The Greenville News from Greenville, South Carolina • Page 41

South Carolinian Scheduled To Be Tenth Man To Walk On Moon It i i. is- 1 i Charles M. Duke: A Young Lancaster Man Destined For Moon And The History Books i LvrV'rP1 "1, V-? ''Xi On April 20, if all goes according to plan, a young Lancaster man will gain for himself a place in the history books. On that day, Lt. Col.

Charles Moss Duke USAF. is expected to step from his tiny craft and become the tenth man to walk on the moon. What is the path that takes a man from his birth in Charlotte, N.C., on Oct. 3. 1935, to the face of the moon as a member of the most exacting group of explorer-scientists the world has produced? Duke, son of Mr.

and Mrs. Charles M. Duke of Lancaster, attended Lancaster High School and was graduated as valedictorian from the Admiral Farragut Academy in St. Petersburg. Fla.

He was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Naval Sciences in 1957. From early childhood, Duke was fascinated with airplanes, his parents remember, so it was natural that he was commissioned into the Air Force upon graduation from the Naval Academy. He went to Spence Air Base.

for primary flight training and then to Webb Air Force Base. for basic flying training. At Webb he became a distinguished graduate in 1958. He was again a distinguished graduate at Moody Air Force Base. where he completed advanced training for F-86L aircraft.

On completion of this training, he was assigned to the 526th Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, where he served three years as a fighter interceptor pilot. Returning to school while still in the Air Force, he received a Master of Science degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1964. His thesis for the degree at MIT was entitled "Human Performance During a Simulated Apollo Midcourse Navigation Sighting." a subject so top-secret that the thesis was marked "Classified" by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, for whom it was written. Duke applied to NASA for consideration in their astraonut training program. The earth-orbiting Gemini program was drawing to a close, and plans were for moon flights to begin within only four years.

At the time, he did not know how important his calculations for the thesis would prove to be. He was married to the former Dorothy Meade Claiborne of Atlanta, and his first son. Charles M. Duke III. was born in March of 1965.

just before his father's graduation from the Aerospace Research Pilot School in September. As one of the 19 astronauts chosen that April, he began intensive training immediately for his role as lunar module pilot, the man on each moon flight who is responsible for bringing the lunar lander safely to the moon's surface and lifting off again to achieve rendezvous with the command module which will bring the crew back to earth. He served as a member of the astronaut support crew for the Apollo 10 flight which circled the moon 31 times before returning, and was backup lunar module pilot for the lll-tated Apollo 13 flight, which was aborted before reaching the moon because of equipment failure. He now lives in Seabrook. a Houston suburb near the Manned Spacecraft Center there, with his wife and sons, the second of whom.

Thomas, was born in 1967. With the upcoming mission to the moon, between hunting geological samples, reading instruments, and perhaps sharpening up his golf swing as his predecessor Alan Shepard Jr. was able to do on the Apollo 14 flight, the only pastime he will miss will be fishing. But there is certain to be little time to worry about that for Lt. Col.

Charles Moss Duke a twentieth-century South Carolina pioneer in space. it i I 1 5 To Be On Apollo 16 Mission i lUIFtf r'iw; v4 will become the tenth American and the first South Carolinian to walk on the moon. (NASA Photo) HOUSTON. Tex. Lt.

Col. Charles M. Duke USAF, of Lancaster, S.C., has been assigned by NASA as lunar module pilot for the upcoming Apollo 16 mission. Barring complications, Duke Son's Flight To Moon In April Foreseen By Parenfs All Along Dry Run On Earth RIDGECREST, Calif. Apollo lfi astronauts dry runs for the mission teach the astronauts not Charles M.

Duke, left, and John W. Young only geology but also train them to make rapid- prepare to collect rock samples at a point along a and rational survival decisions in the event of an sim ulated lunar traverse. Duke's parents say such emergency on a flight. (NASA Photo) pneumonia, but was subsequently released and the flight plans are proceeding normally for the April 16 launch of Apollo 16. As for their son's preoccupation with flying and space exploration, both parents agree it was something they have foreseen all along.

"When he was growing up," his father explained. "I was stationed at North Island, Air Base with the Army. I was what was known then (during World War II) as a '90-day wonder'. Of course I never flew, but Charlie was around planes all the time. "Even as a little boy in school, when the class drew pictures, Charlie's would always be airplanes.

He was fascinated with them." They said their son wanted to go into the military, but since the Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, was not open when he graduated from high school, he accepted an appointment to the Naval Academy. He, was commissioned into the Air Force on graduation and went on to become a fighter interceptor pilot in Germany before returning to Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a Master of Science degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics. "He was a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base when they (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) notified him that he had been accepted for astroanut training," Mrs. Duke said. "There were 391 applications for the positions taken care of in their training." His father said that the extensive training the crew has received on earth in such diverse climates and terrain as Arizona desert, Colorado mountains, Central American jungles and the intense cold of southern Iceland is designed not to acquaint the men with conditions they might encounter, but to teach them to think rationally and make decisions rapidly on matters vital to their survival in the event of an emergency on a flight.

"So you see, as I said, everything has been taken care of," Duke added. Of the nation's space program and possible cutbacks of funds sought by various groups, Charlie's parents have no mixed emotions. "I'm sure some people in this country have the idea that we can't afford to spend money on a project of this magnitude." the older Duke said. "But compared to other programs, the return is much greater than the initial investment. "What has come out of the research the space agency is carrying on with regard to this program?" Duke said.

"Well, let me give you an example. "Here in Lancaster we are just finishing up construction on a new $8 million hospital," he explained. "One of the prize features of that hospital is an. intensive care ward with the heartbeats of all of the patients in the unit monitored from one central machine. "That machine was (See Son's Moon, Page 4-D) and Charlie was one of only 19 chosen for that group," she continued proudly.

Charlie has been training continuously since his selection, they said, with various duty assignments during earlier Apollo flights. "He was cap com (capsule communicator) for the first and second moon landings," she said, explaining that he manned the radio system linking the lunar lander with the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. "On that lirst landing, when Neil Armstrong said 'This is Tranquility Base, the Eagle has he was talking to Charlie," she smiled When did they learn that tneir son would be a crewman on the Apollo 16 flight? "Well, we had been expecting it all along, but the first I heard about it was when a reporter called to find out what we thought," Mrs. Duke confessed. "Of course, Charlie called soon after, as soon as it had been announced publicly.

"We are real happy," she said, and both agreed they are not particularly worried about the mission. "The crew and the backup crew have worked with the simulator on any problem that might conceivably arise during the mission," the astroanut's father explained. "Charlie has worked up to 16 hours a day recreating every phase of the flight on the ground. They have even been through things like the Rover breakng down, stranding them far from the lunar module. Everything has been LANCASTER Sitting in the ljving room of their gracious tree-shaded home in the Partridge Hill suburb here, Charles Moss Duke Sr.

and his wife, the former Willie Waters of Johnston, discussed their son and his work. Over a second cup of coffee, as they chatted informally, one soon comes to a realization of some of the changes in American society that have occurred in the last few years. As casually as they discussed the younger of their twin sons, William W. Duke, an internist practicing in Lancaster, and their daughter. Betsy, a student nurse, they also talked about their eldest twin son, Charles Moss Duke the astronaut.

For "Charlie," as they affectionately refer to him, may in less than three months become the tenth man to set foot on the face of the moon. That is, barring unforseen complications like exposure to the measles. About the measles. Charlie and his parents can laugh now; but at the time, they agree, it was no laughing matter. It all happened before the April, 1970, launch of Apollo 13, when their son was lunar module commander on the backup crew for the flight.

Young Duke and his family were on a camping trip in Texas near their Houston home. Another couple from town joined them at the campsite, not knowing that the visitors' children had been exposed to measles. Following the trip, during the tense last weeks preceding the launch. Duke was in contact with Thomas K. Mattingly III, command module pilot for the flight Then Duke came down with the measles, meaning that Mattingly had been exposed and NASA was forced to take him off the flight at the last minute and substitute John L.

Swigert Jr. of the backup crew. Just recently, Duke was hospitalized with bacterial 5 Enitfyi-iPfifrrT ifyiiirt 1 i lili'i'" Blfi fflVTI I Stories By Mike Bowen I I SUNDAY, MARCH 5, 1972 PAGE 1-D I Mrs. Charles Duke Charles Duke Sr. i mm i i.