Author Archive

Special thanks go out to the Greater Bucks Mont Chamber of Commerce for inviting me to speak at their luncheon yesterday.  It is always exciting to share the mission of the museum with the local business community.  Afterwards, a gentleman approached me and told me that he used to farm the land on the other side of the railroad tracks from the base (where the industrial park along Louis Lane is now).  He still remembers the day the monkeys escaped from the animal wing and took up residence in his barn. He also told me that he remembers the noise of the riveting from the factory and the roar of the Brewster Buffaloes as they took off from the strip near the factory.  His sister was even a receptionist at Brewster.  

If you or a family member has stories from days working at Brewster or NADC/NAWC we’d love to hear them and get them on record as part of our oral history.  Please contact us at nadcmuseum@comcast.net.

As we were cleaning out some of the storage areas of the centrifuge building, we came across a trunk that held an old suit.  We’ve had a few people look at it and have had it on display for the past ten months or so.  We are still trying to make a positive determination on it’s age and what it was used for.  You will note that the suit has a nozzle on the chest in addition to the nozzles on the hands and feet of the suit.  As a result of the nozzles, we are pretty sure it was used for pressure or G load testing in the centrfuge.  However, we are trying to fix it to a year and/or specific program.   Are there any former employees or test pilots out there who may have any insight into what we have? 

I spoke to a local Rotary club this morning about the museum.  During the Q&A one of the members told about his experience as a volunteer test subject on the ejection tower in the 1950’s.  He told about how he had to pull a leather loop from above his head to initiate the explosive charge that was to shoot him up the tower.  The first time the charge did not fire, so they reset and it fired the second time.  After he explained more about what the experience was like to be propelled up the tower by a charge of TNT, I asked him how many times he volunteered for the job.  He simply said, ”Once.” 

Visit us on Sundays between 1 and 3:30 to learn more about the history of innovation at Johnsille.

We were honored to have Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter join us at our open house this past April.  He generously shared his memories of the early days of American space exploration and reminisced about the time he and his fellow Mercury astronauts spent training at Johnsville 50 years earlier.  As I understand it, when he got out of his car in front of the building he took a long look at the building and took his cell phone out of his pocket.  After hitting a speed dial number, he said to the person on the other end of the line, “John, you wouldn’t believe where I am.”   Yes, he was speaking to John Glenn, the only other surviving Mercury astronaut.  How cool is that? 

Mercury Astronaut Scott Carpetner returns to Johnsville to share his memories of the Mercury Program