As I've alluded to a nauseating number of times, my job as a funeral director, while full of boredom, is laced with a modicum of interesting situations. Interesting to me, that is. It would probably be 100% boredom to most of you.
The other day took me to Amarillo for a graveside service. Llano Cemetery is one I've been to before, but that was about 10 years ago, at the beginning of my career, and it was actually to the mausoleum. This time took me to the dirt, where the normal, everyday folks lie in peaceful repose.
Typically, I set up at least an hour before service time. The trip to Amarillo from Fort Worth took a little less time than I had figured, so I was set up early and was killing time, enjoying a very unusual summer day that felt more like spring. One of the cemetery workers was unusually chatty, telling me about having lived in the Fort Worth area for some years. I got a run-down on his employment history and every community he had lived in. I had nothing better to do, so I continued to politely listen to his stories. That, plus I was somewhat a captive audience for him. Eventually, he figured he had better get back to work, yet before he left he mentioned a grave I might like to see. He said it was the grave of a fellow named Husband who had been on one of the space shuttles that had crashed. He pointed in its direction and then went back to his work.
On January 16, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia took off from the Kennedy Space Center. This was the 27th mission this craft had flown, and it was manned with a crew of seven. The commander of the flight was Rick D. Husband, an Air Force colonel and a veteran of only one other shuttle mission, having piloted STS-96 on the first shuttle mission to dock with the International Space Station in 1996.
On launch, a three-foot piece of foam insulation fell off of an external fuel tank and damaged the shuttle's wing. It is theorized that the foam created a hole in a reinforced carbon panel on the wing, possibly as small as 6 to 10 inches in diameter. NASA management felt that the damage hadn't created an unsafe condition and refused to take any measures to examine the damage in depth, including refusing to have an astronaut examine the wing and refusing to have DOD satellites photograph the damage.
On February 1, 2003, the shuttle was scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center at 9:16am EST. All preparations had been made for a normal re-entry with no concern given to the wing damage. At 8:53.26, Columbia crossed the California coastline west of Sacramento. It was traveling at Mach 23 at an altitude of 231,600 feet. At this time, the temperature of the wing's leading edge would be around 2,800 °F. At 8:58:20, the shuttle crossed from New Mexico into Texas. At 8:59:15, Maintenance, Mechanical, and Crew Systems (MMACS) informed the crew that pressure readings for the left landing gear had been lost. Flight Commander Husband responded, "Roger, uh, bu...", his transmission being cut off mid-sentence. That was the last communication to be received from the Columbia.
At 2:04pm EST, President Bush addressed the nation. He said what many already knew: "The Columbia is lost; there are no survivors."
Debris was scattered over a vast area, from southeast of Dallas throughout East Texas and into western Louisiana, some even being found in southwest Arkansas. This was my home turf, my old stomping grounds. One of the largest amounts of debris fell around Nacogdoches, where I went to college and lived for 5 years. If the sorrow of having this happen there weren't bad enough, the scavengers snatching up debris and trying to sell it on eBay proved a more intense embarrassment. Ugliness exists everywhere, but you don't want the national spotlight shining on your hometown version of it.
It was reported that remains of all seven of the astronauts was recovered. Morbid speculation leads us to assume that it was most likely not all or most of any of the seven that was recovered.
Rick Husband's funeral was in Clear Lake, Texas on February 5, 2003. He was then buried in Llano Cemetery in Amarillo.
Husband was known for his Christian faith. In his last-request form, which astronauts fill out before each flight, it is reported that he inserted a note to his pastor. The note states: "Tell them about Jesus. He's real to me."
I really liked reading this, Dad. It's really cool that you found that grave...
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