This photo was taken for LIFE magazine at Buzz Aldrin’s house right after splashdown for Apollo 11 after the first moon landing. My mother is the lady on the far right. They must have given us a different copy because the one my mother has shows this one on the cover but I haven’t seen it that way anywhere else on the internet.
I have no memories of knowing the Aldrin family but am sure they were around at least a few family functions. I think his youngest child is a little older than me. I’ve tried to reach out to him to help me with my father’s legacy but I think he still keeps pretty busy for a man his age. I’m also not sure my father really appreciated his heroics. My father did not give praise very easily and I only remember a few astronauts getting his endorsement. I’ll talk more about this later.
Mike Collins lived on the street behind us. I vaguely remember his kids Mike and Katy. Dave Scott lived next door to us, General McDivitt lived a few houses down and Dick Gordon lived kind of behind the McDivitts. The McDivitts were swimmers and divers like our family. All of them moved out of the neighborhood shortly after their missions had ended. Joe Allen moved in a little later and stayed much longer. He and his family became good family friends that we are still in touch with today.
The following is an application for recommendation as a fellow for the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics written by Dr. Henry Pohl for, my father, Mr. Joseph Guy Thibodaux, Jr. I am submitting this as an opportunity to complete two goals I have for my Fathers’ legacy. One of his dying wishes was to have a tree planted in his name at NASA next to his lifelong friend and colleagues tree. NASA highly ranking NASA personnel have trees planted in there names’ near the front of NASA and near another ring of trees for the original astronauts. So far, NASA has refused. My father chose not to rise in rank because he was already serving where he was most capable. I think after reading this document, you will agree he is most deserving of this honor. The tree should be a bald cypress.
I also want to get the attention of Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk or their engineers. After reading this, you will also agree that my father was most crucial to the current work being done. You are literally standing on the shoulders of this mans’ accomplishments. I’ve saved a small amount of my fathers’ ashes. All I ask is that they be sent into space. I don’t think there is anyone more deserving of a final ride.
I am leaving the document unedited but will try to add some commentary for clarification. I may also try to add a few pictures for esthetic purposes and support where possible. Thanks for taking the time to read this. If you can contact any NASA, Space-x or Blue Origin personnel capable of listening to my request please forward this to them. Thanks, I hope you enjoy the story because it is the story of the greatest human accomplishment.
When Guy came to the Manned Spacecraft Center he was well known for his expertise in solid rockets. He perhaps made a greater contribution to that industry than any other single individual. It all started when there was the need to test models at altitudes and speeds that could not be achieved in wind tunnels. Solid rockets were ideal for that purpose as they could be designed to put a specific model at the right altitude and correct velocity very cheaply. This activity led to the development of the spherical rocket motor with mass fractions of around 94 percent. These star motors which were conceived by Thibodaux and perfected by Thiokol have placed most of our satellites in orbit and are still in use today some 40 years later.
His other contributions to space have not been recognized to the same extent but are perhaps more noteworthy. Had it not been for Guy’s management expertise it would not have been possible to place a man on the moon during the 60’s. We would not have met President Kennedy’s challenge of May 25, 1961. The lunar module ascent engine was in trouble a year and a half before the scheduled landing. Guy re-competed the contract and steered the winning contractor to develop and qualify a successful engine in time to make a landing before the decade was out. This is just one example of his many accomplishments during Apollo. The division Guy was in charge of had the most critical subsystems that required more development than any on Apollo. Three major Propulsion Systems, three Reaction Control Systems, Fuel Cells, Cryogenic Storage (including liquid helium), Batteries and Pyrotechnics used throughout the system. Pyrotechnics for example: we had to change the thinking of the entire industry on fail operational-fail safe. At the time the DOD process was to design for fail-safe.
As Guy explained to me one time, if a rifle failed to fire, you just pulled the lever and ejected it in the hopes the next one would fire but under no circumstances did you want it to go off before you pulled the trigger, but on Apollo if a pyrotechnic device failed to go off when it was supposed to the crew was just as dead as if it went off prematurely.
I worked for Guy for over 16 years and learned most of my management expertise form Guy. The things I learned from Guy served me well for the rest of my career. I took over the division (Propulsion and Power) when Guy retired and later became Director of Engineering. I owe that all to Guy’s management expertise. He was what I would consider a true public servant. The interest of the government or project always came first. It seemed he had no ambitions for himself, only for those that worked for him. He was not only the best manager that I worked for but he also the best understanding of the physical sciences and chemistry of anyone that I ever worked with. It just seemed that he had an intuition about what was right or what would or could work. He had this uncanny way of dropping thoughts or hints to get a person thinking about doing it the right way without directing them. He could sit down with a contractor and get them to do what was needed without having to go through the time consuming paperwork. Guy was the kind of person that did not like to take credit for something good himself. He would always work it around so that one of his employees got the credit, yet when something went wrong, as it sometimes does, he was the first one that took responsibility for it.
After 38 years I can think of no one individual that made a greater contribution to the success of Apollo than Guy Thibodaux. His contributions to space started long before Apollo and continued long after Apollo.
Below is some additional information about Guy’s career and remarks from other colleagues who knew very well what Guy’s role was in the history of the U.S. space program. Quoted passage are from letters and other documents which can be provided to the committee.
Guy was hired on August 1, 1946 and assigned to the Auxiliary Flight Research Station later reorganized to become the Pilotless Aircraft Research Division which used small solid propellent rockets to launch Aerodynamic Research Models for the study of transonic and supersonic flight problems. His initial assignment was to look into the use of liquid propellent rockets. He immediately recognized that liquid propellent rockets could not perform as well as solid propellent rockets and dedicated himself to developing launching and boosting techniques and advanced solid propellent rocket designs to maximize their effectiveness for reaching ever higher velocities eventually approaching reentry speeds.
Guy was there at the very beginning-even before N.A.S.A.-and helped significantly to lead the way. He was one of the original architects of N.A.S.A. His work in rocketry and novel launching and boosting techniques earned him the title as the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (N.A.C.A.) propulsion expert. His work revolutionized the solid propellent rocket and missile industry. His work is known and recognized by almost all of the senior officials of N.A.S.A. and America’s leading rocket and space companies.
In one oral history, Chris Kraft, flight engineer at Langley, stated:
Kraft: “Interestingly, I was born and raised right next to Langley Field, Virginia, which is where the N.A.C.A. started in 195 and where all of us came from-Paul Purser, Max Faget, and Guy Thibodaux-we all worked for the N.A.C.A., the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. I graduated from Virginia Tech as an aeronautical engineer, then went to work at Langley and ended up at the N.A.C.A. on or about the 15th or 18th of January, 1945.
“That’s where Mr. Thibodaux became a rocket expert. He didn’t know a god damn thing about rockets when he graduated from L.S.U., but Gilruth made him an expert in solid rockets. Max Faget also came to work for the N.A.C.A. at about that time, for Gilruth, in the Pilotless Aircraft Research Division (P.A.R.D.) “That’s where Thibodaux became a rocket expert…So when we got into the Space Program all the rest of these guys were the “brains” in Orbital Mechanics like John Mayer and Ted Skopinski or in instrumentation like Howard Kyle or in rockets and systems design like Max Faget and Guy Thibodaux.”
In an interview, Bob Gilruth remarked:
Gilruth: “The day I pocked up Guy Thibodaux was the day I picked up Max Faget. They both came out of L.S.U. I never had a luckier day in my life than when I picked up those two guys. He was really interested in solid rockets. It was his business. He was a rocket man there at P.A.R.D. and that was part of our life’s blood.”
“Yes, Thibodaux was a very big help in getting the kind of rockets that we needed there at P.A.R.D. He was an expert. He became an expert in these rockets.”
Another colleague, C.C. Johnson, Chief of the Spacecraft Design Division at J.S.C. remarked:
Johnson: “They were a bunch of bright guys like Max: if I read off the names it would be a NASA’s Who’s Who. Guy Thibodaux for example-he would up as head of propulsion at the Johnson Space Center, but I don’t think he knew more about propulsion when he started than you or I do. He just learned. He was bright as hell.”
In the beginning, Guy was the only Chemical Engineer at N.A.C.A., an aeronautics agency of about 3500 people full of all sorts of other engineering types. There was not another chemical engineer in that agency until Guy hired one. Guy did not know rocket science, but he was one of the few qualified to pursue it when charged with the task. Guy and Max Faget had been college roommates and agreed after the war they would go look for a job together. Guy was not looking to be in space exploration, but when the nation looked for someone who could do that, there he was. And he more than answered the call. This country should be grateful for him and his colleagues.
Guy became an expert in rocket propulsion through his own innate abilities because the field did not exist in the form of formal education. He was a self taught prodigy through collective effort and collaboration with other equally talented people.
Max Faget, Director of Engineering at J.S.C. believed that the work Guy was doing at Wallops Island, Virginia was a key factor in why President Eisenhower chose to transform N.A.C.A. into the foundation for N.A.S.A. rather than create an entirely new space agency from scratch. Guy was the Chief of Rocket Propulsion at Langley at the time the President was looking to respond to the Soviets startling venture into space. Guy supervised the development of solid rocket fuel engines, with over 3000 experimental launches at Wallops Island. Faget wrote on the occasion of Guy’s retirement:
Faget: “Congratulations and best wishes on your retirement from Federal service. As one who is most familiar with your career in the Army (WWII), the NACA and the NASA, it is clear you did your part in an excellent manner and often at a level that was significant to the course of major events. Through your management and practical knowledge, NACA was provided with an almost ideal stable of solid propellent rockets at a minimum cost. The result was that at Wallops Island NACA carried out a variety of aerodynamic research from transonic speeds up to M=15. The recognition of the NACA as a practicing agency in the field of rocketry was a key factor in the choice by President Eisenhower and Congress to use the NACA institution for the foundation of NASA. Subsequently your expertise in propulsion systems was employed in the development of the Scout and in the propulsion and power systems for each of our Nation’s manned spacecraft.”
As the Chief of Rocket Propulsion, Guy is the primary person behind N.A.C.A.’s recognition as “a practicing agency in the field of rocketry.” But for Guy, the history of N.A.S.A. as an agency would be a different story. Guy oversaw development pf solid rocket engines that are the forerunner of every space vehicle this nation has flown. As a result he still holds patents on these engines. He needed a larger rocket engine than they could build at Wallops Island so he personally approached Thiokol about building a larger version.
T.M. “Red” Davis, General Manager of Thiokol, wrote upon Guy’s retirement:
“The Elkton Division of Thiokol owes you a great deal for being instrumental in getting started in spherical rocket motor work twenty two years ago. We recognize your contribution and congratulate you on your pioneering work to achieve a highly reliable, high mass fraction solid propulsion unit without which the United States Space Program could not have advanced to the point it is today.”
In a 1980 letter from E.G. Dorsey, Jr., Director of the Space Booster Program at Thiokol:
“I particularly want to call attention to you pioneering efforts in the multi-stage solid rocket boosters used for model experiments at Langley. This work proved that solid rocket motors were reliable propulsion devices which were flexible enough to be readily adaptable to many uses. Your work required imagination and skill and you developed these qualities to an outstanding degree.”
“Your subsequent work at Johnson has continued you important contributions to the nation’s space activities. I know from personal observation that this has been important in creating the basic concepts for the Space Shuttle system and its continuing development.”
Max Faget came to the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston in 1962 as the Director of Engineering. He had been in charge of one project (Mercury) but now would be in charge of three projects at the same time (Mercury, Gemini and Apollo). Faget cited propulsion as the biggest challenge in Apollo in an interview given for Space History that can be found at:
http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4223/ch14.htm
INTERVIEWER: What was the biggest challenge to Apollo?
Max Faget:
“The biggest challenge in Apollo, I really think was propulsion. When astronauts are in orbit, they cam come down so easy because all they have to do is slow down a little bit, and they’re going to come back into the atmosphere, and once a vehicle has been through an entry aerodynamically and you know it’s controllable, you don’t have to worry about it burning up. But when you’re on the moon, you’re in a gravity sink. Your propulsion system has got to work. It has really got to work. You can’t wish your way out of that sink. [Laughter]. You know, being in lunar orbit’s one thing. You’ve got to come up with 2000 or 3000 feet a second to get out. On the surface, you’ve got to come out with a lot more than that to get out, and, of course, you’ve got to get up and make the precision of the rendezvous.”
Guy says the reason Floy Thompson of Langley was asked to release him to come to JSC in January, 1964 was to take care of all the propulsion systems. Max Faget considered propulsion to be the biggest challenge they faced in Apollo. He turned to Guy for a solution.
Guy began his experiments with solid rockets by adapting ordnance left over from WWII weaponry, such as propellants for bazookas and artillery rockets being used to launch model rockets at Wallops Island to evaluate payload and velocity.
Harold Ritchey, past President and CEO of the Thiokol Chemical Corporation wrote:
“One the occasion of your retirement, it is most gratifying to have this opportunity to congratulate you for your illustrious and productive career. It has been a very great privilege and pleasure to have been associated with you throughout the years of progress in the uses of space technology for the production of new knowledge for the benefit of mankind”
“It seems I have known and cherished your friendship forever-in fact, I can remember when you were one of the two ro three people in the world who realized that solid-propellent rockets could be useful for space exploration.”
There could be no future as we know it in space without solid rocket fuel. Studying ways to design the highest performing solid propellent rockets, he came on the idea of using spherical cases which had the least weight for the volume which they contained. This required very unique three dimensional charge designs which were ignited on all surfaces of the propellent simultaneously. Guy’s peers acknowledge his role in that.
H.L. Thackwell (who was V.P. of Grand Central Rocket Co.. later bought and turned into Lockheed Propulsion Co.) wrote to the director of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Dr. Hugh Dryden in a letter dated 9 May 1958:
“I have very much been impressed with the work on advanced type solid propellent rocket motors which has been done by Mr. Guy Thibodaux of you Langley Field Laboratories. I believe this work represents a decided technical breakthrough in the present state of the art. In view of Mr. Thibodaux’s achievements and interest in this field, I was wondering if it is possible to have him named as a member of your N.A.C.A’s subcommittee on Rocket Engines…..”
Guy had first conceived of a solid-fuel multi-stage rocket achieving orbit in 1955, two years before the Soviets launched Sputnik I on October 4, 1957. He designed a four stage vehicle and did the calculations on what size rockets would be needed. When Sputnik challenged the U.S. to develop a space program and N.A.S.A. was created, Guy’s concept for an orbital vehicle was proposed by adapting three military rocket engines they had already been working on, and developing a new fourth engine to complete the task of creating Scout. The very design he had worked up in 1955.
Three missile systems figured in Guy’s plans for Scout:
A. The Algo-for the U.S. Navy-became stage one of Scout.
B. The Castor-for Thiokol and Hermes became stage two.
C. The Altair-for Vanguard missiles-became stage four Scout.
Guy’s idea was to use these three existing rocket motor designs for three of Scout’s stages, and then the required third stage (the Antares) would be designed just for this purpose if he could get the nod from Abe Silverstein.
Silverstein was the leader of the group that organized N.A.S.A. using the N.A.C.A. personnel as its cadre. He was the first Associate Administrator of both Unmanned and Manned Space Flight, and a past Director of the Lewis Research Center. Guy had to go to Washington to convince Silverstein that they could build the Scout and come back with a budget and marching orders. In an interview, Silverstein recalls the occasion:
SILVERSTEIN: For example there was a guy, do you know Thibodaux?
Mauer: Yes, I’ve met Thibodaux and talked with him, yes.
SILVERSTEIN: Well, he’s an enthusiast and he was solidly behind doing work in solid rockets. He was really the grandfather of the Scout rocket. He sold the Svout rocket to me over my objections.
Mauer: Tell me that story.
SILVERSTEIN: Well, in the early days, in ’58, before October, the group we’d set up at Langley under Gilruth included Thibodaux and Faget, you know Faget, I’m sure.
“Yes. Well Thibodaux and Faget kind of were the sponsors of the Scout rocket, which was a solid rocket, you know, and they came to me and said, “Look, we can build that rocket, get it built and fire it for handling small projects into space, small weights into space, for a million dollars a shot.”
“I said, we’re not going to have too many of those little baby ones, but we’re not really prepared to fire out of Wallops yet with Scouts. He said, “Oh yes, we are, we’re all set up to do it, and we’re all set up to handle the building of the Scout.”
Well I didn’t want to do it, but I agreed, because I didn’t like to stand in the road of their ability to move ahead. I recognized that this is a place where I have to give a little. And it turned out to be useful. The Scout rocket is still-the (LTV) people have built it and provided it to Wallops people, and it’s been used right along. I don’t know how many have been fired, but there must have been a hundred of them fired.
Mauer: What was it about? What made you recognize that this was an area in which you had to give in a little bit?
SILVERSTEIN: “I don’t know. In the first place, Thibodaux was pretty forceful. I thought that maybe they had something. It was a little different. I wasn’t thinking along that line at the time. I was thinking along something entirely different.”
The Scout, originally conceived and designed by Guy, has flown more missions than any unmanned vehicle in the U.S. space inventory (118 launches, including 94 orbital mission, consisting of 27 navigational and 67 scientific satellites, and launched payloads for Europe, Germany, France, Netherlands, Italy and the United Kingdom.) (The Shuttle launches have recently exceeded that number)
The Star rocket motor is a Thiokol built derivative of Guy’s invention of a spherical rocket engine, and the Star had a very laudable contribution to the U.S. Space program. Among Star’s accomplishments:
*Gemini Spacecraft de-orbit.
*The first orbit insertion around the moon.
*The first unmanned lunar landing.
*Orbit insertion around the planet Venus.
*Insertion of the Exploration Rovers in Mars Orbit.
*Final Stage of the Japanese Kappa Launch Vehicle.
Guy is also the person who went to Silverstein to convince him to provide funding for the large solid rocket booster research program, which so many future advances in space depended upon.
A 1980 letter from Tom Davidson, Vice President of the Government Systems Group of Thiokol’s Utah Division, on the occasion of Guy’s retirement, demonstrates that Guy was devising launch vehicles and solid fuel rocket boosters before N.A.S.A. was even created:
“The first time we met, I was with the Air Force and you were with the NACA, and we talked about what eventually would become the Scout. That was twenty-three years ago! I also remember very well the wise counsel and constructive criticism you gave Preston Craig, Jack Roberts and me while we were putting on the “Solid Booster Roadshow” in the early 1960’s to the tune of “When the Solids Come Marching in.”
“As we all recognize, “Big Solids” have now marched in; and, this must be very personally satisfying to you who for many years were a voice in the wilderness. Tibby, I’ll always remember you as a proponent of solid propulsion. The many contributions you’ve made and the achievements of you thirty-seven year career are ones that you should rightfully be proud of. You’ll be missed but long remembered by the solid propulsion community for all you’ve done.”
Preston Craig, Technical Director of Thiokol’s Space Booster Division, on the occasion of testing one of these large rocket motors (a 156-inch, 3-million pound thrust solid fuel motor) sent a note to Guy in 1965.
“I am sure you have heard by now that this test was quite successful and, I feel, represents a step forward in the development of the large solids. Since you have exerted such personal effort for this success, I’m sure your disappointment equals mine that you could not attend.”
Guy’s major contributions were not just in a solid propellent orbital launch vehicle, the pioneering Scout, and other rocket engines. At Langley, he was also simultaneously the Director of High Temperature Materials. He not only is a pioneer in rocket engines and materials, but is cryogenics and batteries and more. Guy has said that the Shuttle was a far greater challenge because of the need for lifetime requirements, reusability and flexibility. “ Apollo only had to land on the moon and Shuttle had to do many different types of missions.” He explained.
Ed Cortwright, N.A.S.A. Associate Administrator, N.A.S.A> Center Director, President of the A.I.A.A., and President of Lockheed California Corporation, this past year wrote in support of Guy’s nomination as a Fellow of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronauts, an which was subsequently bestowed upon Guy in 2007:
“I hereby submit the reference for the nomination of Mr. Guy Thibodaux to the grade of Fellow. It is brief and to the point by design. It does not begin to convey the background and contributions of the rather unique person, Guy Thibodaux, or “Tibby” as we know him.
“Tibby was part of the small task force the NACA engineers assembled from the NACA Centers by Hugh Dryden, Abe Silverstein and Bob Gilruth to organize the newly created NASA and to plan its programs. I was one of them.
“Tibby chose not to remain in Washington, but to return to Langley where he could remain a “hands on engineer”. There ands later at the Johnson Space Center, Tibby was s sparkplug of innovation and became recognized in the propulsion field, notably in solid propulsion.
“I have just read through a long volume of materials outlining his career. It is unfortunately beyond my remaining abilities to properly summarize this information. Suffice it to say that Mr. Thibodaux personifies the type of man that made NASA work. I wish we had more like him today.
“It would be a fitting to honor Tibby by electing him a fellow.”
Sincerely,
Ed Cortwright.
Guy’s nomination was supported by four of the past presidents of the AIAA, Jim Beggs, NASA Administrator; John Swihart, Corporate Vice President of the Boeing Company; Sam Iacobellis, Senior Vice President of the Rockwell Corporation; plus Dr. Joseph Allen, Shuttle Astronaut and President of Space Systems, Inc and President and CEO of the Veridian Corporation and Dr. Ken Cox, Chief of JSC’s Guidance, Navigation and Control Division.
In emails between Joh Swihart and Ken Cox regarding Guy’s nomination to A.I.A.A. Fellow:
From: Kenneth Cox
To: John Swihart
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Subject: AIAA Nomination Guy Thibodaux
John,
A week and a half ago, I travelled to Nassau Bay un the NASA, JSC area and interviewed Guy Thibodaux for over three hours in order to support his nomination for AIAA Fellow. Even though I had worked together with Tibby for over 40 years, I was still amazed and impressed with his NACA work, together with the initial and early work for NASA. I am sending you a package by mail to officially support the nomination.
Ken Cox
From: John M. Swihart
To: Kenneth Cox
Sent: Monday, January 30 2006
Subject: Re: AIAA Nomination-Guy Thibodaux
Ken, I’ve been to Japan for a week and got your package and email just now.
How Guy has been overlooked all these years is a real mystery to me. I worked with him several times at Langley and can only try to make him be #1 on the Fellows acceptance list. Thanks for all your help. I’ve registered his application on the AIAA web site and will be following it up soon.
Best wishes,
John M. Swihart
Sam Iacobellis served as Executive Vice President and Deputy Chairman of major programs at Rockwell International, and served as president of Rockwell’s North American Aviation Operations. He wrote of Guy:
“Guy Thibodaux made many individual contributions during his long career with the NACA and NASA. With regards to his team efforts, Guy was a key member of the last minute, high priority Lunar ascent backup injector development program. It was this injector that was used on Apollo and subsequent landings.”
“Guy and the contractor personnel (Rocketdyne) team worked together with a “seamless interface which I (and many others at Rocketdyne at the time) credit as the key to success of the program.”
“He was one of the major contributors to the success of the Apollo Program. His style of management, which combined leadership with technical knowledge and personal courage to demand and produce the correct and safe solutions, serves to day as a legacy to those who worked with him or under him.”
In a note in 1980 from the TRW engineers who developed the lunar descent engine Guy was cited as the key N.A.S.A. official responsible for their success:
“Your retirement from NASA seems to signal the close of the pioneering phase of man’s flight into space. We hope the future years are rewarding for you, and the you recall, as we do, our close associations during the exciting 60’s with pleasure and fondness. As the key NASA official responsible for the descent engine development, we’re sure that your view of the “last ten miles” was the same as ours.
Best wishes (12 signatures)
Guy is also remembered for solving a crucial problem of the lunar landing. Guy believed the ascent engine would not work as designed.
George M. Low, President of Rensselaer Ploytechnic Institute at the time, touches on the ascent engine in another note:
“I will alsways remember the time you and I flew back from Buffalo to Houston and you told me the Lunar ascent engine, as then configured, would not be satisfactory. I believed you, and much to the consternation of our friends in Washington, we proceeded to recompete and procure another engine with less than two years time before the scheduled landing on the moon. Of course you were right, and we made the right decision. I have told this story many times recently because it is a symbol of how things were then, and how tied-up -in-knots this great country has become since then.
“What we need most is people who have the courage to state their convictions and who are willing to take the necessary risks, much as you did in the ascent engine decision.”
And another comment in a 1968 letter to Guy from George M. Low, then manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program:
“The tremendous success of the Apollo 7 flight was in large measure due to the contributions of many people in your division.”
There is another acknowledgement in this letter in 1980 from Scott Simpkinson, Manager for Flight Safety at NASA:
“You and your people have made so many things really happen in the business of propulsion that put the United States of America out in front. I take my hat off to you Guy, not just because of all these accomplishments, but because of the man that you are. Honest, intelligent, forthright, kind, understanding and hardworking are just a few of the adjectives that could be used to describe Guy Thibodaux.”
And there is the blurb from the Apollo 12 air-to-ground transcription that acknowledged the debt owed to Guy Thibodaux:
Conrad: What’s your preliminary look at the midcourse show?
Ground: Stand by for a second, Pete. While they’re ginning up the answer, got some nice words for you on your SPS burn. Evaluation shows that your ISP is within one tenth of a second, and your thrust is within 20 pounds on that engine so you got a real hummer there.”
Conrad: “Very good. I guess we can thank Mr. Thibodaux for that one.”
Ground: “Roger.”
Roger that! For I also believe that we need to thank Mr. Thibodaux for that and a good deal more.
The nation is reflecting on the Sputnik 1, which occurred 50 years ago in October, and which led to this nations plunge into the “space race”. I wonder if our country would have been as responsive and effective in our early efforts if Guy Thibodaux had not been on that watch at that time. When I think if the proverbial “rocket scientist” I think of Guy Thibodaux. He is one of this nation’s most preeminent and significant rocket scientists.
Respectfully submitted by:
Henry O. Pohl
The following is the story of how my father got his job with the NACA following his WWII experience in the China-Burma-India theater.
After the service, he had made a pact with his old college roommate and best friend Max Faget that if they survived the was they would meet up and look for work together. The story goes that they went back to LSU to ask their professors if they knew where they could seek employment. They were told that an earlier graduate, Paul Purser was working at a place called the NACA (the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics) in Langley, Virginia.
Max had a car so they drove up to meet Mr. Purser. The spry goes that Mr. Purser immediately to a liking to the two guys that did not dress up for the interview. Max was a Mechanical Engineer and was first shown a desk and given papers to review the mission and work of the NACA. Tibby was not sure of his status thinking that there was no need for a chemical engineer at the organization because there was no other there at the time. Mr. Purser said “to hell if we don’t need a chemical engineer”.
They thanked Mr. Purser for the interview and said that would take a little time to think it over even though they both knew they would never turn down a chance to work at this organization. They drove to New York City to party for awhile before returning and accepting the position at the NACA.