140:03:43 RETRO Chuck Deiterich gets spooked by YAW

[MadDogBV]

Chuck Deiterich is quite a character, in a way that I think is underestimated by listening just solely to the Flight Director loops. When listening to the Flight Dynamics loops in particular during the re-entry phase, you can detect a great deal of anxiety and chariness about him in a way that tends to be somewhat charming. 😊

The below recording is just one of many instances in which his nervousness is on display when YAW asks him a question that sounds innocuous on paper, but which would understandably prompt panic under different circumstances. Given the proximity to entry interface and considering the fact they've already done a midcourse and an SM sep, their options for recovering from a mistake were greatly limited.

Link: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=140:03:43&ch=19

[kendradog]

It's interesting how the speech patterns under pressure of some of the controllers are sometimes clues to their background, specifically whether they had military piloting or only civilian experience. Gene Kranz, the astronauts, the CapCom all clearly were pilots just from their speech patterns that were virtually unaffected by pressure. Sy Liebergot ("Nooo...") clearly was not military. Gene Kranz, cool and calm the entire time, clearly was.

[MadDogBV]

The only flight controller on the loops who seems to be the most calm and collected, during either the accident or the re-entry, is the GNC on the White Team, Buck Willoughby. And to your point... he was a former Major in the U.S. Marine Corps, an aviator just like the company he kept.

[Naraht]

Nice find!

To pick up on the following discussion, one of the most "un-military" flight controllers has to be Steve Bales, hands down. His work was clearly massively respected, or he wouldn't have been chosen for both the lunar landing and take-off shifts on Apollo 11, but he was very excitable and prone to interrupting. The contrast between him and Jay Greene during their backchannel discussions around the Apollo 11 landing is very clear.

Greene, although clearly non-military and often tongue-in-cheek during ordinary shifts, was pretty calm and collected when the chips were down. Like this when he's reminding his backroom to 'stay with it' while the room is still clapping after the landing: https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/?t=102:45:55&ch=20

But then he later became a flight director - not coincidental I think.

[Naraht]

A somewhat related Deiterich moment: "don't scare me like that!"

But as he says afterwards, "it's better to overreact than to underreact... just keep it between us."

https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=004:06:34&ch=19

[MadDogBV]

What I plan to do at some point, as I have time, is just a few compilation YouTube videos (or well, audios) of some of the Trench officers - Reed, Deiterich, Bales, possibly even Boone - just as a highlight reel of stuff they say on the loops. Each compilation video would probably be themed in some way. Perhaps Bales would be a mix of him being overly enthusiastic versus quiet and somnolent; Reed would be all the times he lost his temper, etc.. 

[Naraht]

No lie - I would waste so much time (re)listening to those. What a brilliant idea!

Probably you have tons of material already but you might consider starting some themed threads in the general forum, so that people could share clips that you might have missed.

My dream find: Steve Bales' colleagues in the Trench occasionally had to phone him to wake him up in time for the start of shift. Apparently these calls were quite funny so they sometimes played them back. The fact they were recorded makes me suspect that the calls came from Mission Control - maybe they went and did them from the Booster console? But it would be amazing to find a Bales wake-up call one day. Maybe from one of the other missions.

Best of Jack Garman would also be great. He was quite a character too.