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An intresting bit from an article on Bill Anders .. says alot about Yeagers true colors.....
Reaching beyond
While at Hamilton Field, Anders decided he wanted to be more than a fighter pilot.
"I thought I'd like to be a test pilot," he said.
In order to become a test pilot, he needed to be accepted at the Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base. He made a trip to the base to talk to Chuck Yeager, who ran the school.
"He looked at my record and said, 'Your flying time is good, but now the Air Force is looking for people with advanced degrees; why don't you apply to the Air Force Institute of Technology?'" Anders recalled.
He applied to the Air Force Institute of Technology, at Wright-Patterson Air Force, hoping to take aeronautical and aerospace engineering courses. Instead, because of his excellent math grades at the Naval Academy, the Air Force was interested in him for the Airborne Nuclear Propulsion program and shuffled him into nuclear engineering.
Bill Anders participates in a training exercise in the Apollo mission simulator in building 5, in the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston.
"They had this wild idea of putting reactors in P-36s and flying forever on nuclear alert over the North Pole," he said. "They envisioned me being one of the possible test pilots for that, so I became a nuclear engineer, specializing in radiation shielding. But when I graduated, they had already cancelled the program—thank God."
Anders received a master's degree in nuclear engineering in 1962 and was assigned to Albuquerque, N.M. He took over technical management of nuclear power reactor shielding and radiation effects programs at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory. That same year, he returned to Edwards to talk to Yeager.
"I said, 'I'm ready; sign me up,'" he recalled. "Yeager said, 'We've changed the criteria; now we want flying time.'"
By then, the school had made some changes. The United States was in a race with Russia to put the first man in space. The Soviets had already launched the first satellite and orbited the first human. In 1959, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, a civilian agency, had selected seven veteran test pilots as Mercury astronauts. In May 1961, Alan Shepard had become the first American in space. Shortly after that, President John F. Kennedy had challenged the U.S. to commit itself to landing a man on the moon, and in 1962, another group of nine astronauts joined the original seven.
In 1961, the Test Pilot School had begun a space course and the school's name was changed to the Aerospace Research Pilots School. NASA began recruiting from the school's graduates for its corps of astronauts.
Anders continued to wait for his chances at the school. One day in 1963, while he was driving his Volkswagen bus home from work, he heard on the radio that NASA was looking for a third group of astronauts.
"I didn't pay much attention, because up until then, you had to be a test pilot," he said. "But then I thought I heard them say you had to be a test pilot or have an advanced degree. I immediately pulled over to the side of the road. It was one of these 15-minute news things, interspersed with music. I sat there and listened to 12 minutes' worth of music and advertisements, and sure enough, they came back on and said it was advanced degree or test pilot school."
When Anders got home that Friday evening, he told his wife what he'd heard.
"Valerie has always been a real trouper and supporter," he said. "We had four kids by that time. She was still nursing Gregory. She said 'OK.'"
That evening, Anders wrote a letter to NASA and sent it to the address given on the radio.
"I told them I was just the guy for them—the world's greatest pilot—and that I could solve their radiation problems," he said. "I sent it registered that Saturday."
On the following workday, after the usual Monday morning staff meeting, his boss made an announcement.
"He said, 'Oh, by the way, for you pilots, NASA's requesting applications for a third group of astronauts; here's the form, if you want to fill it out,'" Anders recalled. "I thought, 'Form?' I went up to him later, and I said, 'Boss, I'd like to fill out the form, but I've already sent a letter.' He said, 'Don't worry about it; just fill out the form.'"
Courtesy NASA
On Nov. 9, 1967, Apollo 4, the first test flight of the Saturn V, launched from Kennedy Space Center. On Dec. 21, 1968, Apollo 8 launched aboard a Saturn V. The crew was the first to ride on a Saturn V and to fly out of Earth’s orbit and around the moon.
Anders filled out the form and sent it in. He was surprised when he was asked to report for a physical.
"To my further surprise, I was asked to come back, and then, to my much, much, further surprise, I was asked to come back for a final interview," he said.
Astronaut candidates were interviewed in San Antonio and in Houston, where the Manned Spaceflight Center would be built. Out of several thousand applicants, 30 were eventually selected for final screening.
"We figured they were going to at least cut that number in half," Anders said. "We were all looking around at each other, wondering who it would be. I thought my chances were small."
In 1963, Anders received a fantastic birthday present.
"On my 30th birthday, I got a call from Deke Slayton, saying, 'How would you like to come work for us?'" Anders remembered. "I said, 'I'll be there!'"
NASA had selected Anders and 13 other men. Three days later, he got a call from Yeager, with news about his application as an aerospace research pilot.
"Yeager said, 'I'm sorry to tell you that you didn't make it, but you almost did; try again next year,'" Anders recalled. "I said, 'Thanks, but I got a better offer.' Yeager asked, 'What do you mean?' Keep in mind that Edwards' test pilots looked down their noses at the early astronauts. They were taking a lot of the glory, but Edwards was doing a lot of the hard work. I didn't know all that, so I said, 'I got a call from Deke Slayton to come and join the astronaut school.' Yeager said, 'That's not possible!'"
Anders said the conversation started "getting a little tense."
"At the time, I thought he'd already sent me down the wrong road, costing me three years out of my life," he said. "But it turned out it was the right road. I found out later that NASA was interested in the radiation work. When I told Yeager I'd been selected, he said, 'I was the head of the Air Force screening committee. I reviewed all of the applications. We threw out any of our Air Force applicants who hadn't been to the test pilot school.'"
Anders said that's when he made a big mistake.
"I said, 'Sir, it must have been that letter I sent them,'" he recalled. "Yeager asked, 'What letter?' I told him and he said, 'You went out of the chain of command; I'm going to have that decision overturned.'"
Anders immediately called Slayton.
"I told him, 'You're going to get a call from Chuck Yeager; he wants me to get kicked out of the program,'" Anders remembered.
Anders believes that the friction between the Air Force and NASA helped his cause further.
"That just locked me in even tighter," he said.
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