.
Time just gets away from us. All of us. Eventually.
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Molly Cantrell-Kraig
Jan 28, 2011
I was in high school civics/government class, watching it on television when it happened. Our teacher, Mr. Hoagland, looked as though he had been sucker-punched. I’ll never forget the look on his face.
johnbcavanaugh
Jan 28, 2011
Yep. I was hoping this was going to be my life’s “where were you…” moment. Though I was alive when JFK was shot, I was a tiny baby. So that doesn’t count. And though I still remember this day vividly, 9-11 has sadly supplanted it as “the” day.We took so much for granted before this happen. We all said (and thought) things like, “Sure, there’s a risk.” But I don’t know anyone who really expected it would ever happen.I was driving down Cherry Street in Winston-Salem when I heard the news. it seems silly now, by my reflexive reaction was to look up at the sky. Like that would answer something for me. Still sad after all these years.Thanks for this, Jim.
Heather Harris
Jan 28, 2011
thanks for sharing, Jim.
Jeffrey J Davis
Jan 28, 2011
I was between classes at B-School In Gainesville. I was hungover too. Same dazed over and over and over this cant’ be happening but it is vibe. I watched the first 3 launches from 3 miles away while undergrad at FIT Melbourne. I watched several launches from the lineup in the surf at RC’s in Cocoa Beach. That the magnificence of our technical achievement could have somehow gone wrong (due to an O Ring?) confounded me. I am an engineer. I check for risks.Stuff happens. People Die. The Survivors Get Sad (For a while). The Real Survivors keep marching. Hopefully we all learn from the failure mode and implement permanent irreversible corrective action.