Gus Grissom: The Lost Astronaut

I ordered this book for my father for his birthday and he really liked it. The family is waiting in line to read the book when he is done.

I hope all of those who saw "The Right Stuff" and based their opinions of Gus Grissom on that movie/book, read THIS one. Grissom was the best pilot (and I am a huge Chuck Yeager fan) and an all around good guy. I was so glad when the Liberty Bell was brought to the surface and people finally knew what this book tells the reader, and those of us who had faith in Gus all along already knew. He did NOTHING WRONG when his spacecraft sank. Having seen the Apollo Launch pad where Grissom, White and Chafee died, mourned along with the rest of the nation when the fire happened, and the memorial in Arlington, it was great to read this biography and bring Gus back for a little while. Certainly one of America's and Indiana's finest! A good book about a great man.

Virgil "Gus" Grissom is most commonly remembered by casual "space historians", as the only Mercury Astronaut to lose his spacecraft and for his death along with Robert Chafee and Edward White in the Apollo 1 fire. Most of these same historians think of him as a bit of a screwup as well, who may have been responsible for the loss of Friendship 7, when he in a panicked state blew the hatch while most of the spacecraft was still submerged, but for the loss of Apollo 1 as well due his insistence on not using explosive hatch bolts in later NASA programs such as Gemini and Apollo. The theory being that if NASA had developed the Apollo spacecraft with the explosive hatch, Grissom, Chafee, and White would have been able to blow the hatch and escape the fire which killed them. A minority of these folks even go so far as to blame him for the fire itself, saying that it was his movements which caused wires to short and to start the fire that killed the three of them. A more dedicated researcher however finds himself quickly at odds with these assumptions. If Grissom was the screwup the majority of people seem to think he was, then why did NASA not only select him to be the second American in space, but listened to his input to the point that they incorporated so many of his design idea's and requirements into the Gemini program that other astronauts referred to the spacecraft as the "Gusmobile" and complained that the spacecraft were tailored to fit his 5'6 140 pound frame, or why was he on the fast track to become the first American to walk on the moon? The logical conclusion is that Grissom wasn't the screw up people thought him to be. The problem facing the dedicated researcher is the lack of compiled information about Virgil Grissom. Yes, the data exists in various forms, but due to his untimely death (which results in the loss of any direct autobiographical information) and the common perception that he was a screwup no one had much interest in gathering all this information and putting it in one place. For Christmas last year among the stack of books that was so tall and so heavy I nearly broke a bone when I stubbed my toe against it, was a copy of Boomhower's "Gus Grissom - The Lost Astronaut", a part of the Indiana Biography Series. First, a word about Astronaut histories, be they biographies or autobiographies. Its often said, about the Mercury 7, that they were made heros before they had ever done anything. This statement has always bothered me, because these men were heroes long before they were selected to the space program. Six of them were combat veterans, most of them were combat aces (five or more confirmed kills) and some of them were double aces, having earned five or more kills in both World War II and Korea. Each of them had also been a test pilot, where they strapped themselves into several tons of experminental steel, weapons, and jet fuel and took the skies with the intention of breaking their aircraft. Most of them served as pil

This book is a very quick read. It contains some interesting stories. The comments of Grissom's sons, brothers, parents, and childhood friends shed some light on his true personality. The book does not dwell on Grissom's two spaceflights and death during a test. Instead, the narration focuses on his life journey to those public milestones.

I have always been interested in the US space program, and Apollo in particular. It amazes me that there has been so little published on Gus Grissom or Apollo 1. There have been scattershot, low distribution books but very little of substance. I am pleased to see that Ray Boomhower has finally written a good biography of one of the overlooked heroes of the space program, Gus Grissom. The biography is thorough, and as far as I can tell generally quite accurate, although there is little to cross-reference it against. I found the story well written, but occasionally the pace bogged down, particularly in the sections dealing with early military service. One thing I liked about the book is that it didn't focus exclusively on the space program or Apollo 1, but rather treated them in context with the rest of Grissom's life. I was pleased that the Gemini 3 mission was so thoroughly covered, and enjoyed learning about the interactions with the other astronauts, especially John Young and Wally Schirra. The book met the issue of the blown Mercury hatch head on, and by the end of the book it became clear that Grissom was not at fault for the incident. The book fills a needed void in the history of space literature, and I am generally quite pleased with it. I give it four stars overall: I am glad we finally have a biography of Grissom, a true American hero.