Rocket Man
Karen Grassle
Karen Ewing
Class reunions
40 years later
Brown Bag reunions
2002
Ventura High School Alumni Foundation
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Rocket Man
(Bob Woodson submitted this story from our past to the reunion committee at the 2000 gathering. Unfortunately, I don't have access to a scanner yet, so I can't include the pictures, but maybe soon. Bob wasn't sure of the spelling of some of the names, and I couldn't find them in the yearbook, so I went with his. If you know better, let us know. - John Weigle)Jon "Rocket" Allen (1) was clearly ahead of his time. The 1999 movie "October Moon," which tells the story of four young boys' enchantment with going to the moon following Russia's successful Oct. 8, 1958, launch of Sputnik, clearly could have been just as easily scripted, produced, and filmed in Panavision by "rocketeer-in-the-making" ... one Jon Allen.
The other part of this 1959 Historical Footnote that few, if any, know about is that Jon was the real Werner Von Braun brains behind this exceptionally successful "educational experience." Physics teacher James Porter attended a special physics teacher training institute during the summer of 1958 at Oak Ridge, Tenn. Mr. Porter returned to VSH in September, all fired up over the new programmed high school physics curriculum, complete with unit workbooks, materials, test booklets -- one for each section of physics -- and multiple-choice tear-out answer sheets ("Please Use No. 2 Pencil"). This was serious stuff!
Jon Allen, Richard Del Seco, Pete Farrell and yours truly were straight D students in physics class. Bill Smythe was really smart -- he opted for chemistry and general science.
To prove to Mr. Porter we really did understand the concepts and "applied principles" of physics E=MC2 (don't blame this on Bob; I don't know how to raise the 2 in HTML - JSW), etc., Jon decided a rocket launch using chemistry, physics and math would demonstrate to Jim Porter we really did understand the concepts and "applied principles" of physics and, therefore, deserved a better class grade.
Truth is we all could have been killed or seriously injured, given the very, very volatile solid rocket fuel Jon dreamed up and concocted secretly under the darkness of night. Had the rocket fuel exploded while en route to our desert launch site near Palmdale, Jon's Jeep would no doubt have been blown into a million pieces, with some coming to rest at VSH.
Anyway, the launch went off without a hitch. The rocket rocked off the launch tripod as predicted, soared into the clear December sky in excess of 1,200 feet, followed a pre-determined trajectory (math triangulation), then fell back to the desert floor, piercing the ground with such impact that little more than its tail section remained exposed.
The enclosed photographs tell the rest of the story (they aren't here; see above - but they've been added to the reunion committee photo album).
James Porter was not impressed. Neither was Wayne Simpson.
Historical footnote:
1. It was actually photo class instructor Denny MacArthur who first tagged Jon with the moniker during, I believe, a class assembly.
Jon Allen added this information:What a nice tribute Bob Woodson wrote about our "rocket adventure'." We actually did four of them on different dates -- three were launched out in the Mojave Desert and one on Oxnard Beach. I still have some pictures that I might be able to get scanned for the Web page if you would like. Some are pretty spectacular ... They ranged in size from 6' 8" to 10 ft and were made of 1.5-inch electrical conduit and filled with powdered zinc dust and sulfur (I forget the exact ratio now). This was patterned after a design published in the Scientific American magazine in the "Amateur Scientist" column. It sure was fun at the time, but failed to impress Mr. Porter ... We all got D's in his class.
Jon and other members of the group presented the story of the launches to photography teacher Dennis McArthur at the 2004 reunion. I hope to have a PDF version available on the site soon.