Rico's rants: Saving Gemini 8

25 February 2016

Saving Gemini 8

Don Moore's War Tales has an article about Phil Harris, whose destroyer’s crew plucked Gemini-8 astronauts out of the Pacific in 1966:

The high point of Phil Harris’ (photo, top) four-year naval career was the rescue of two Gemini 8 astronauts on 16 March 1966 by the crew of the destroyer USS Leonard F. Mason (DD-852) (photo, middle). He served as a machinist's mate aboard the ship.
Neal Armstrong and David Scott, piloting the Gemini 8 space capsule, were to perform the first docking of two spacecrafts in orbit. Gemini 8 hooked up with an Agena Target Vehicle (photo, bottom) a hundred and eighty nautical miles above earth.
They completed the docking maneuver without a hitch. Then the Gemini’s control system developed unexpected problems. They undocked from the Agena but, when they did so, the capsule went into a fast spin. As a result of these unexpected difficulties, the Gemini capsule splashed down a thousand kilometers south of Yokosuka, Japan instead of in the Atlantic off the Florida coast.
“Our ship, the USS Mason, was sent to rescue the astronauts because we were the closest American ship. I was at the throttle of the destroyer in the forward engine-room as she raced at full speed, 35 knots, for Armstrong and Scott,” Harris said. “It was a full boiler operation, with both engines going as hard as they could, with a lot of engine vibration.
Armstrong and Scott were practicing for the upcoming moon shot. Armstrong would become the first man to walk on the Moon and Scott would be the first person to drive the lunar rover on the Moon. When the Mason reached the two astronauts, they were still in their capsule. The sea was rough and they were bobbing around getting seasick.
The Navy also sent a helicopter and divers to rendezvous with the capsule. The divers jumped in and put a flotation ring around the capsule to steady it. One of the ship’s divers went in and cut the chute away from the capsule.
"When we took Armstrong and Scott aboard our ship, they were still a little seasick. They went immediately to sickbay. When they emerged, we got to visit with the them. They were just a couple of young guys. At the time we had no idea how famous they would become.”
Harris and the Mason steamed back to Formosa with the two spacemen and their capsule.
“When we got back, Wally Schirra, another astronaut, was waiting to take them back to NASA and Cape Canaveral. We went back to the Gun Line off the coast of Vietnam.”
The Mason had been part of the US fleet supplying artillery fire for Allied troops fighting in Vietnam. When not doing this, the crew of the Mason was guarding aircraft carriers providing air support to our troops. The destroyer would be at sea sixty days at a time before it got two weeks leave in Hong Kong or its home station in Yokosuka, Japan.
The next crisis the Mason’s crew took part in was the Pueblo Incident; the USS Pueblo was an American spy ship captured by the North Koreans, together with its crew, off their coast of North Korea on 23 Januarty 1968.
“After the Pueblo was captured, they sent the Mason to Japan. We became part of a task force that included the aircraft carrier Enterprise, a cruiser, and two destroyers that was going to take part in the rescue of the American sailors from the North Koreans,” Harris explained. “Then the Navy decided it didn’t want to start a war with the North Koreans, so it didn’t invade and try and rescue the people aboard the Pueblo.”
After months of starvation and torture at the hands of the North Koreans, the surviving Pueblo crewmen were released from captivity on 23 December 1968. This was accomplished only after the American government provided North Korea with a written apology and the promise not to do it again. The Pueblo was never returned. The spy ship is still on display in a North Korean war museum near Pyongyang.
Harris was discharged from the Navy in 1971. He was a petty officer 2nd class when he got out of the service with the Vietnam Campaign Medal, Vietnam Service Medal with 3 Bronze Stars, and the National Defense Service Medal.
Several years after getting out, Harris was recruited by the Army National Guard while living in North Platte, Nebraska. He served as a member of a 155mm artillery battery. He stayed in the Guard until 1976. “I was a gunner on a 155 howitzer. I was the guy who fired the gun,” he said.
Eventually Harris went to work as a machinist for the Burlington, Northern & Sate Fe Railroad. He spent the next thirty years repairing engines for the company.
Harris and his wife, Joanne, had two children. Joel, who was killed in a car accident at thirteen, and James, who has worked for the Union Pacific Railroad for a number of years. Harris’ wife died several years ago. He move to Florida in 2007 and retired.