Re: Apollo 1 Questions for Ladonna - Flame-Free Thread Please

From: Doug... (dvandorn_at_NOSPAM.mn.rr.com)
Date: 06/18/04 

Date: Fri, 18 Jun 2004 10:55:58 -0500

In article <20040616230007.25561.00000098@mb-m29.aol.com>,
mattwriter@aol.com says...
> << >But, let's get back to basics: Why was Gus Grissom under Secret
> >Service protection? >><BR><BR>
>
>
> Actually, there's nothing unusual about astronauts getting threats from kooks,
> or even having stalkers. It just might be possible (though completely
> unverified) that Gus did have SS protection after the ancestor of today's
> Apollo deniers made a death or kidnapping threat.

According to his own autobiography, Gene Cernan and his family were
under SS protection in the months prior to Apollo 17 because of
"perceived threats" to the final moon landing mission from Arab
terrorists. (This was right after the Munich Olympics debacle, after
all.)

It's always possible that the CIA interpreted Soviet space activities in
such a way that they considered an attack on the Apollo 1 crew and/or
their families by the Soviets was a real threat. But I have no real
data on that. I also wouldn't say that such "perceptions" of threats
equate to *real* threats -- there was never any real threat proven to
Cernan and family, after all. And it's somewhat in the nature of
intelligence services to be paranoid...

Doug
dvandorn@NOSPAM.mn.rr.com