I don't think she fabricated it - more likely she confused the church memorial services the prior day with the burial services. Mrs. White very well could have - indeed, probably did - attend Grissom's church service, since it was at held at the same church as White's.
It's 240 miles, as the crow flies, from Arlington Cemetery to West Point. Grissom's funeral began at 9 am, White's at 11 am. If Mrs. White, and kids, bolted as soon as the jets flew over at the end of Grissom's funeral, ran over and jumped into a helicopter idling on the cemetery grounds and landed at West Point in time to link up with family, etc. and get to the chapel, they'd have (if we really push things) from 9:15 to 10:30. That requires that they barreled through the most busy air corridor in the country in a helicopter flying 192 miles an hour. Theoretically possible, but (a) that's faster than a normal helicopter flies (a little over 100 mph) and (b) is that really what you'd suggest as an activity for a bereaved widow and children in connection with a funeral?
The New York Times account in the February 1 issue describes "the widows at Arlington" (Grissom and Chafee) and assorted family, attendants and VIPs in some detail (tears suddenly streaming down Glenn's face, etc.) without ever mentioning Mrs. White at all. She is, of course, described in the story about the West Point event, wearing a long black veil and leaning on the arm of her brother-in-law.
Naturally the president only went to the Arlington one since it's only a limo ride away.
Not only the first lady, but the Vice President went to the West Point ceremony, so it wasn't exactly a non-event.
I don't know why you'd assume that that many people would want to go to both services since the Arlington one was the main one.
Well, Mike Collins quite explicitly said he wished he could've gone to both, and it's hard to imagine he's the only one among the astronauts and their families who felt that way.
But this is really kind of a side point anyway. The bigger issue is the conflict that's the backbone to the story. The New York Times sheds some light here as well. Here's the lede of a front-page story in the New York times on Sunday, January 29, with a dateline of Saturday, the day after the fire:
"The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said today that American space flights would be delayed at least four to six months by yesterday's fire aboard the Apollo capsule at Cape Kennedy."
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wab-3
9 years ago
Well, the Times account is pretty damning, I admit. Koppel, of all people, could easily have checked the Times morgue files for accounts of the funerals. But she is so definitive in her description that I'm inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt. Here's Koppel's account of the Whites:
The pilots roared over and the missing-man plane peeled off as “Taps” came to an end. Afterward, Lady Bird comforted Pat behind her black veil, and little Bonnie and Eddie. Pat was the only Apollo 1 fire widow who went to all three services: Gus’s first, Roger’s next, then two hours later she was on a plane bound for West Point. She functioned. She thought she was doing all right. Later she would remember little of those days.
Either the Times made a minor error or Koppel made a rather large one. It's difficult to see how either could have gotten the events wrong.
From other material in that chapter it's clear that Koppel talked to Betty Grissom about the events of that day, and if anyone would have a clear memory of what happened it would be her. She also interviewed Rene Carpenter and Jo Schirra, who were also there, obviously. I don't see how Koppel could have talked to so many eyewitnesses about such a notable day and gotten it wrong.
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johnston.scot
9 years ago
I'm pretty sure Koppel went astray somewhere on this detail.
The Times agrees with other sources that White's burial occurred in between Grissom's and Chaffee's, i.e. the order was Grissom - White - Chaffee. To go to all three, you'd need to make two quick dashes between Arlington and West Point.
The point of view of the quoted paragraph also strikes me as odd, in how it's written from Mrs. White's point of view, with a lean toward internal monologue in the last two sentences. Obviously, Koppel didn't interview Pat White, unless she began working on her book at age 2.
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wab-3
9 years ago
I found some newsreel footage of the funerals but you can't really tell whether or not Pat White was at the Arlington service.
Again, you're relying on one source to refute Koppel's description of the funerals, which are apparently based on interviews with numerous eyewitnesses who were there that day. And it's not as if this would be a small error that would go unnoticed. either the Times is missing White's attendance at Arlington or Koppel concocted a whole chain of events that never happened.
It's that it's an error of commission rather than omission that causes me to give her the benefit of the doubt. Koppel had to have in her interview notes with the wives accounts of what Pat White was thinking that day in order to write that passage...or else she made it up out of whole cloth. Why? It's not a particularly salacious anecdote. If it appeared that Koppel had cooked up a juicy bit of astro-infidelity then I'd see the motive, but why fake a story about Pat White flitting between funerals?
Consider also that a lot of NASA people were at the funerals, many of whom are still alive to correct the record, and none of them that I've read have noted that Koppel fabricated this bit about Pat White jetting between funerals. And now it's been depicted in a miniseries and still no squawks about the error.
I'm sympathetic to your doubts about Koppel's competency because my father was an investigative journalist and I grew up in newsrooms and trained to be a journalist myself. Her CV causes me to have doubts as well. But she is a published pro and she did interview a couple dozen of the wives, all of whom seem to have no problem with her book.
Look, you track down Scott Grissom and ask him if you want a definitive answer. He was pretty easy to find online not that long ago. I'm not gonna do it because I don't want an earful of his nutty conspiracy theory about the fire.
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johnston.scot
9 years ago
Grissom's funeral was at 9 am at Arlington
White's was at 11 am at West Point, 240 miles away.
Chaffee's was at 1 pm at Arlington.
If the book says:
"Pat was the only Apollo 1 fire widow who went to all three services: Gus’s first, Roger’s next, then two hours later she was on a plane bound for West Point"
then - wherever the author got that idea - it's not what happened..
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