[PW] ? Quotations from USNA Graduates (Quotation Query #647)

[Reed C Bowman]

This 2005 interview with the late Wally Schirra 
http://www.space.com/entertainment/wally_schirra_050323.html includes 
the quote "I don't particularly go along with going to Moon first to 
build a launch pad to go to Mars. We should go [to Mars] from Earth 
orbit. Once you are in Earth orbit all the work is done. They say we 
need to go to the Moon to practice going to Mars. We have already been 
to the Moon; we've already practiced."

Not wonderfully pithy or anything, but an important point of view, 
agreeing with most experts, and contradicting a lot of the other Apollo 
astronauts as well as political policy.

His own website's main page has the otherwise unsourced quote
"Levity is the lubricant of a crisis.  We resort to jokes, pranks and 
good natured kidding to relieve tension, stress and boredom." - Wally 
Schirra
Since he's the famous Gotcha-man of the space program, that's a relevant 
and characteristic one.

brainyquote has a pile, of course, but that's all unsourced.

I'm having difficulty finding a fuller version of the Ollie North 
Iran-Contra hearings quote about the "off-the-shelf, self-financing" 
covert ops unit, but it looks like he was explicitly quoting William 
Casey at the time, so it may not count. You can see if you can find a 
quote from his third career as a promoter of his own line of flak 
jackets, complete with extra - ahem - personal... protection.

RCB


Shapiro, Fred wrote:

>For an article I am writing on famous quotations by United States Naval Academy graduates, I would welcome suggestions of well-known quotations by any of the following:
>
>John S. McCain III
>Roger Staubach
>Oliver North
>James H. Webb, Jr.
>Montel Williams
>David Robinson
>Charlie Wilson
>Stansfield Tuner
>Wally Schirra
>William Appleman Williams
>William Lederer
>Richard E. Byrd
>James D. Watkins
>William D. Leahy
>Thomas C. Kinkaid
>Arleigh A. Burke
>Elmo R. Zumwalt
>Peter Pace
>
>Fred Shapiro
>_______________________________________________
>Project Wombat
>list at project-wombat.org
>http://www.project-wombat.org/
>
>  
>