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Apollo 1 Fire
Beyond Reach-The Manuscript
During a 1998 interview for the Johnson Space Center Oral History Series, launch pad leader for all of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo flights, Guenter Wendt, had this to say:"By the way, … when we did that "From the Earth to the Moon" thing with Tom Hanks, the one individual who knows more about that fire, and details, is actually a fellow by the name of Rick Boos. I don't know if you ever heard his name. He is a freelance writer. Anyhow, he knows more than anybody, either NASA or contractors or anybody, about that whole thing. As a matter of fact, I have a tape he sent me, done last February, as to
what the Apollo 1 capsule looks like right now. He was going to see
if it could be re-erected for a museum … cleaned up and so on. He became one of our technical advisors, too. By the way, …—I mean,
off the record—he found out that some of the top people testifying
for Congress did not tell the truth. They contradicted themselves
in the reports. … he is not one of the favorite people for the
hierarchy … but he has, actually, volumes of individual things down, everything documented. I told Rick, I said, "You should write a book."
Editor's Note: When Mr. Boos and I reunited in the fall of 1994, he was working on a manuscript for a book {“Beyond The Threshold....A Reflection”}. he was writing about the Apollo 1 fire, questioning NASA's response to the emergency on launch pad 34 on that fateful night in January 1967. Rick was a very giving person and he spent
days, months and years helping others to write 32 books and produce documentaries on the Liberty Bell 7and the Apollo 1, as a result, his book did not come to fruition. I last visited Mr. Boos in 2017. At that time, I asked about the book and tried to encourage him to proceed and publish his works. Unfortunately, time seemed to have taken its toll on him and he showed little interest in resuming his endeavor. Thus, Mr. Boos' thoughts on the Apollo 1 fire, in a compact form, are lost to the ages. What follows was found in his documents;
an outline of his intended book.....
Guenter Wendt
Boos Responds!
See the "Lost Book" at bottom
of this page along with an excerpt
from Mr. Boos' Book Manuscript
The Lost Book
Excerpt from Rick's Manuscript
"Beyond The Threshold....A Reflection”.
As a child I was infatuated by infinity and the starting wonders of God's creation, I would cast my eyes to the heavens and chart my tomorrows of my life. The awesomeness of the cosmos captured heart at a very early age and in a profound way and proved to be a love and obsession that would continue to grow. dreamed of how fantastic it would be when tomorrow world arrive.I dreamed of that tomorrow that illusive day somewhere in the future in which my goals and dream would transform to reality and I could journey into the heavens and set foot upon the uncharted sands of another world! It seems as though it was only a few years ago that I gazed at what I now believe to have been a full moon from Grandma and Grandpa's driveway and vowed to myself that evening that I would someday walk upon it's scared face and climb what I had envisioned to be inverted steep ice cycle type mountains of the moon. I often speculated as to what my reaction or interpretation might be as I changed footing and reversed places and gazed back at my homeland To walk on the face of a new world where humans have never walked before. Where wars never raged, and violence and human ugliness is unknown. To gaze at the earth from a land somewhere deep in the cosmos and to share it's and God's wonders with the world and loved ones that I so willingly left behind. To walk spiritually with God among the stars, and to view his total creation. To see the earth as it truly is, and as HE must see it and to realize that I am a child of the universe, and one of many children in the family of God and to share it with all humanity back on earth. But that was yesterday and it's been many years now since that yesterday back in time and I realized that it was never to be but that lingering twinge of what could have been still lingers in the back of my mind and burns deep within my heart even today! In the years that were to follow mankind broke the orbits of the earth and took the first awkward treks to the moon. I watched other men live my dream, the chosen few, and I like so many others watched live and witnessed our reflection as seen through their eyes and as God must truly see us.it's not so bad now in my golden years you see, because God opened many doors for me over the years and those men that lived my dreams became my friends. And guess what? My name was taken to the moon on several missions and over the years I have been blessed to come into position of multiple lunar meteorites (moon rocks) from various locations of the moon! So you see I can touch the moon anytime I wish!!!!!!
"Rick Boos-May 2017
Absolutely no interest in writing a book on the Apollo 1 fire......It wouldn't bring them back or change anything! NASA has never learned from their mistakes as evident with Challenger and Columbia and they never will until they quit investigating themselves! A fox guarding the hen house! I am referring to NASA management! The Apollo 1 fire was one big cover-up and those in NASA know it! Even Paul Haney had harsh words before he passed away about the handling and coverup of Apollo 1! In his words, "Jim Webb lied so often that he started to believe his own lies!" Apollo 1 has always been a thorn in the side of NASA! Gus was like a wolf
howling in the wilderness and NASA wouldn't
listen. Even Roger Chaffee had his doubts of
surviving Apollo 1 and confided his
concerns to his dad.
Sadly the line of NASA BS will live on forever!"
NASA Photo