Riding Rockets Part 1

Riding rockets.

The outrageous tales of a s.p.a.ce shuttle astronaut.

by Mike Mullane.

Acknowledgments.

My first and greatest thanks go to my wife, Donna, for her patient and loving support during my writing of this book. My children, Patrick, Amy, and Laura, were also enthusiastic cheerleaders. Thanks!

I am deeply grateful to my agent, Faith Hamlin, of Sanford J. Green-burger a.s.sociates, who convinced me to write the story of my life. Thanks, Faith, for holding my hand and so pa.s.sionately representingRiding Rockets.

My Scribner editor, Brant Rumble, poured his exceptional talents into my story and I am indebted to him. Not only did he make me a better writer, he was my number-one fan throughout the publis.h.i.+ng process. Also, a heartfelt thanks to the rest of the outstanding Scribner team who had a part in bringing my story to print.

Johnson s.p.a.ce Center Flight Director Jay Greene was the first to read my ma.n.u.script and I am thankful for his insight. Thanks also to astronauts Robert "Hoot" Gibson, Rhea Seddon, Mike Coats, Pierre Thuot, and Dale Gardner, who took time from their busy schedules to proof my work. In making these acknowledgments, I am not implying these reviewers agreed with everything I wrote. One thought that I was too hard on the politician astronauts. Another felt that I wasn't severe enough in my criticism of some key NASA managers. While I appreciate all of their opinions, I did not modify my story to accommodate them.Riding Rockets is my story created from my memories. is my story created from my memories.

Many of the conversations I relate in the book are decades old. For that reason, the quotation marks should not be construed as enclosing verbatim dialogue. Rather, they contain my recollection of those discussions.

Chapter 1.

Bowels and Brains.

I was naked, lying on my side on a table in the NASA Flight Medicine Clinic bathroom, probing at my rear end with the nozzle of an enema.Welcome to the astronaut selection process, I thought. It was October 25, 1977. I was one of about twenty men and women undergoing the three-day physical examination and personal interview process that were part of astronaut candidate screening. Almost a year earlier NASA had announced they would begin accepting applications for the first group of s.p.a.ce shuttle astronauts. Eight thousand had been submitted. NASA had whittled that pile to about two hundred, a cut I had miraculously made. Over successive weeks all two hundred of us would eventually find ourselves on this same gurney probing at our nether regions as we prepared for our bowel exam. I thought. It was October 25, 1977. I was one of about twenty men and women undergoing the three-day physical examination and personal interview process that were part of astronaut candidate screening. Almost a year earlier NASA had announced they would begin accepting applications for the first group of s.p.a.ce shuttle astronauts. Eight thousand had been submitted. NASA had whittled that pile to about two hundred, a cut I had miraculously made. Over successive weeks all two hundred of us would eventually find ourselves on this same gurney probing at our nether regions as we prepared for our bowel exam.

It was rumored NASA would select about thirty from this group to fly the shuttle. The odds were long that I would be among that blessed few. Not that I wasn't qualified. I had all the squares checked. I was a West Pointer who had taken a commission in the air force. I wasn't a pilot. My eyesight had been too bad for that job. But I had nearly 1,500 flying hours in the backseat of RF-4C aircraft, the reconnaissance version of the F-4 Phantom. Like Goose fromTop Gun, I was the guy in back. In my ten-year career I was a veteran of 134 combat missions in Vietnam, had completed a master's degree in aeronautical engineering, and was a graduate of the Flight Test Engineer course taught by the USAF Test Pilot School. I was most certainly qualified, but so were a few hundred other applicants. I had been around too many super-achieving military aviators to fool myself. While I might have had a little of the Right Stuff, there were legions of others who had it in abundance, pilots who would make the likes of Alan Shepard and John Glenn look like candy-a.s.ses. I was the guy in back. In my ten-year career I was a veteran of 134 combat missions in Vietnam, had completed a master's degree in aeronautical engineering, and was a graduate of the Flight Test Engineer course taught by the USAF Test Pilot School. I was most certainly qualified, but so were a few hundred other applicants. I had been around too many super-achieving military aviators to fool myself. While I might have had a little of the Right Stuff, there were legions of others who had it in abundance, pilots who would make the likes of Alan Shepard and John Glenn look like candy-a.s.ses.

Yes, the odds were long, but I was going to give it my best shot. At the moment that best shot was aimed squarely at where the sun didn't s.h.i.+ne. I was in the process of preparing for my first proctosigmoidoscopy.

Just before I entered the bathroom I overheard one of the civilian candidates lamenting that he had failed his procto-prep. At the wordfailed my ears perked up. He had skimped in his bowel-cleansing efforts and would have to repeat his test tomorrow. my ears perked up. He had skimped in his bowel-cleansing efforts and would have to repeat his test tomorrow.

FAILED PROCTO-PREP. I could imagine those words in big red letters on the man's physical report. Who would see them? Would they count in the selection process? When a selection committee was picking one person in seven and each was a superman or a wonder woman, you didn't want to have the wordfailed anywhere, even in reference to something as innocuous as a procto-prep. My paranoia in this regard was fueled by a military aviator's deathly fear of the flight surgeon. When his stethoscope came to your chest or that blood pressure needle was bouncing, it was your career on the line. A little blip and you could leave your wings on the table. Military aviators looked forward to a physical exam about as much as they looked forward to an in-flight engine fire. We didn't want anywhere, even in reference to something as innocuous as a procto-prep. My paranoia in this regard was fueled by a military aviator's deathly fear of the flight surgeon. When his stethoscope came to your chest or that blood pressure needle was bouncing, it was your career on the line. A little blip and you could leave your wings on the table. Military aviators looked forward to a physical exam about as much as they looked forward to an in-flight engine fire. We didn't wantfailed on any doc.u.ment concerning anything that came out of a flight surgeon's office. I had known pilots who would secretly visit a civilian off-base doctor for some malady rather than bring it to the attention of a flight surgeon. This had been strictly forbidden, but the only crime was to get caught. I employed the same logic on the flight to Houston for this medical test. In an act of incredible naivete, the docs at NASA had asked us to hand-carry our medical records from our home bases. This was akin to trusting a politician with a ballot box. As the miles pa.s.sed, I pulled out pages I felt could generate questions I didn't want to answer. In particular I pulled out references to the severe whiplash I had suffered during an ejection from an F-111 fighter-bomber a year earlier. During that incident my helmet-weighted head had snapped around as if it had been on the tip of a cracking bullwhip. My neck had been badly hyperextended. After a week of wearing a neck brace, the Eglin Air Force Base (AFB) doctors returned me to flight, but I wondered how the neck injury would be viewed by NASA's docs. Certainly it couldn't help me. It was the type of questionable injury that could draw a on any doc.u.ment concerning anything that came out of a flight surgeon's office. I had known pilots who would secretly visit a civilian off-base doctor for some malady rather than bring it to the attention of a flight surgeon. This had been strictly forbidden, but the only crime was to get caught. I employed the same logic on the flight to Houston for this medical test. In an act of incredible naivete, the docs at NASA had asked us to hand-carry our medical records from our home bases. This was akin to trusting a politician with a ballot box. As the miles pa.s.sed, I pulled out pages I felt could generate questions I didn't want to answer. In particular I pulled out references to the severe whiplash I had suffered during an ejection from an F-111 fighter-bomber a year earlier. During that incident my helmet-weighted head had snapped around as if it had been on the tip of a cracking bullwhip. My neck had been badly hyperextended. After a week of wearing a neck brace, the Eglin Air Force Base (AFB) doctors returned me to flight, but I wondered how the neck injury would be viewed by NASA's docs. Certainly it couldn't help me. It was the type of questionable injury that could draw adisqualified stamp on my application. In all likelihood there would be 199 other applicants without a history of neck injuries. I wasn't going to take a chance. I liberated the offending pages from my files, planning to reinsert them on the return flight. I had one very slim chance of getting selected as an astronaut. I wasn't going to let a little thing like a felony get in the way. I would alter official government records and, like countless other aviators before, hope I didn't get caught. stamp on my application. In all likelihood there would be 199 other applicants without a history of neck injuries. I wasn't going to take a chance. I liberated the offending pages from my files, planning to reinsert them on the return flight. I had one very slim chance of getting selected as an astronaut. I wasn't going to let a little thing like a felony get in the way. I would alter official government records and, like countless other aviators before, hope I didn't get caught.

Yes, I was going to give this astronaut selection my best shot. I inserted the enema and squeezed the bulb. I was determined when the NASA proctologist looked up my a.s.s, he would see pipes so dazzling he would ask the nurse to get his sungla.s.ses.

Hold for Five Minutes,read the instruction on the dispenser.Screw that, was my thought. That milquetoast civilian who had failed his clean out had probably blown his load at the first contraction. I would hold my enema for fifteen minutes. I would hold it until it migrated into my esophagus. I clamped my sphincter closed, gritted my teeth, and endured bowel contraction after bowel contraction until I thought I would black out. Finally, I blasted the colonic into the toilet. I repeated the process a second time. was my thought. That milquetoast civilian who had failed his clean out had probably blown his load at the first contraction. I would hold my enema for fifteen minutes. I would hold it until it migrated into my esophagus. I clamped my sphincter closed, gritted my teeth, and endured bowel contraction after bowel contraction until I thought I would black out. Finally, I blasted the colonic into the toilet. I repeated the process a second time.

Do not repeat more than twice,the label warned. Yeah, right. With the t.i.tle of astronaut on the line, the warning could have read,Do not repeat more than twice, death may result, and I would still have ignored it. I grabbed a third enema and then a fourth. The waste of my last purge was as clear as gin. and I would still have ignored it. I grabbed a third enema and then a fourth. The waste of my last purge was as clear as gin.

I walked from the proctologist like a first grader carrying a gold star on a homework a.s.signment. He had commented several times he had never seen a colon so well prepared. That I didn't s.h.i.+t for the next two weeks was a price I was willing to pay. (And, no, the civilian who had failed his prep wasn't selected.) Next up was the interview by a NASA psychiatrist. I wondered about this. I had never spoken to a psych in my life. Was there a pa.s.s-fail criterion? I considered myself mentally well balanced. (A strange self-a.s.sessment given I had just set a world record for holding an enema in a paranoid quest to secure a job.) But how did a psych measure mental stability? Would he be watching my body language? Would a twitch of my eye, a pulsating neck vein, or a bead of sweat mean something? Something bad? In desperation I searched my memory for whatThe Right Stuff had revealed about the had revealed about theMercury 7 astronaut psych evaluations. All I could recall was that they had been given a completely blank piece of paper to "interpret" and that one astronaut had answered, "It's upside down." Was such humor good? I didn't have a clue. I was flying blind. astronaut psych evaluations. All I could recall was that they had been given a completely blank piece of paper to "interpret" and that one astronaut had answered, "It's upside down." Was such humor good? I didn't have a clue. I was flying blind.

My first surprise, which added to my fear, was to find out there were to be two psych evaluations by different doctors, each about an hour long. I walked into my first meeting. The doctor rose from behind a desk and introduced himself, shaking hands with a very weak, moist grip. I hadn't been in the room for fifteen seconds and already I was in a panic. Was the grip some type of test? If I echoed it in its limpness, was I indicating I had some latent s.e.xual ident.i.ty problems? I decided to be firm...not crus.h.i.+ng, but firm. I watched his face but it was an enigma. I couldn't read anything. I could have been shaking hands with Yoda. His voice was low; low enough I wondered if this was some sneaky hearing test. He motioned me to a chair. Thank G.o.d there was no couch. That novelty would have further rattled me.

He held a clipboard and pencil at the ready. I swallowed hard and waited for what I was certain would be a question like, "How many times a week do you m.a.s.t.u.r.b.a.t.e?" But instead he ordered, "Please count backward from 100 by 7s as fast as you can." I heard the click of a stopwatch and the gathering seconds...tick...tick...tick. My chances of becoming an astronaut were racing away with those seconds!

Only because of my plebe training at West Point, where I had learned to instantly obey any order, was I able to respond with lightning reflexes. If he wanted me to count backward by 7s from 100, then I'd do it. At least I didn't have to answer the masturbation question. I began the litany, 100, 93, 86, 79, 72..., then I got off by a digit or two, tried to restart at my last known correct number, stumbled again, and ended in the 60s in a blurring babble of digits. I finally stopped and said, "I think I'm off track." My comment was answered with theclick of the stopwatch. In the silence it sounded like a gunshot. It might as well have been, I thought. I was dead. At least my astronaut chances had been shot dead. I had failed what was obviously a mental agility test. of the stopwatch. In the silence it sounded like a gunshot. It might as well have been, I thought. I was dead. At least my astronaut chances had been shot dead. I had failed what was obviously a mental agility test.

The psych said nothing. There was only a prolonged quiet in which all I heard was the scratching of pencil on paper. I had the cleanest colon in the world but my brain was constipated. It had FAILED me. I was certain that was the word being written by the psych. FAILED. Surely the other 199 candidates would breeze through this test. They would probably get to those final numbers...23...16...9...2...in a few blinks of the eye and then ask the psych if he wanted them to repeat the test doing square roots of the numbers. I was certain the man was thinking,Who let this guy in the door?

With nothing to lose, and in a desperate attempt to end the maddening silence, I quipped, "I'm pretty good at counting backward by ones."

He didn't laugh. "That won't be necessary." His icy tone confirmed it. I had failed.

After the 7s test, the doc once again positioned his pencil and asked, "If you died and could come back as anything, what would that be?"

More panic seized me. Where was this question leading? Into what minefield of the psyche would I now stumble? I was beginning to wish for the masturbation question.

There was no clock running this time, so I gave the question a little thought. Anything? Should I come back as a person? Alan Shepard? That sounded like a safe answer. But then it dawned on me, Shepard, like all test pilots, hated shrinks. Was it Shepard who had dismissively suggested the blank page "was upside down"? I couldn't recall, but I didn't want to take a chance. I'd better stay away from a wish for reincarnation as an astronaut icon who might be infamous among psychs for trivializing their profession.

I asked for clarification. "When you say anything? Do you mean as another person or object or animal?"

He merely shrugged with body language that said, "I'm not giving you any leads." Clearly he wanted me to step on one of those psyche mines by myself.

I toyed with the idea of saying I would like to come back as Wilbur Wright or Robert G.o.ddard or Chuck Yeager or some other aviation/rocketry pioneer. Perhaps this would send a signal that being an astronaut was my destiny. But again, my mind's voice whispered caution. Maybe such a reincarnation wish would identify me as a megalomaniac in search of glory.

Then, in a burst of inspiration I had it. "I would like to come back as...an eagle." It was a brilliant answer. Clearly it conveyed my desire to fly yet didn't give the doctor a door to crawl farther into my synapses. (I later heard one interviewee say he was tempted to answer the question with "I'd like to come back as Cheryl Tiegs's bicycle seat." It would have been interesting to see how the psych would have responded to that.) My eagle answer was acknowledged by more pencil scratching.

His next question was an obvious attempt to have me judge myself. "Tell me, Mike, if you died right now, what epitaph would your family put on your headstone?"

Boy, was this going to be easy,I thought. After faking some serious deliberation I replied, "I think it would read, 'A loving husband and devoted father.'" I was sure I had scored some points. Could there have been a better answer to convey the message that my family came first, that I had my priorities right? In reality I would have sold my wife and children into slavery for a ride into s.p.a.ce. I thought it best not to mention that fact.

"What is it that you feel is your unique strength?"

I wanted to reply, "I can hold an enema for fifteen minutes," but instead said, "I always do my best at whatever I do." For once, I told the truth.

Psych One's interview continued. I was asked whether I was right-or-left-handed (right) and what religion I professed (Catholic). He also inquired about my birth order (number two of six). He seemed to write a long time after hearing these answers. I would later learn a disproportionate number of astronauts (and other super-achieving people) are firstborn, left-handed Protestants. Maybe my exclusion from all of those groups was the reason I couldn't count backward by 7s.

Finally, I was excused to Psych Two. I walked slump-shouldered to another door, certain my astronaut dream was stillborn on the report that Yoda was finis.h.i.+ng...Candidate Mullane unable to count backward by 7s.

Psych Two was the good cop in the good-cop/bad-cop routine. Dr. Terry McGuire welcomed me with a robust handshake and an expansive smile. I've seen that same smile on the faces of used car dealers. I looked for the diamond ring on McGuire's pinky but it was absent.

Dr. McGuire was outgoing and talkative. He didn't have a pencil and pad in hand. "Come in. Take a load off. Have a seat." Another chair, thank G.o.d. Everything about his voice and mannerisms said, "I apologize for that other bozo you had to contend with. He's got the skills of a chiropractor. I'm different. I'm here to help you." Just as it is on the car dealer's lot, I was certain it was all an act. He wasn't after my wallet. He sought my essence. He wanted to know what made me tick, and, like Captain Kirk facing a Klingon battle cruiser, I was ordering, "s.h.i.+elds up!" My astronaut chances might already be headed down in flames but I was going to continue to give it my best shot until the rejection letter arrived.

After some small talk about the weather and how my visit was going (fine, I lied), the good doctor finally began his a.s.sault on those s.h.i.+elds. He asked just one question. "Mike, why do you want to be an astronaut?"

I had always a.s.sumed I would be asked this question somewhere in the selection process, so I was prepared. "I love flying. Flying in s.p.a.ce would be the ultimate flight experience." Then, I added some bulls.h.i.+t to make it sound like love of country was a motivator. "I also think I could best serve the United States Air Force and the United States of America as an astronaut."

Boy, did I slam-dunk that question,was my thought. The only way I could have done better was if I'd brought in Dionne Warwick to sing the national anthem in the background.

But I was wrong. My slam dunk was rejected. I couldn't blow off Dr. McGuire with that rehea.r.s.ed dribble. He looked at me with an all-knowing smirk and replied, "Mike, at the most fundamental level, we're all motivated by things that occurred in our youth. Tell me about your childhood, your family."

G.o.d, how I hated essay questions.

Chapter 2.

Adventure.

I was born a week after the end of World War II, September 10, 1945, in Wichita Falls, Texas. "He looks like a monkey" was my grandfather's first impression. I had a mop of s.h.a.ggy black hair and, just like a chimp, outward-deployed adult-size ears. Through my early childhood, my mom fought to correct this defect. At bedtime she would adhesive-tape the billboards to the sides of my head, hoping they would grow backward. But it was a lost cause. Somewhere in the night, nature would overcome adhesive and my ears would sp.r.o.ng outward like speed brakes on a fighter jet.

As I had told Psych One, I was the second child in a Catholic family that would ultimately include six children-five boys and a girl. When I was born my dad was serving as a flight engineer aboard B-17s in the Pacific, so it was left to my mom to name me. She picked Richard. I was only a few hours out of the womb and already burdened for life with wing-nut ears and the handle d.i.c.k. It was no wonder when my dad returned home he began to call me by my middle name, Mike.Christ, give the kid a break, I imagine him thinking. I imagine him thinking.

Though the war had ended, my dad remained in the service. My earliest memories are of weekend visits to air-base flight lines and sitting in the c.o.c.kpits of C-124s and C-97s and C-47s and other cargo planes, where Dad allowed me to grab the control yokes and "steer" the parked monsters. He also took me to base operations, where aircrews were arriving from all corners of the globe. They would give me silver wings right off their chests, brightly colored patches, and strange coins from faraway lands. In my eyes they were heroic beyond anything Hollywood could conjure.

My dad was a New Yorker, an Irishman born and raised in Manhattan. He was full of amazing, colorful, exaggerated, and frequently untrue stories. No doubt his blarney was a source of inspiration for me. He made flight out to be a thing of grand adventure, particularly his flying experiences in the Pacific theater of WWII.

He described being attacked by Was.h.i.+ng Machine Charlie, a j.a.panese pilot who kept the Americans from getting any rest by flying over their Philippine base at night and dropping pop bottles from an antique bi-plane. The air whistling over the openings would produce the scream of a bomb, sending everybody out of their bunks and into shelters.

"Boys, we named him Was.h.i.+ng Machine Charlie because that d.a.m.n j.a.p [with my dad, j.a.ps were always "d.a.m.n"] had the worst-running engine we ever heard. I know he tuned the engine wrong just to make it sputter and backfire and keep us awake. It sounded like a dying was.h.i.+ng machine." Then Dad would put on a goofy Red Skeltonlike face, purse his lips, and produce a litany of fart sounds to describe the offending machine. My brothers and I would laugh and laugh and beg him to "pretend to be Was.h.i.+ng Machine Charlie."

A boom of thunder would put us on another flight. "Boys, one time our d.a.m.n navigator [like j.a.ps, navigators were always "d.a.m.n"] got us lost in a thunderstorm. Lightning hit our plane. I could feel it crawling all over my body. My hair exploded off my head, which is why I don't have any today. It heated the fillings in my teeth and I burned my tongue when I touched it to the silver."

On other occasions he would swoop through our room with arms outstretched describing how gooney birds (albatrosses) would perch on the wings of his B-17 and hitch a ride during takeoff. The birds would spread their own giant wings and use the rush of air to achieve flight.

I suspect my dad, flying late in the war, never really saw a j.a.panese fighter aircraft but you would have never known it from his stories. He told of being shot down and parachuting into an island jungle. He and his crew teamed up with native freedom fighters and fought their way to the coast, where an American submarine rescued them. I now know this never happened, but his colorful fiction planted a seed in my soul. I wanted to live this same adventure. I wanted to fly.

Every year or two my dad would be transferred to another base and like Bedouin tribesmen we would pull up stakes and head for a new horizon. Locales in Kansas, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Mississippi, and Hawaii would ultimately boast a Hugh J. Mullane mailbox. For me every move was eagerly antic.i.p.ated. I couldn't wait for the moving van to drive away and a new adventure to start. Curled in a blanket in the back of a car, like puppies in a basket, my brothers and I would fall asleep to the rhythmicthump-thump-thump of the pavement. It was the heartbeat of antic.i.p.ation, of the unknown. Sometimes I would awake in the middle of the night and savor the smells of a new climate or watch lightning flash in the distance. During the day we'd stop at weathered signs advertising fresh fruit and buy buckets of ice-cold sweet cherries. We'd stop at gas stations with signs reading, "Last gas for 100 miles." I would watch my dad fill a canvas bag with water and hang it over the Indian-head hood ornament of our Pontiac station wagon. I was giddy with the thought of a highway that would be empty for one hundred miles. Later I learned there was a gas station every twenty miles with the same sign. But at that age, twenty miles was as good as a hundred. I would lean forward in my seat and stare over my dad's shoulder at horizons so crystalline they looked as if they were painted with a single-haired brush. I'd watch watery mirages sheen the blacktop in front of us and spinning dust devils, and blue-black thunderstorms pregnant with rain walking on stilts of lightning. And there was that unending song leading me into the emptiness, of the pavement. It was the heartbeat of antic.i.p.ation, of the unknown. Sometimes I would awake in the middle of the night and savor the smells of a new climate or watch lightning flash in the distance. During the day we'd stop at weathered signs advertising fresh fruit and buy buckets of ice-cold sweet cherries. We'd stop at gas stations with signs reading, "Last gas for 100 miles." I would watch my dad fill a canvas bag with water and hang it over the Indian-head hood ornament of our Pontiac station wagon. I was giddy with the thought of a highway that would be empty for one hundred miles. Later I learned there was a gas station every twenty miles with the same sign. But at that age, twenty miles was as good as a hundred. I would lean forward in my seat and stare over my dad's shoulder at horizons so crystalline they looked as if they were painted with a single-haired brush. I'd watch watery mirages sheen the blacktop in front of us and spinning dust devils, and blue-black thunderstorms pregnant with rain walking on stilts of lightning. And there was that unending song leading me into the emptiness,thump-thump-thump . .

Another source of adventure was family camping trips into the wilds of the west. Why my New Yorker dad had such a love for the outdoors remains a mystery to me. Perhaps it was the very fact he had lived for so long in an asphalt jungle. My mom was even more afflicted. She was born a hundred years too late. I could easily see her striking out from Independence, Missouri, in a wagon train bound for Oregon. As a seventy-five-year-old widow she drove with another septuagenarian girlfriend from Albuquerque to Alaska. I was only surprised that she didn't walk. She craved a tent and rock-ringed fireplace more than most women pined for a remodeled kitchen. Happiness for her was standing over a smoky campfire and cooking pancakes and bacon while dancing from foot to foot trying to shake off the morning chill.

In preparation for these trips we would pile the accouterments on the roof of our car: a couple of Coleman coolers, a white gas stove, lanterns, tents, fis.h.i.+ng poles, aluminum lawn chairs, and bags of charcoal. There were axes, shovels, thermos jugs, cooking utensils, and sleeping bags all cinched into place and covered with a tarpaulin. We were carrying a canvas iceberg. The car interior, containing a brood of kids and two dogs, was no less cluttered. If they could have seen us, Okies right out ofThe Grapes of Wrath would have felt sorry for us. would have felt sorry for us.

We set sail on the roads of the American west. And when I say roads, I don't mean interstate highways. My parents avoided those like watered-down gas. There was no adventure in traveling an interstate. Those were for wimps. Instead, they would search for the most obscure byways, take forgotten trails through sleepy towns and gravel-covered mountain pa.s.ses. The sight of a sign reading, "Danger: Unimproved Road," might as well have said, "Gates of Heaven Beyond." My dad steered for those pa.s.sages like an ancient Greek heeding the call of a Siren. I recall one occasion when a locked chain between two wooden posts held just such a warning sign. My dad took it as a challenge and dispatched his army of boys to rock one of the posts back and forth until it was loosed from the earth. We pulled it up, drove the car through, and replanted the post. Not only was it an unimproved road, now it wasour road. road.

My parents navigated trails in a Pontiac station wagon that a modern army tracked vehicle would not attempt. A fallen tree or boulder in the way? Not a problem. Like Chinese coolies, the Mullane boys would saw, hack, lever, or sheer-muscle any obstacle out of the way.

Not that some of these excursions didn't put us in peril, like the time we were deep into the mountains of southern New Mexico when the radiator boiled over. It was obvious from the virgin dust there had been no traffic for many days, possibly weeks, maybe never. This was long before the days of cell phones. There would be no call to a tow truck. We were facing Donner Party extinction.

My dad, an expert at repairing planes, always carried an extensive set of tools in the car. Unfortunately, it seemed every time we broke down we were missing that one tool we needed. Apparently, our station wagon didn't have the engine of a C-124.

On this occasion, though, no tool was going to help us. We needed water and there was none around. But my dad was nothing if not resourceful. He directed us to tear apart the car looking for anything wet. A couple cans of c.o.ke and beer went into the radiator. A jug of cherry cider that my older brother had purchased from a roadside fruit stand was quickly enlisted. Several oranges were squeezed into this Prestone.

Then, my dad noticed my younger brother wandering away. "Where are you going?"

"I have to pee."

Soon we were all standing on the grillwork of the car peeing into the radiator. "Steady, boys. That's a d.a.m.n j.a.p Zero you're aiming at. Don't waste a round."

It was enough. Smelling like an overripe Porta-Potty, our hissing wagon limped into a gas station. The gagging mechanic asked if something had died under the hood.

On another occasion, overheated brakes threatened our descent from a mountain pa.s.s. No doubt recalling his earlier success with the radiator, my dad had each of us boys pee on a wheel to cool the brakes. n.o.body has ever used urine as skillfully as my father.

These were wonderful and formative times in my life. I became my parents. I had to know what wasbeyond ...beyond the next mountain, beyond the next bend, beyond the next canyon. There wasn't a national park, monument, snake farm, meteor crater, volcano, or rock shop we didn't visit. The side-rear windows of our car were covered with the colorful decals of our journeys: gift-shop stickers of Yellowstone's Old Faithful, the jagged spires of the Grand Tetons, the Grand Canyon, Glacier National Park, Canyon de Ch.e.l.ly, White Sands, Death Valley, Monument Valley, Glen Canyon, and innumerable other sights on the byways of the west. We had July s...o...b..ll fights at mountain pa.s.ses named Engineer, Independence, and Imogene. We tumbled in sand dunes and fished mountain streams and hiked cloud-sc.r.a.ping peaks just to see over them. We collected treasures of feldspar and fool's gold and quartz and petrified wood. My mom's sc.r.a.pbooks are full of photographs of the family under state welcome signs-Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Nevada, California. In these states and more I would crawl into a sleeping bag wrapped in the smells of adventure-wood smoke and tent canvas-and watch the star s.h.i.+ne outline our forest cradle. And my dreams would be of the greatest adventure of all...flight. ...beyond the next mountain, beyond the next bend, beyond the next canyon. There wasn't a national park, monument, snake farm, meteor crater, volcano, or rock shop we didn't visit. The side-rear windows of our car were covered with the colorful decals of our journeys: gift-shop stickers of Yellowstone's Old Faithful, the jagged spires of the Grand Tetons, the Grand Canyon, Glacier National Park, Canyon de Ch.e.l.ly, White Sands, Death Valley, Monument Valley, Glen Canyon, and innumerable other sights on the byways of the west. We had July s...o...b..ll fights at mountain pa.s.ses named Engineer, Independence, and Imogene. We tumbled in sand dunes and fished mountain streams and hiked cloud-sc.r.a.ping peaks just to see over them. We collected treasures of feldspar and fool's gold and quartz and petrified wood. My mom's sc.r.a.pbooks are full of photographs of the family under state welcome signs-Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Nevada, California. In these states and more I would crawl into a sleeping bag wrapped in the smells of adventure-wood smoke and tent canvas-and watch the star s.h.i.+ne outline our forest cradle. And my dreams would be of the greatest adventure of all...flight.

Chapter 3.

Polio.

The seminal moment in Mullane family history occurred on June 17, 1955, while we were stationed at Hickam Field in Hawaii. I was nine years old. Dad was now a flight engineer aboard C-97 and C-124 cargo aircraft of MATS, the Military Air Transport Service. He returned from a mission with a high fever and was admitted to Tripler Hospital. The diagnosis was polio. Dad, thirty-three years old, a vibrant 6-foot, 200-pound athletic man, would never walk again.

We remained in Hawaii for six months while he recovered. On New Year's Day 1956, the family was flown by Air Force hospital plane to Shepard AFB near my mom's parents in Wichita Falls, Texas. There, Dad's convalescence continued.

During this time my parents tried to s.h.i.+eld us from the trauma they were experiencing and, for the most part, they were successful. I recall only two occasions when my dad's private h.e.l.l was revealed to me. On one, he had taken my brothers and me on a car ride. A new Pontiac had been modified with hand controls so he could drive. He stopped at a store window, a man pa.s.sed him a bottle, then he drove into the Texas prairie, parked, and drank. To this day whenever I smell bourbon I am taken back to this moment. He told us of Was.h.i.+ng Machine Charlie and of paddling a native canoe to a submarine. But this time it was different. He was crying as he told the stories. I had never seen my dad cry and I couldn't understand why these great stories were making him sad now.

Finally, he tossed the bottle from the window and steered the car toward home, turning the drive into a carnival ride. He would race the car and then jam on the brakes so my brothers and I would tumble over the seats and come up giggling. Again and again he would accelerate and then skid to a stop. By some miracle we made it to my grandmother's house uninjured. Dad rose onto his braces and crutches and was singing an Irish ballad with a drunken slur as he slowly made his way up the sidewalk. He threw his crutches forward and dragged his useless legs behind. Yard by yard the rhythm took him toward the front door. Then my grandmother burst from the house and began to beat him with a broom, screaming that he was a drunk and should be d.a.m.ned for it. He tried to grab her weapon but missed and toppled onto the cement. I had never seen adults behave this way. My brothers and I began to cry. Neighbors rushed out to watch the spectacle. My mom was screaming. My grandmother, a teetotalist, strict German woman, was a demon from h.e.l.l. In her mind there was no excuse for drunkenness, even if the drunk in question was struggling to come to grips with polio. Dad cursed and grabbed at her but his useless legs were an anchor. She easily kept out of his reach. The broom came down on his head and his gla.s.ses spun off. She circled to his back where he couldn't defend himself and beat him some more. My mom herded my brothers and me inside so we wouldn't witness any more of the mayhem. We left Dad facedown on the sidewalk bawling like a child while my grandmother continued to punish him with the broom.

Several months later I caught another glimpse of how polio was torturing my dad. My mom was grocery shopping and as I wandered the aisles of the store I encountered a man showing a friend his artificial legs. I overheard him speaking: "Lost both my legs in the war." He punctuated the comment by rapping on each s.h.i.+n with a cane. I was fascinated at the freakishness of the injury and stared. The men separated, the veteran walking away with the aid of his cane and a hip-swinging gait. For a moment I was struck as still as Lot's wife. The man had no real legs but he was walking. I broke from my shock and ran after him. "Mister!" I called. He stopped. "Mister, how can you walk? You don't have any legs." He smiled at my innocence. "Son, a German mortar blew off my legs. The doctors strapped on these pretend legs." Again he slapped his cane against one of the limbs. It made a hollow sound.

I smiled. "Thanks, Mister."

I sprinted past my mom. "Where are you going, Mike?"

"I'm going to see Dad."

I ran to the parking lot and climbed into the front seat of the car and breathlessly explained to my father what I had seen. "Dad, there's a man in the store who doesn't have real legs. They got cut off in the war. The doctor gave him pretend legs. But he's walking!" I blurted out the news while wearing a huge smile.

My dad stared at me, total confusion written on his face. He didn't get it. He didn't understand the significance of what I had just discovered. But I would be the hero and explain it to him. "Dad, all you have to do is ask the doctor to cut off your legs and then he can give you pretend legs and you can walk again, just like that man in the store!"

Immediately tears welled in his eyes. He tried to smile. "Mike, thank you for that idea, but it's not my legs that are the problem. It's my nerves. The polio germs ate them up. Cutting off my legs wouldn't help me."

My face fell in crus.h.i.+ng disappointment. I was certain I had stumbled on the secret to putting my father back on his feet. Dad hugged me and cried into my neck. I was so confused. I didn't understand germs or nerves. I only understood what my eyes had told me, that it was possible to walk without real legs.

"You go on and help your mom with the groceries."

I climbed from the car and walked backward a couple steps, staring at my dad. His head was resting on the steering wheel and he was sobbing.

This was the last time he ever revealed to me or my siblings what must have been a t.i.tanic struggle to adapt to life without legs. But he did. Within a year he had returned to being the man I remembered before polio. His Was.h.i.+ng Machine Charlie imitation got even better.