A Background of Memories of Working with Dr.Wernher von Braun, Krafft Ehricke, and Other Members of the Peenemunde Group

Paper number

IAC-14,E4,1,8,x22791

Author

Mr. George James, Rocket Research Institute, Inc., United States

Year

2014

Abstract

In this paper I recall some of my experiences in having the great opportunity to work with Dr. Wernher von Braun, Krafft Ehricke, and other members of the Peenemunde group beginning in September, 1951. At that time, through an extraordinary set of circumstances, I reported to the U.S. Army, 9330 technical
Service Unit at Redstone Arsenal near Huntsville, Alabama.
     My assignment, as Corporal, was assistant technical editor and engineering liaison in the office directly next to Dr. von Braun. Here I worked with him and many of his German scientific and engineering associates on a daily basis in preparing Redstone missile progress reports and other documents to ensure
the technical and editorial integrity of material reporting on the highly classified Redstone development program.
     Among the Army personnel in the 9330 TSU were a group of over a hundred Korean War U.S. Army draftees, such as myself, who as "Army Special Professional Personnel" were brought, along with a number of Army reserve officers called back to duty, for the highly classified development of the Redstone missile
at the Arsenal's Army Ordnance Guided Missile Center(OMGC)Development Operations Division of which Dr. von Braun was the Technical Director, under the Army command structure. This organization subsequently became the Army Ballistic Missiles Agency (ABMA) in 1956.
     Years later in 1971, as the Chairman of the American Institute of Aeronautics (AIAA) History Committee, I had another opportunity to work with Dr. von Braun in helping organize for him "Rocketry in the 50's," the session he chaired on October 28,1971, at the AIAA Annual Convention in Washington, DC.
     Dr.von Braun died on June 16, 1977, in Alexandria, Virginia. At his memorial service at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, I mourned the loss of this great human being, along with a number of the original Peenemunde group that attended the service. It brought back memories to see Dr. Ernst
Stuhlinger and Eberhard Rees and to have them greet me as "Corporal James."
     Memories of those days, working with such a visionary and enthusiastic person as Dr. von Braun and with his associates, have remained with me as life-long examples, enriching every subsequent position I have held in my career.
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