Rocket site briefing, 1959
Rocket site briefing is given by 1st Lt. Frank M. Powell (left), commander of a missile battery of the 4th U.S. Missile Command, to Lt. Col. Hugh P. Stubbs, missile command executive officer. The rockets are practice-fired into an impact area near the demilitarized zone by missile command crews trained to a sharp edge. 1st Lt. Frank M. Powell (left), commander of a missile battery of the 4th U.S. Missile Command, briefs Lt. Col. Hugh P. Stubbs, missile command executive officer. Lt. Powell helped launch his first "John" in January 1956 at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. Since then, he has seen 101 Honest John rockets zoom off, but the one he remembers most didn't even go 'phfft!', when on Mother's Day 1956 at Ft. Benning, Georgia his crew was to fire the missile for TV cameras of Dave Garrawoy's "Wide, Wide World," watched by some 20 million viewers. "Down went the plunger," he related, "but nothing happened. ... They had forgotten to hook up the firing wire."
