Rocket Pioneers, Schemers and Dreamers!

Grady's Space Chronicles
Rocket Pioneers, Schemers and Dreamers!

by Grady Woodard

Space pioneer Hermann Oberth was one of the most significant rocketry pioneers of the 20th-century, by birth a Romanian but by nationality a German. Born on June 25, 1894, in Hermannstadt, Romania, Oberth's theories into practical space vehicles started German rocket clubs all over Germany as hardcore rocket enthusiasts tried to translate Oberth's theories into practical space vehicles. The most important of these clubs was the Verein fur Raumschiffarht (Rocket Society) or the "Society for Space Travel." Oberth became something of a godfather for the VfR during the 1920s, encouraging the efforts of the young Wernher von Braun, who developed the V-2 rocket.

Oberth was the dreamer that fueled the Rocket Societies that scientists joined and all were the pioneers and schemers for interplanetary space travel. The hotbed of rocketry was Germany. The Group served the Germany Army at Peenemuende during World War II. After the war, spent time in Britain, then the U.S. Army recruited as many as possible for V-2 rocket work at Ft. Bliss, Texas. This Group had always schemed to get support funding in developing rockets for their dreams of interplanetary space travel. Building weapons of War helped by providing that funding.

After his transfer to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama in April 1950, von Braun was appointed Director of Development Operations. Dr. von Braun invited Oberth to work for him on his program. On 1 July 1960, his team were transferred to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA),George C. Marshall Space Flight Center. Hermann Oberth died December 29, 1989, in a hospital in Nuremberg, West Germany. This is the listing of the original group's arrival with the addition of where they worked and what their jobs were after leaving Ft. Bliss, Texas. Many more were recruited at Redstone. The Group's dream came true, man did travel in space to the moon and did interplanetary probes.

All of us who worked in the Mercury and Apollo Programs with these Rocket Pioneers, Schemers and Dreamers, were most fortunate. To be part of a program that has been ranked by all Americans as the greatest peacetime achievement of mankind in the last one hundred years, in putting a man on the moon! To build seventeen Saturn 5 rockets, the world's largest in history and all performed well without failure, is an awesome record!

All had moved to the United States around 1945 when Wernher von Braun and the 118 members of his rocket team emigrated from Germany to Redstone Arsenal Alabama.

I'm so grateful to have been be picked to work with these great scientists and project.

Groups =
(1) SS Argentina arrived 11/16/1945,
(2) Victory Ship Central Falls arrived 2/3/1946,
(3) USS Florence Nightingale on 4/8/1946,
(4) Was at Fort Bliss in January 1947,
(5) Scientists recruited to other US locations like Wright Field. (6) Arrive at Newcastle Army Field on September 18, 1945. Total First Arrivals=131.

• = Names of the "Original 118 Team" at Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama

List shows names after Ft. Bliss with their reference work location and building number, from Redstone-Army Missile Command Roster - June 1966, MSFC 1960-1967 Charts, Organization Roster - June 1967, Organization Codes, I=Industrial(Contracts), R=R&D, ASTR=Astrionics, AERO= Astrodynamics, P&VE=Propulsion & Vehicle Engineering, TEST= Test Firing, COMP=Computer, ME=Manufacturing Engineering, QUAL=Quality Inspection, Others Noted or Unknown:

First Arrivals:

Deceased prior to 1965 (8) = Beir, Burose, Friedrich, Henning, Lindenberg, Lindner, Scharnowski and Schwarz.

Returned to Germany before 1965 (17) = Boehm, De Beek, Heller, Heusinger, Mandel, Minning, Neuhoefer, Palaoro, Patt, Roth, Rothe, Schlidt, Schlitt, Schwidetzky, Steurer, Tiller and Vandersee.

More that 6.000 of the Germans rocket scientists went to Russia loved the Russian country and its people. However, living conditions were not what they had been used to in Germany. As such, the ones that survived, returned to their country of birth. Later, 8 of the 12 German scientists that came to Point Mugu, CA to the Naval Air Missile Test Center in 1947 under "Operation Paperclip" were Wilfried H. Hell, Dr. Herbert A. Wagner, W. Hohenner, Edgar W. Kutzscher, Reinhard N. Lahde, Dr. Ernst O.H. Friedrich, Dr. Hans E. Hollmann, Theodore Sturm, Robert Lusser, Willy Fiedler and Otto Schwede.