Columbia

[Texas Ranger]

Drove up to Nacogdoches, Texas, to cruise a 44 acre tract for a sellective cut.  20 Minutes into the cruise we find the first piece of Columbia shuttle, piece of aluminum 3 x 8 inches with some ovbious high temperature action.  On the cell phone to the sheriff, they say come out and lead us in.  So there went today.

We will be finding this stuff for years to come, and will never know if that one piece may hold the clue as to what caused the disaster.  We have a problem, small problem, trying to decide what is junk and what is debris from the shuttle.  

A sobering day, to say the least.

[Frank_Pender]

Don, I don't envy you such cruseings.  I'll bet your heart went right to your throat, when you first spotted the piece material.
 :-[

[Tillaway]

I was thinking the same thing, you will be finding pieces for years.

[Bro. Noble]

My future son-in-law is in Texas with a forest service crew looking for pieces of Columbia.  Michael likes to work and goes at a hard pace all day long.  NASA gave them a training session on identifying stuff and how to walk very slowly in formation so as to not miss anything.  He has been bored silly setting around in the cold for a couple of days waiting for the ice to melt and then a couple of days walking for 10 hours at 1/10 th mile in 20 minutes.  Things livened up a little yesterday when they discovered a herd of wild pigs------NASA was probably pithed at their increase in pace and less than perfect spacing---------the pigs weren't very patriotic or friendly.:D

Noble

[Paul_H]

Shades of "Old Yeller".We don't have anything like that out here,it would sure get me hopping