Theta Chi Alumni Behind the Scenes of Apollo 11

From Fall 1969 issue of The Rattle:

Theta Chi Fraternity Salutes Astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., Michael Collins, and all the men who participated in, supported, and guided the historic Apollo 11 lunar landing mission, July 20, 1969.

Capt. Douglas W. Eichorst (Delta Kappa/Ball State 1960)

Air Force Capt. Douglas W. Eichorst supported the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission as a member of the Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service. The special task force aids in all manned space flights and plays a major role in the recovery of space equipment.

Brother Eichorst, a rescue pilot, was on standby at Lajes Field, Azores, during the lunar mission ready to assist during earth recovery. A veteran of the Cuban crisis and Vietnam, Eichorst received the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism in military operations in Southeast Asia.

He was commissioned after completing the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program at Ball State University, where he earned the B.S. degree in 1960.

Capt. Richard D. Hoover (Delta Kappa/Ball State 1960)

Also a backup pilot with the Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service during Apollo 11 flight was Capt. Richard D. Hoover. Capt. Hoover was commissioned in 1960 following graduation from Ball State University with a B.S. in education.

Stationed at Lajes Field. Azores, Hoover has also served in Vietnam, Libya and at Wheelus Air Force Base. He is an air operations officer.

Brother Hoover is a member of Kappa Delta Pi and Delta Phi Delta.

Maj. Joseph V. Cocchiarella (Delta Gamma/WV Wesleyan 1952)

Maj. Joseph V. Cocchiarella is a member of the Air Force Systems Command's Eastern Test Range, Patrick AFB, Florida, which supported the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission.

A pilot, Maj. Cocchiarella feeds information to test range headquarters as the spacecraft circles the globe and deploys to any space tracking site when necessary to keep constant contact with the command capsule.

A veteran of Vietnam, Cocchiarella is a 1952 chemistry graduate of West Virginia Wesleyan College. He was commissioned through the aviation cadet program.

Capt. Donald W. Digman (Gamma Lambda/Denver 1962)

Transporting the Apollo 11 lunar samples to Houston, TX, was the job of Capt. Donald W. Digman and his Starlifter crew from Norton Air Force Base, California.

The U.S. Air Force commander was selected for the assignment to take the vacuum-packed moon specimens on board at Johnston Island in the Pacific and deliver them to Houston. Capt. Digman is a member of the Military Airlift Command which provides global air transport for U.S. operations.

He received the B.S. in 1962 from the University of Denver and was commissioned upon completion of Officer Training School at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.

Edward G. Gibson, Ph.d. (Alpha Zeta/Rochester 1959) - Apollo 12

A Theta Chi is a member of the support crew for the next manned space flight to the moon, Apollo 12. Edward G. Gibson is the only one of 13 scientist-astronauts to have received a crew assignment.

A support crew performs administrative and investigative chores for the prime and back-up crews on a flight. Gibson, a research scientist with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and three others are still considered active candidates for future moon flights. The other nine astro-scientists are given little hope of a chance to land on the moon.

In June 1965, Gibson was among six selected by NASA as a scientist astronaut from some 1500 applicants. A graduate of the University of Rochester, Gibson earned both the Master of Science degree in Engineering and the doctorate in Engineering with a minor in Physics. In 1960 and 1964, respectively, at the California Institute of Technology.

From Sumer 1970 issue of The Rattle:

Alumni Briefs
Delta Iota/Northwestern
2nd Lt. Gary B. Braasch (1966) is a member of a unit that has earned the U.S. Air Force Outstanding Unit Award for meritorious service in providing climatological, environmental, and meteorological support for the Apollo program and supporting the White House and Presidential air-fleet.

Reacting to the Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of Sputnik, the first manmade object to orbit the earth, the United States quickly established in 1958 the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and gave it huge resources to develop a space program that would overtake and surpass the Soviets. President John F. Kennedy placed the biggest bet in American history when, only a month after watching the Soviets celebrate Yuri Gagarin as the first man in orbit in April, 1961, he made his famous speech to a joint session of Congress, committing the U.S. to going to the Moon:

“First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the earth.” (JFK, May 25, 1961)

Easier said than done, Mr. President. How are we going to transform the stuff of science fiction and fantasy into a real flying machine that can fly to the Moon and back? And we only have eight and a half years?

Luckily for America, a young engineer named Charles “Buddy” Davis had recently graduated from Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University) and was working for Douglas Aircraft Company in California. Brother Davis began his career working on the Thor ICBM rocket, which would evolve into the Delta program, the most successful commercial rocket system in history (and still in use today). NASA awarded Douglas the contract to make key parts of the Saturn V, the muscle behind the Apollo moon landings.

Brother Davis shared highlights of his amazing life story as the keynote speaker at this year’s Founders Day banquet hosted by the San Diego Area Alumni Chapter on April 17, 2009. He regaled the assembled brothers and guests with stirring and awe-inspiring stories of his life and career, including his role at the heart of the Apollo program that put Americans on the Moon. Buddy and his wife of 47 years, Charlotte, live in nearby Laguna Niguel, CA.

Buddy remembers the early days well. “We started with a blank sheet of paper,” he recalls. “We had to come up with everything—the design, the materials, the systems, and the controls. Fuel, life support, launch facilities, electronics, and telemetry systems—none of it existed when we started.”

Making the most of his education, and always going where the action was, Buddy had already spent one college summer vacation in California working for Douglas Aircraft, and he returned there to work full time after graduation. Soon after, NASA came calling—fly us to the Moon, and get us back.

Buddy illustrates the magnitude of the challenge presented by the Apollo program with this story. “When we started, we calculated the guidance parameters out to 8 decimal places. The first time we tried to hit the Moon based on those calculations, we missed. So we went back to the drawing board and carried our calculations out to 12 decimal places of precision. Next time, we hit.”

Remember, this is in the days before computers, digital calculators, automated precision machine tools, or solid-state electronics. Many of these marvels that are now common to our everyday life today had to be invented to make a trip to the Moon possible. Using slide rules and hand-operated machine tools, Buddy and the other engineers from Douglas Aircraft and dozens of other companies made the components of the world’s largest and most powerful mechanical device that contained eight and a half million parts.

As the space program accelerated and expanded, NASA managers recognized Buddy’s extraordinary talents, and assigned him to work on many critical aspects of the program. Among other key tasks, he was the man selected to push The Button: you know, “5-4-3-2-1-‘fire’- liftoff?”

In the days before computers, after the vehicle was assembled to the support gantry and rolled out to the launch pad (the massive Vertical Assembly Building, the giant gantry and the monstrous rolling “crawler” all have elements designed and developed by Buddy Davis, and some are still used today for the Space Shuttle), somebody had to sit at the launch control console (also designed by Brother Davis) and push the actual button to fire the massive rocket engines—one hundred times. In fact, Brother Davis holds the world record for initiating the most large rocket launches in a lifetime, numbering more than 600 live launches and static firings.

Following the success of the Apollo missions, Buddy and Douglas Aircraft—now McDonnell Douglas—made launching payloads into orbit economical and routine with the Delta program, launching an average of one per month for more than four decades. The program continues today, with Delta launches scheduled through 2013. His resume’ also includes the

Harpoon missile—an all-weather, over-the-horizon, anti-ship missile system, the KC-10 aircraft aerial refueling tanker, and the mast-mounted visual laser and infrared sensing system for Scout helicopters. This MMS system allows an unarmed scout helicopter to find, identify, and target enemy assets while hiding behind hills, trees or buildings.

The aerospace industry’s insiders know Brother Davis as a pioneering engineer and rocket man who was equally familiar with the corporate boardroom. He earned the reputation as the man who could take programs in trouble and turn them around, fixing the engineering problems as well as the organizational and administrative challenges. When you wanted a success, you called Buddy Davis.

He was asked why he chose electrical engineering as his career: “It’s where the money was at that time.” Never content, Buddy was always looking to improve. “I was fortunate enough to earn a good steady salary, so I started working with a broker to invest some of my money. After six months, half of my money was gone, and I thought, who needs a broker? I think I can do better all by myself. So even after a 60-hour week at work, I started spending at least two hours a day on learning how to invest and make money.”

His stock market success paralleled his engineering career, earning him enough to support his family comfortably, and giving him the means to support many educational institutions and organizations. He is a principal benefactor for the College of Engineering at Auburn University, where, in June of 2007, at a ceremony attended by state and local dignitaries

and distinguished Auburn alumni, the Aerospace Engineering building was rededicated as the Charles E. Davis Aerospace Engineering Hall. His $4 million gift is the third largest in the history of the college.

He said at the time, “I feel so honored to represent the thousands of engineering students who have graduated from Auburn who have been an integral part of the space program—from Auburn astronauts such as Jim Voss, T. K. Mattingly and Jan Davis, to NASA directors McCartney, Kennedy and Dick Smith. To be the one whose name will be on this

building on behalf of all of these graduates is a tremendous privilege and an honor for me and my family.”

During his Founders Day Address, he told the story of a phone call he had just received from a young scholarship student, thanking him for helping make her college career a possibility. “It’s wonderful to be able to provide the finances that make the difference for these kids, knowing as I do how much my education helped me achieve what I have.”

Brother Davis is also a major supporter of Chi Chapter at Auburn. Buddy made the lead financial donation necessary to help the Chapter realize the completion of their new chapter house (see cover story, The Rattle, fall 2007), described as “the most beautiful fraternity property ever designed” by its architect.

Brother Davis provides this heartfelt example of how the principle of the Helping Hand can make a huge difference in people’s lives. “Brother Denton persuaded me to come to Auburn, made sure I had a place to stay, and helped me become a part of Theta Chi Fraternity. Theta Chi in turn helped me learn how to organize, communicate, socialize, and cooperate to solve problems and get things done, skills which were essential throughout my career.”

Brother Davis continues to support Theta Chi nationally and locally as well, attending the 2008 National Convention (see cover story, The Rattle, fall 2008), working with the Foundation Board, and attending Founders Day.

Rounding out his fascinating address at Founders Day, Brother Davis paid loving tribute to his wife Charlotte, also in attendance, and to his three sons—Steve, a 1988 Auburn graduate and Navy veteran, and Brian and Neil, both graduates of West Point Military Academy in 1990 and 1994, respectively. He also enjoys the attentions of four grandchildren. He and wife Charlotte finance a family vacation for all 12 members at a different location in the world every year.

Buddy’s activities include a love for cars—he has six Corvettes, including a mint 1954 with only 2,400 miles on it, a mint 1958 fuely, a 1963 split-windowed honeymoon car, along with a 1968 Firebird, five Cadillacs, and other miscellaneous cars. He bought all of them new. He also enjoys college football, supports the arts at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, and maintains a museum-quality collection of documents, photographs, blueprints and other original items from his years with the space program, a sampling of which were on display at Founders Day.

Answering questions after his presentation, Buddy was asked if instead of always pushing the button, he would have liked to be the guy riding the rocket. “Oh you bet! I’d still go today!” he answered enthusiastically. “I told (astronaut and fellow Auburn alumni) Jim Voss that any time he couldn’t make it, I’d be happy to take his place!”