The Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronauts are intimately involved with NASA to this day. Dad goes back several times a year for physical examinations and to meet with NASA administrators and program directors. He is part of an ongoing study on the long term effects of exposure to space.
Many of the original astronauts have problems with their eyes. Dad has had corneal implants on both of his. Shielding wasn't very good in the early days and when cosmic rays hit the fluid in their eyes it caused bursts of light that did eye damage. Something that wasn't anticipated.
He graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxent River a year behind Pete Conrad where they became close friends. It's where he said he really learned how to fly, that he wasn't just a "yank and banker" anymore. He was put in charge of flight testing the F-4H Phantom II made by McDonnell. The first military test pilot to fly that plane, he rang that bird out from top to bottom, wrote a butt-load of technical reports about it, made hundreds of changes to it, and after he was done we moved to San Diego where he introduced the F-4 to the Pacific Fleet at Miramar. The F-4 was in service through the first Gulf War and it is legendary in the annals of U.S. military aircraft.
He was the most experienced test pilot of all the astronauts (Neil was right there, too, and as cool as a cucumber). Having test flown over 60 different aircraft he was put in charge of crew station layout and design. Each astronaut was tasked with helping contractors develop the various systems in the space vehicle. Some did electrical, others did pneumatics and hydraulics, others worked on the engines and still others worked on structure or guidance. Pop did the crew station layout for Gemini, Apollo and Skylab, consulted on the Shuttle and the Space Station and continues to do work on Ares and Orion.
He is also part of the ongoing PR efforts by NASA to attract new talent to the program, to inspire a new generation of engineers and scientists and gives at least a dozen talks a year throughout the country. As part of that he makes himself available to fans of the program through SpaceFest, signing autographs and getting into long discussions about how to go to the bathroom in space.
What? You don't think they were privy to the telemetry and video? You don't think they saw the mission reports? You don't think they were debriefed and were shown all of the data? They had top secret security clearance and a "need to know."
For you to say that he was a "short timer" is simply ignorant. These guys were just a fleeting part of NASA? Folks who slipped in and out and nobody really even noticed -- only to go on and make the really big bucks and never looking back? Laughing all the way to the bank? I've got news for you, buddy. THEY ARE NASA!
Of course, if you really worked there, you would know all that; that is, unless you were some low level peon. My bet is that you were nobody of any significance there.
In your email to me you said ... "well we ran around in different circles, 'scientists versus military jock pilots,'" implying that the astronauts were 'less than.' Then you call me the jerk? You call me a conceited Ahole? Only a smug little man would say something like that, an elitist snob. Are you a scientist? Are you an engineer? Those men were more educated, more trained and more talented than anyone on the planet. Buzz Aldrin had his Sc.D. in Aeronautics from MIT. Dr. Joe Allen had his Ph.D. in Physics from Yale. Most of them were engineers. Hell, even my dumb fighter jock of an old man had a B.S. in Chemistry from UW.
You're right, though. Nobody owes me anything. But if you're going to make claims about NASA, at least back it up with facts that can be verified.
Why am I so incensed? Outside of you lying about NASA? Because I think you are a deceiver. I think you're just trying to get others to stroke your little ego. You also use NASA by trying to convince others that you were some "in-the-know" big-shot there. You use NASA at the expense of her integrity.