My last working base, of approximately 5 years in The Army Air Force, was at Muroc Flight Test Base in the Mohave Desert of California. Later, it was renamed "Edwards Air Force Base" after a flier killed in WWII. And it became the landing site for NASA shuttles.

I was assigned there in January, 1945, and transferred out that August. It never rained the entire time I was there. As Station Chief, I built much of the Weather Station -- map tables, chart racks, directed placing of lighting facilities.

Have you seen the movie, The Right Stuff? It shows many shots of a Hangar at Edwards. That was across from The Weather Station, and I checked out tools for my work from there.

Best climate I've every known. Hot inthe day time, but you wore a wool shirt and perspired. At night you slept under a blanket.

The only landing field was a dry lake bed, where Shuttles now land. The AAF was then testing the first jet fighter, "The Shooting Star". Any pilot assigned to it liked to starting flying before dawn, because of the turbulence. So I often arose at 4:30 AM to give the pilot weather briefing for his test flight.

I was there for VE Day in March, end of the European War. In August, I received "Overseas Order" (which I discuss elsewhere), and went to Kearns, Utah. But, by that time, VJ had arrived, end of the War with Japan. So in December, 1945, I was discharged.

But I've followed reports about the use of Edwards. And my experience convinces me as to how a terrible tragedy could have been provented.

In xxx, 1982, a rocketship blew up, killing 8 in the crew and a school teacher accompanying them. In the enquiry, the noted physicist, Richard Feynman, showed that freezing of O-rings around the "jets"" allowed fuel leakage and the blowup.

That could not have happened at Edwards. It was cold enough there at night to require a blanket. But it was dry cold, just as it was dry heat by day. The O-rings could not freeze under these conditions.

The solution of Cape Canaveral in Florida was a political one, not an engineering one. And, besides this one tragic blowup, there have been many many delays due to Florida weather which you would never find in The Mohave Desert.