Bob Thompson, president of the historical society in Downey, Calif., described himself as a “happy man” in February 2014, but was concerned that the employment opportunities he experienced no longer exist in Downey.
Credit: (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post
The U.S. labor market is hot. Unemployment is at 3.8 percent, a level it’s hit only once since the 1960s, and many industries report deep labor shortages. Old theories of what’s wrong with the labor market — such as a lack of people with necessary skills — are dying fast. Earnings are beginning to pick up, and the Federal Reserve envisions a steady regimen of rate hikes.
So why does a large subset of workers continue to feel left behind? We can find some clues in a new 296-page report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a club of advanced and advancing nations that has long been a top source for international economic data and research. Most of the figures are from 2016 or before, but they reflect underlying features of the […]
How a Taco got Us to the Moon
By David A. Winterstein 6-22-2018 rev 13
The 50th anniversary of man landing on the moon is July 9th, 2019. Few people know the facts of how this feat was accomplished. This article will bring to light many of those unknown facts. The first fact is that without my uncle, Lt. Col. William E. Winterstein, the first Commanding Officer of the 9330 Ordnance Technical Service Unit, we would not have gone to the moon.
William Winterstein oversaw the German rocket scientists after World War II at Fort Bliss in Texas. The rocket team had grown a fondness for Mexican food at the La Hacienda Cafe, near El Paso. During one of these dinner outings, Dr. Wernher von Braun pulled my Uncle Bill aside, saying he was thinking of going into private industry because he was about to get married and planning for the future. You never know when a simple conversation is going to change the world. It was at this time my Uncle Bill became the reason why man ultimately landed on the moon. My Uncle Bill told Wernher that in addition to desiring a good income for his wife-to-be and his future family, Wernher also dreamt of going to the moon. My uncle pointed out that private industry (1945) did not have the means nor finances to reach that vision. Also, Wernher would need the entire team to reach this goal, which had been brewing since the 1930’s when the V2 rocket, initially built to deliver mail internationally, became the first rocket to achieve outer space travel. Because of that simple, short conversation, on the day man walked on the moon and people patted Wernher on the back, Wernher replied to them that the credit went to William Winterstein.
Now let’s consider the sacrifices the rocket team endured to reach their vision of man on the moon. The beginning pay of the German rocket scientists was a per diem of $6.00 per day. Of this $1.20 was deducted for food and lodging, leaving $4.80 per day, or $1,440 per year compared to $2,400 USA average in 1945. When the rocket team moved to Huntsville, Alabama to work at the Redstone Army site, they started a floating fund to help each other buy houses. They taught at the universities to prepare future engineers for the task of putting man on the moon. They helped start astronomy clubs, community orchestras, and theaters in the area, all while receiving small government contract incomes. They gave back to the community and mankind in so many ways. During a conversation I had with Dr. Ernst Stuhlinger, who came up with ion propulsion theory, I realized that the team knew they had a God-given gift and they just did their jobs. They did not flaunt nor look for recognition from their fellow workers or the outside world. Putting man on the moon was the result of everyone’s teamwork (even the janitors) working towards a common goal.
What did this common goal of the rocket team achieve besides man walking on the moon? The side effects of this work made the personal computer, pacemakers, and plastics, plus careers in programming, testing, and quality assurance, as well as new engineering and scientific fields — all things that helped improve man’s condition.
The basis of the rocket team’s design goal was ZERO tolerance for errors, because human lives were on the line. All of this was done within budget and on schedule. It’s amazing what a common effort, without egos being involved, can accomplish.
If the team could have continued, we would have been on Mars before 1990. That was their next goal.
In preparation for the 50th Anniversary on July 9th, 2019, if you have papers, documents, or items of interest that family members would like to share with the world, please email them to ourmoonlanding2019@gmail.com. At Fort Bliss the first engineering project by the team was a bar. My uncle saved this first team effort in the USA, now at my house, that was used during those early years. The team spent many a night sitting around the bar and hashing out the difficulties of getting man to the moon and Mars.
I have met many people involved with man landing on the moon. The father of Ted, the technician at my eye doctor, was one of several elite Filipino engineers recruited by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers to be part of a new NASA mapping technique. The University of the Philippines at that time was churning out top Filipino English-speaking engineers. After his dad’s stint with NASA, Project SECOR, he went back to the Philippines and became a technology businessman, applying his acquired education and knowledge from the U.S. to help the Philippines in the areas of electronics, solar energy, geothermal energy, and finally the computer industry. The SECOR project allowed NASA to map the lunar surface with confidence, knowing that it would be accurate. I found this out when I gave Ted a copy of my Uncle Bill’s book Secrets of the Space Age, An American Gift to Humanity. When I told him about the celebration and that they were looking for documents, he cried and said he had the original work order for his father to be contracted by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and would copy and send it to the space center. He is so proud of his father being a part of man landing on the moon. We all can be proud of this accomplishment that occurred in our lifetime. Many of us that have or had a family member involved with the moon landing can appreciate the unselfish sacrifices made by our loved ones. In retrospect we should all be proud. Just in my circle of contacts in a small California farming town I have come across numerous people who have personally or through a family member been involved. The security guard at DMV was a long-haul truck driver with his wife delivering to Cape Canaveral and Redstone Arsenal. The dialysis technician said her mom made connectors for Apollo. The insurance agent I met worked as an engineer.
I gained some additional insight from Dr Ernst Stuhlinger in a conversation he had with me while I was taking his picture for the book. We were agreeing on the sad fact that many people do not have the correct information about the V2 and the engineers involved with building the first guided rocket. The purpose was to deliver mail between landmasses cheaper and faster than boats or planes (1930’s Internet?). People do not realize that the team was threatened with death when Hitler decided the V2 would be useful as a weapon. Ernst remarked that every invention has typically been twisted to try and kill someone. The same people that thought the V2 was evil also said, as soon as the German scientists were here…. ”Can you build one for us?”
The full cycle of rockets went from peaceful to weapon to deterrent. Initially Wernher wanted to put a satellite with the ability to shoot a rocket down at any rogue ruler, but later he worked on getting a space treaty as he felt space was for the entire world to enjoy. He strongly advocated NO weaponization in outer space. Wernher and the team knew that the Russians had plans for the scientists they had acquired after World War II. That is why the team planned to get to the USA to help us combat the coming threat of the Russians. The rocket team members all became proud American citizens.
Many other stories have circulated that simply are not true. Some so-called historians with questionable sources and personal conjecture reach far-fetched conclusions rather than stating facts. One common misunderstanding is that Wernher von Braun was a Nazi. This simply is NOT true, as the photo op picture of him in a Nazi uniform was a do-or-die picture. When the V2 went into outer space and the team cheered, Wernher was put in jail for two weeks to refocus on building a weapon. Part of that event was being forced to take a picture in a Nazi uniform. My source is von Braun telling my uncle, who told me, and I verified that with other team members.
The German rocket team always advocated that their wish was a common goal to benefit mankind, NOT to eliminate it. They looked at the project with long-term involvement instead of short-term profits. They wanted to reach a point, on a global scale, that could solve environmental issues, improve health care, and produce products that would enhance life. The possibility of man living on another planetary object was also on their minds.
We no longer innovate; we just make better versions of the same thing. The rocket team innovated, as man had not been to the moon previously. Problem solving is a lost art, it seems. As a pioneer in the technology boom, I innovated many times with first-of-their-kind products. Zero-defect software design is possible but companies like the customer testing the product. Quality and innovation have gone to the moon and haven’t come back.
Unselfish Teamwork Can Accomplish Anything
I agree with you David, quality control is a part of our past and I see ii’s loss every day in the products I end up purchasing every day. I always tell my wife that I could have built a better with some simple changes, and, like you said, consumer testing. I cannot stand buying a product that comes with no manual to tell the user how it actually works, especially computers. I would never design any of the many computer programs which I have built that did not come with instructions which could be easily comprehensible to anyone. I have bought many computers over the years, and none of them had any way to know how any of them actually worked. And try to get a hold of a representative from Microsoft, and you will find out that it is impossible, and the same holds true for the sellers like Dell or Apple or any other manufacturer of computers. The same holds true for any product, like televisions or other electronic product.
Anything from China, in my mind, has no quality control, and no one to ask about it, and like you said, no product is defect free.
Post script: I should mention that I am in my seventies and do not know what they teach in schools nowadays, and maybe these subjects are taught in schools now, but I would not know, and I could never get that information even if it is taught. Manuals are essential, but missing in all products now. That puts us old folks in an awful position, not knowing what to do. Oh, that also applies to automobiles also. I work on my own cars, and would never want a newer car. I drive and repair two cars in the antique category and would never want a new one. I would rather have an old model T ford than any of these new cars with a million things which will break down at any time.