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Challenger - 18 Years
Ronald Reagan ^ | 1-28-86

Posted on 01/28/2004 8:05:25 PM PST by Indy Pendance

Ronald Reagan's Funeral Eulogy for the Challenger Crew

Following is the text of President Reagan's remarks at a memorial service held in Houston following the Challenger disaster, Jan. 31, 1986. (From Houston Chronicle archives.)

We come together today to mourn the loss of seven brave Americans, to share the grief we all feel and, perhaps in that sharing, to find the strength to bear our sorrow and the courage to look for the seeds of hope.

Our nation's loss is first a profound personal loss to the family and the friends and loved ones of our shuttle astronauts. To those they have left behind - the mothers, the fathers, the husbands and wives, brothers, sisters, and yes, especially the children - all of America stands beside you in your time of sorrow.

What we say today is only an inadequate expression of what we carry in our hearts. Words pale in the shadow of grief; they seem insufficient even to measure the brave sacrifice of those you loved and we so admired. Their truest testimony will not be in the words we speak, but in the way they led their lives and in the way they lost those lives - with dedication, honor and an unquenchable desire to explore this mysterious and beautiful universe.

The best we can do is remember our seven astronauts - our ChallengerSeven - remember them as they lived, bringing life and love and joy to those who knew them and pride to a nation.

They came from all parts of this great country - from South Carolina to Washington State; Ohio to Mohawk, New York; Hawaii to North Carolina to Concord, New Hampshire. They were so different, yet in their mission, their quest, they held so much in common.

We remember Dick Scobee, the commander who spoke the last words we heard from the space shuttle Challenger. He served as a fighter pilot in Vietnam, earning many medals for bravery, and later as a test pilot of advanced aircraft before joining the space program. Danger was a familiar companion to Commander Scobee.

We remember Michael Smith, who earned enough medals as a combat pilot to cover his chest, including the Navy Distinguished Flying Cross, three Air Medals - and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Silver Star, in gratitude from a nation that he fought to keep free.

We remember Judith Resnik, known as J.R. to her friends, always smiling, always eager to make a contribution, finding beauty in the music she played on her piano in her off-hours.

We remember Ellison Onizuka, who, as a child running barefoot through the coffee fields and macadamia groves of Hawaii, dreamed of someday traveling to the Moon. Being an Eagle Scout, he said, had helped him soar to the impressive achievement of his career.

We remember Ronald McNair, who said that he learned perseverance in the cotton fields of South Carolina. His dream was to live aboard the space station, performing experiments and playing his saxophone in the weightlessness of space; Ron, we will miss your saxophone and we will build your space station.

We remember Gregory Jarvis. On that ill-fated flight he was carrying with him a flag of his university in Buffalo, New York - a small token he said, to the people who unlocked his future.

We remember Christa McAuliffe, who captured the imagination of the entire nation, inspiring us with her pluck, her restless spirit of discovery; a teacher, not just to her students, but to an entire people, instilling us all with the excitement of this journey we ride into the future.

We will always remember them, these skilled professionals, scientists and adventurers, these artists and teachers and family men and women, and we will cherish each of their stories - stories of triumph and bravery, stories of true American heroes.

On the day of the disaster, our nation held a vigil by our television sets. In one cruel moment, our exhilaration turned to horror; we waited and watched and tried to make sense of what we had seen. That night, I listened to a call-in program on the radio: people of every age spoke of their sadness and the pride they felt in `our astronauts.' Across America, we are reaching out, holding hands, finding comfort in one another.

The sacrifice of your loved ones has stirred the soul of our nation and, through the pain, our hearts have been opened to a profound truth - the future is not free, the story of all human progress is one of a struggle against all odds. We learned again that this America, which Abraham Lincoln called the last best hope of man on Earth, was built on heroism and noble sacrifice. It was built by men and women like our seven star voyagers, who answered a call beyond duty, who gave more than was expected or required, and who gave it with little thought to worldly reward.

We think back to the pioneers of an earlier century, and the sturdy souls who took their families and the belongings and set out into the frontier of the American West. Often, they met with terrible hardship. Along the Oregon Trail you can still see the grave markers of those who fell on the way. But grief only steeled them to the journey ahead.

Today, the frontier is space and the boundaries of human knowledge. Sometimes, when we reach for the stars, we fall short. But we must pick ourselves up again and press on despite the pain. Our nation is indeed fortunate that we can still draw on immense reservoirs of courage, character and fortitude - that we are still blessed with heroes like those of the space shuttle Challenger.

Dick Scobee knew that every launching of a space shuttle is a technological miracle. And he said, if something ever does go wrong, I hope that doesn't mean the end to the space shuttle program. Every family member I talked to asked specifically that we continue the program, that that is what their departed loved one would want above all else. We will not disappoint them.

Today, we promise Dick Scobee and his crew that their dream lives on; that the future they worked so hard to build will become reality. The dedicated men and women of NASA have lost seven members of their family. Still, they too, must forge ahead, with a space program that is effective, safe and efficient, but bold and committed.

Man will continue his conquest of space. To reach out for new goals and ever greater achievements - that is the way we shall commemorate our seven Challenger heroes.

Dick, Mike, Judy, El, Ron, Greg and Christa - your families and your country mourn your passing. We bid you goodbye. We will never forget you. For those who knew you well and loved you, the pain will be deep and enduring. A nation, too, will long feel the loss of her seven sons and daughters, her seven good friends. We can find consolation only in faith, for we know in our hearts that you who flew so high and so proud now make your home beyond the stars, safe in God's promise of eternal life.

May God bless you all and give you comfort in this difficult time.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: anniversary; challenger; space
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The 25th mission in the Space Shuttle program, flown by the Challenger, ended tragically with the loss of its seven crew members and destruction of the vehicle when it exploded shortly after launch.

Back row from left to right: Ellison Onizuka, mission specialist; Christa McAuliffe, payload specialist; Gregory Jarvis, payload specialist; and Judith Resnik, mission specialist.

Front row from left to right: Michael Smith, pilot; Francis Scobee, commander; and Ronald McNair, mission specialist.

1 posted on 01/28/2004 8:05:25 PM PST by Indy Pendance
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To: Indy Pendance
It was a Tuesday, almost midday, and I had just finished in the dining hall (my freshman year), when dormmates said "You know the space shuttle blew up, right?"

"BULLSHIT!" I replied.

"Hey, dude. I wouldn't joke about that. It's on CNN."

So I raced back to the dorm, carrying my coat in the frigid cold and sure enough, those horrible pictures replayed on CNN over and over and over.

God bless Peggy Noonan for her work on this speech. It is positively golden.

2 posted on 01/28/2004 8:09:26 PM PST by Petronski (Do small things with great love.)
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To: Petronski
I was really pregnant. I was so pregnant, I delivered my daughter the next day, she will be 18 tomorrow. To me, this day will be more poignant than November 22, 1963, which I was 5. This day I will never forget. It was such a shock, the first thing I thought, there is a teacher on this mission.
3 posted on 01/28/2004 8:15:07 PM PST by Indy Pendance
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To: Petronski
I was in my junior year of college and was living in a first-floor guest room in the house (because of a badly broken ankle and heel in a car crash). Since I arranged to have all my classes in the morning, after lunch, I was in my room watching my TV with a couple of fellow slackers, ready to settle into an hour of All My Children when ABC broke in with the awful news. We were in tears the rest of the day and evening...
4 posted on 01/28/2004 8:19:23 PM PST by NYC GOP Chick (On THE world's slowest dial-up!)
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To: Indy Pendance
I was 12. My 7th grade class had just come back from seeing a play (field trip). The rest of the time after we came back was watching the television in the library. When I wrote my Argentinian pen pal about getting news clippings from her local paper (in general) she sent me two describing Ronald Reagan at the memorial service for the Challenger team.
5 posted on 01/28/2004 8:20:17 PM PST by HungarianGypsy
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To: Indy Pendance
I was in the Air Force and had just come home and was fast asleep after pulling a 7 to 7 night shift. My wife woke me up and told me that the space shuttle blew up. She had been watching it live. I was awake instantly and ran to the TV to watch the replays.

I think for many in my generation (I'm in my early 40's now) this was one of the first events that was seared into our consciousnesses.

6 posted on 01/28/2004 8:22:33 PM PST by DouglasKC
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To: Petronski
I was in 10th grade...I had overslept for school by two hours...again. Woke up to my mother screaming "Get your ass out of bed NOW!" First thing I did was turn on the TV just as the shuttle exploded. All I could do was just sit down and stare at the screen. My mother came in, yelling, as usual, until she saw what was going on. Then she told me not to worry about school that day. That was the first national disaster I saw as it happened.
7 posted on 01/28/2004 8:26:05 PM PST by Orangedog (An optimist is someone who tells you to 'cheer up' when things are going his way)
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To: DouglasKC
You're my age, we remember JFK (I was 5) getting shot, but we were little kds. The Challenger was the first real thing that shook our bones. At least mine were shook, and it's one of those things in life that I'll never forget.
8 posted on 01/28/2004 8:26:23 PM PST by Indy Pendance
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To: Orangedog
My second National disaster was the WTC and 9-11. heart stopped for a minute......
9 posted on 01/28/2004 8:27:55 PM PST by Indy Pendance
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To: Indy Pendance
I was 13 when this happened... child of a former NASA tracking station technician and one of those children who was FASCINATED by the shuttle programme.

Also being an Australian, this event hit the news in the middle of the night. I was asleep, and I had the radio on, tuned to a music station.

They must have interrupted the music (unusual as most stations went to tapes between 2 and 6am) at some point to announce the disaster, but I don't remember waking up. What I do remember is dreaming about a shuttle exploding in the sky after liftoff...

"What a horrible dream," I thought to myself.

And then I heard the news.

18 years on, I still remember the shock and the horror.

(FR footnote: I was watching TV when Columbia broke up on re-entry early last year. Chris, the late Trappedinliberalhell, came downstairs having woken late. I told him the news, in a shaky voice - and he dashed upstairs again to check the threads on Free Republic. When he told me about a post in which someone had mentioned a memorial service the Columbia astronauts had had on board for the Challenger victims, at that point I lost it. I left the room, and sobbed my heart out in the kitchen for about five or ten minutes.)
10 posted on 01/28/2004 8:28:59 PM PST by KangarooJacqui (Onwards... ever upwards...)
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To: Indy Pendance
I remember this day like it was yesterday - it was heart-wrenching when I saw Reagan deliver his speech. I honestly felt like it was a personal body blow. And as much as it was one of our worst moments as an American family, Reagan took our grief and made it one of the proudest moments of American resolve. God Bless the Challenger Seven, and God bless Ronald Reagan.
11 posted on 01/28/2004 8:30:02 PM PST by Viking2002
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To: Orangedog
Odd. Very odd. I happened to be home from school sick the day Reagan was shot.
12 posted on 01/28/2004 8:32:02 PM PST by Petronski (Do small things with great love.)
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To: Viking2002
Bump for this terrible tragedy. We were all there.....
13 posted on 01/28/2004 8:32:27 PM PST by txhurl
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To: txflake
I'll never forget this day. This day is scarred in my memory, where were you, what were you doing when you heard this news. It's scorching.
14 posted on 01/28/2004 8:34:33 PM PST by Indy Pendance
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To: txflake
I'll second that God-bless-them-all bump......*BUMP*
15 posted on 01/28/2004 8:35:19 PM PST by Viking2002
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To: txflake
Thanks for the bump, but, what is your story of that day?

This could be a great thread if we got just 10% of all Freepers to encapsulate their moment in their own words.
16 posted on 01/28/2004 8:35:53 PM PST by Petronski (Do small things with great love.)
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To: KangarooJacqui
Continuing blessings to you, Jacqui.

And...it's odd for me to hear the recollection of someone who was on the other side of the globe at that moment. Thanks.

Unforgettable...our generation's November 22, 1963.
17 posted on 01/28/2004 8:39:15 PM PST by Petronski (Do small things with great love.)
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To: Petronski
Ever get the feeling that there were some things that seemed like the universe deemed that you were meant to be in a certain place at a certain time to see? The timing for when I turned on the tv was creepy.
18 posted on 01/28/2004 8:43:59 PM PST by Orangedog (An optimist is someone who tells you to 'cheer up' when things are going his way)
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To: Indy Pendance
I remember that day so well. The Teacher in space alternate, Barbara Morgan, was an acquaintance of mine. We played in the small chamber orchestra (I played viola) in the small central Idaho mountain town of McCall. She played violin and flute, and was (probably still is) a wonderful musician. So of course, I was particularly interested in this flight. Barbara was a team mate of those who died that day, and felt the loss so keenly.
19 posted on 01/28/2004 8:45:09 PM PST by .38sw
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To: Indy Pendance
One of my favorite things to draw back then was the Space Shuttle. I was eight when the Challenger exploded, and it certainly introduced harsh reality into my life. I didn't draw much after that.
20 posted on 01/28/2004 8:45:26 PM PST by Nexus
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