Edward Campbell

Floresville, Texas

April 11 2003

Matthew Hoyt

Palo Alto College

Hist: 1302 - Spring 2003

INTRODUCTION TRANSCRIPTION ANALYSIS BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION

Edward Campbell was born in Sweetwater, Texas on May 23, 1938. He was an only child and has lived in Texas his whole life. Edward grew up on cotton farm in Hobbes. He joined the Air Force in 1956, where he was a B-52 crew chief for eight years and served on on medium and heavy bombers which traveled as far as Guam. In February of that same year he married his first wife Barbara Barfield. They had two sons, Edward Jr. and Ronald. In 1964 he went to work for NASA as an astronaut test subject for the Apollo Space Program. In 1970 he left NASA and went to work as an instrument tech at an oil refinery. In 1984 his wife Barbara passed away. He remarried in 1988 to Mary Aeiker. He currently works at the Home Depot with me in the electrical department. Edward now enjoys a peaceful and quiet life on his farm in St. Hedwig. I interviewed Mr. Campbell at Maverick's Restaurant in Floresville.

TRANSCRIPTION

What did you do for NASA?
I was an astronaut test subject for the Apollo Space Program.

What kind of things did you test?
I tested the suit, I tested the backpack, they called it the PLSS- Portable Life Support System. I made sure all the little things they wanted to pick up the rocks with worked and set out the ground surveying instrument and ground femurs and power plants. I done that on the ground in a simulated area to make sure it could be done cause they wanted you to do some things that were just physically impossible to do.

How did you like your job?
We had a lot of fun testing stuff; that was the interesting part of the job, because every day that you go to it, it was new and exciting. Stuff that we used for instance, we had radios that had little antennas and had helmets with little halos on top that were antennas. We used tape measures, we would take a tape measure out and file it down, it makes different wave lengths for antennas.

Did you get to meet any famous astronauts?
Yeah, I got to meet all of them. They were everyday work companions.

What were they like?
They were fighter pilots; they were test pilots; they were cocky little guys and I do mean cocky. Some of the were very nice and some of them were the pits.

What were the names of some of the astronauts you met?
John Glenn, Buzz Aldrin, Carpenter, Jim Chaffy, and Walter Cunningham. I forget some other names.

What was the technology like back then?
All of our stuff was a lot bigger than it is now. You know like a computer, a play station has got more memory than our whole first space craft had. Our computer in our department covered our entire second floor, about 30 feet wide and a 100 foot long. It ran off of data cards about the size of our pay checks. They had holes punched in them like in the old movies.

How was security?
The security was great. I don't remember what space program it was, but they had me in a suit and all the news was out and everything and two Japanese reporters came up and they were talking about that hand in the suit, and you could pick up a pack a cigarettes, which is quite a feat. We were testing one of the suits and I am an amateur photographer, and I had my camera and I took some pictures, he said you can't do that it's classified, and I said oh I didn't know that. I spent two days at OSI which is the same thing as FBI and they released me, I just made a dumb mistake.

Did you test any kind of weapons?
Nope, no weaponry whatsoever, it was all space exploration, we were just trying to get to the moon.

Do you remember the Sputnik?
When the Sputnik came out, that was what made us go for the moon. They (the Soviet Union) put up the Sputnik and I then I think they put up the dog, the Russians. They put up a man first I believe, and then we got on the stick and got to the moon first. They don't tell you about it, but the Russians lost a lot of people, they had hard landings, parachute landings.

You weren't going up in the space shuttles like we have now, right?
Right, we went up in little bells, the Apollo Space Craft and Mercury. Lord, the in the Mercury you were just one man down in that sucker. It was like a big bell.

Were there any weird things that you tested that never made it?
We tested a lot, we tested for transportation. They didn't know how we were going to get around on the moon, and we had some guys that were motorcycle enthusiasts and they said let's try a motorcycle. So they put a guy in a space suit and put him on the motorcycle and then they turn the motorcycle right upside down. The space suit was too back-heavy so they scrubbed that idea.

Did you ever get to drive that little car they took up?
No I didn't, but I was around it all the time. I never got in it or drove it around. See we had a lunar surface that we would go out to and walk around in it and shovel and use the little drills and all. In fact when I went there, there was very little down there. I went to work in Building 32 and the chamber that I went to work in was 10 stories high and 10 stories below, and the door was 40 feet high.

mock lunar surface where Edward tested equipment

ANALYSIS

I learned a lot from doing this interview. I learned that history comes from the stories that are told and if you don't ask you will never know. I also learned that history is not an exact science. I learned a great deal more about Edward through this interviewing process than I would have ever learned in social interactions at work. All of his stories about working for NASA and the space race were very interesting. His photo album/scrapbook was great and the photos on this site are from his scrapbook. I think this is a great way to get up close and personal with history. I also got a feeling for how dangerous and exciting it must have been working for NASA in that period of time. NASA was new and space exploration and the moon was on everyone's mind.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Edward Campbell's personal scrapbook. It included numerous photos and articles about NASA's program during the time of Mr. Campbell's service.

Steve Garber, NASA History web curator. NASA History Office. Office of External Relations. February 21, 2003. This web site is an official NASA web site. It provides just anything you might need to know about the history of NASA. It includes photos and biographies on NASA's space crafts and personnel.

Office of the Secretary of Air Force (Public Affairs). Air Force Link. This web site provides news and history of the United States Air Force. It also provides photographs and fact sheets on most of our weapons and planes.

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