Birth of Space (1949) & Cyber (1949) City
Saturday, December 31, 2011 at 1:39PM ANSWERING SPUTNIK & TOSSING THE CAP OVER THE WALL OF SPACE
On the evening of October 4, 1957, at 19:12 Greenwich Mean Time, an R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile lifted off from the former Soviet Union carrying a 23-inch shiny steel orb with four metal antennas named Sputnik. The "Space Age" had begun and along with it a new age of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) creativity and innovation in the United States.
Sputnik I
His visionary leadership in the 50’s and 60‘s, when space was dismissed as beyond utility, his Project Forecast, time pacing future strategic technological development in the 70’s and his dedication to the strategy of technology as a key deterrent made the U.S. and the U.S. Air Force a world leader in science and technology at a pivotal time in history. According to Neil Sheehan author of A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon, Schriever kept the U.S. and Soviet Union balanced against each other by virtually creating the concept of mutual assured destruction.
Schriever’s dream and his work laid the foundation for national wealth creation gained from exploitation of space science, engineering and technology spun-off to all segments of society in the form of networks and information technology, the Global Positioning System (GPS) and much more. GPS is the world's largest military satellite constellation and a global utility setting the heart beat of global network, computing and financial transactions. Resulting from Project Forecast and collaboration with Col. Francis X. Kane (Ph.D., USAF, ret.), GPS uses include precise timing for search and rescue, communications, farming, recreation and military and commercial aviation (Schriever Air Force Base, GPS). Schriever's work caused a Revolution of Military Affairs (RMA) by ushering in the space age and the age of cyber and his dream ultimately touches every citizen of the world in the form of GPS.
Image Source: A Return to Education Makes a Lasting Impact. General Robert McDermott Professorship in Organizational Leadership, By Heather Welder Russo, University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, TX
A student of classical education from the K-12 Latin School in Boston and ultimately a Harvard MBA, McDermott built the U.S. Air Force Academy programs on academic rigor, science and technology and character. His leadership in education shaped military education at all America service academies: McDermott created a system of education to turn out warrior poets--intellectual warriors. He integrated the military life with studies in humanities, social sciences and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
General McDermott lead the way to studies in global cultures, political science and religions of the world when the humanities, social science and language arts were considered incongruent with military life. He fought a tough political battle to make sure the military would have classical knowledge as its foundation for operating in the increasingly complex and volatile nuclear and technological age. McDermott proved that soldiers would excel to new heights in military accomplishment by lifting the proverbial ceiling. His cadets became Marshall, Fulbright and Rhodes scholars and their officer reviews post-graduation were remarkably high just before he departed (McDermott interview).
USAA President Charles Cheever scouted McDermott out and in 1968, he retired from the Air Force as Dean of the Academy and joined USAA as Chief Executive Officer. Based in San Antonio and serving only US military service members and their families, USAA was formed by Army medical officers who found that they were un-insurable as a risk after service to their country. McDermott’s servant leadership was ahead of the times and propelled USAA:
Under [McDermott's] leadership, USAA grew from the 16th to the 5th largest insurer of private automobiles in the nation and the nation's 4th largest homeowner insurer. A Washington Post obituary explained: “Within the company, he was a leading force for minority hiring and equalizing wages. He established four-day work weeks and made employee child care a feature to attract working mothers. You don't lead by being authoritarian, he said.... He had a reputation as a rare maverick in the insurance business, most notably advocating air bags as a crucial safety measure when auto manufacturers were saying it was too costly.[1]” In September 1993 he assumed the position of chairman emeritus...
For scale, consider that the building that houses USAA is the largest building of its height in the world--bigger than the Pentagon. In 1974, McDermott was elected Chairman of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce. In 1975, he founded the Economic Development Foundation and served as its Chairman until 1980. In the mid-1990s he was chairman of an investor group that purchased the San Antonio Spurs basketball team for $85 million. (Wikipedia, Robert_F._McDermott)
McD was a true Renaissance man. He was a patriot, a scholar, a warrior, a business man, civic leader, an entrepreneur, and a Jazz trombonist. His life and work emphasized the Golden Rule, the ethic of reciprocity: One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself.
Today, it is General Robert F. McDermott, perhaps more than any other military scholar, that has the most to offer in questions related to learning, education, and cultivating the next generation for the complexities of the 21st century--a holistic system of learning, integrative, applied and rigorous, character focused and above all creative.
In the 1980s, McD focused on developing the biotechnology, engineering and science education, workforce and economic development apparatus of the University of Texas San Antonio, University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, Texas Research and Technology Foundation (TRTF). "In 2012, TRTF supports the growth of the bioscience and tech-based industry sectors in the Texas Research Triangle by leveraging the capabilities and assets of universities and research institutions across the world.
TRTF start-ups, spin-outs, technology licensing and entrepreneurial culture are supported by linking university IP, capital, entrepreneurs and venture service providers. TRTF specializes in supporting the characteristic long process of laboratory and clinical studies in bioscience-, pharma- and medical-based innovation. TRTF provides the physical infrastructure and a diversified network of scientific, legal, financial, technical and administrative expertise and institutions to advance wealth creation and benefits to society from science. (TRPF, About Us - History)
Since the late 1950s, San Antonio has been the home of aerospace medicine. In 1957, Brooks Air Force Base was called to aid the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) with Project Mercury (1998, This New Ocean, A History of Project Mercury, NASA History Office). President John F. Kennedy dedicated the School of Aerospace Medicine in San Antonio on November 21, 1963, announcing: man has tossed his cap over the wall of space and we have no choice but to follow. Listen to the whole speech at the JFK Library online.
President John F. Kennedy (center) stands with his wife Jackie Kennedy (right) at Brooks AFB in San Antonio the day before he was assassinated in Dallas. The inset (bottom right) shows the podium or lectern he used that day. The lectern and some other related items were donated to the Witte Museum according to the Express News on Thursday, May 12, 2011.
IMAGE - Express News, Courtesy Photo/Witte Museum
Kennedy's remarks included:
"I have come to Texas today to salute an outstanding group of pioneers, the men who man the Brooks Air Force Base School of Aerospace Medicine and the Aerospace Medical Center. It is fitting that San Antonio should be the site of this center and this school as we gather to dedicate this complex of buildings. For this city has long been the home of the pioneers in the air. It was here that Sidney Brooks, whose memory we honor today, was born and raised. It was here that Charles Lindbergh and Claire Chennault, and a host of others, who, in World War I and World War II and Korea, and even today have helped demonstrate American mastery of the skies, trained at Kelly Field and Randolph Field, which form a major part of aviation history. And in the new frontier of outer space, while headlines may be made by others in other places, history is being made every day by the men and women of the Aerospace Medical Center, without whom there could be no history." (Remarks at Aero-Space Medical Health Center dedication, San Antonio, Texas, 21 November 1963, JFK Presidential Library and Museum)
The dedication of the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine (USAFSAM) at Brooks Field was Kennedy's last official act as President of the United States. USAFSAM is revered today internationally as the premier center for aerospace medical learning, consultation and aircrew health assessment. In 2007, approximately 7,000 students were trained at the school (Brooks City Base Fact Sheet).
USAFSAM was instituted by Dr. Theodore Lyster, in 1918, at Hazelhurst Field, N.Y., as the Medical Research Laboratory of the Air Service, U.S. Army Signal Corps. In 1922, the facility evolved into the School of Aviation Medicine and four years later it moved to Brooks Field, San Antonio, Texas. In 1931, the school relocated to Randolph Field, San Antonio, Texas.
The School of Aviation Medicine opened in San Antonio, 1926.
On February 9, 1949, Brig. Gen. Harry G. Armstrong established the Department of Space Medicine (Air Force Research Laboratory, Fact Sheet). From 1959-1970, The US Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine (USAFSAM) was the site of scientific research integral to the US Man-in-Space effort, which culminated in the Apollo missions of the late 1960s. From 1959-1970, The US Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine (USAFSAM) was the site of scientific research integral to the US Man-in-Space effort, which culminated in the Apollo missions of the late 1960s.
Life Sciences at the Manned Spacecraft Center, NASA Bioastronautics & Space Medicine, 1973
The first US astronaut to walk in space is Lt. Col. Ed White from San Antonio. His extra vehicular Activity (EVA) lasted 23 minutes. According to NASA, White later said the spacewalk was the most comfortable e part of the mission, and said the order to end it was the saddest moment of his life. San Antonio served as a repository for lunar samples brought back to Earth from the Apollo missions between 1969 and 1972.
Ed White's spacewalk on June 3, 1965 during Gemini 4 Mission, NASA Photo
IMAGE - NASA
Ed White's spacewalk on June 3, 1965 during Gemini 4 Mission, You Tube
On January 27, 1967 Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee gave their lives for the future of humanity and our quest to be among the stars. A flash fire engulfed their command module during testing for the first Apollo mission. They are the first U.S. astronauts to die in the line of duty. Jovial Ed White (center of photograph below) from San Antonio was being light hearted at the press conference prior to the fatal test out.
Three American astronauts, Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, were accidentally killed in a 1967 training exercise later named Apollo 1. The men died when fire broke out in their oxygen-filled space capsule (BBC). Online video from BBC, Man on the Moon: Fatal fire on Apollo 1, Feb. 4, 2010.
The tragedy of the three lost souls of Apollo 1 devastated San Antonio. Immediately, scientists at the Southwest Research Institute and the Brooks band together and invent the foam fire extinguisher to prevent future similar catastrophes. Today, one of the largest fire research and testing laboratories in the U.S. is located at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI, Fire Technology Services).
The impact of the Aviation Age and the Space Age on San Antonio is known at a deep physical level by every American. The rhythmical movements of Aerobics was invented for the space program at the School of Aerospace Medicine by Dr. Kenneth Cooper and his team of aerospace researchers.
The Plamaz-Shatz stent was recognized by Intellectual Property International Magazine twice as one of “Ten Patents that Changed the World in the past century." (Palmaz Scientific). The stent is responsible for cutting in half the number of people who die from heart disease annually.
In addition to responsibilities at the University of Texas Health Science Center, Palmaz also leads Palmaz Scientific. Based on new knowledge discovered at the intersection of biology, chemistry, physics and cyber, the Palmaz Scientific team has created novel processes at the nano scale, 1 billionth of a meter, 100,000x the size of a human hair, to enhance implantable prosthetic devices.
For the past ten years, Dr. Palmaz and his team have developed the technology to manufacture stents, balloons and other devices using physical vapor deposition processing techniques, similar to those used in computer chip manufacturing, to create an all metal micro mesh-covered stent to promote a thin layer of flat epithelial cells to line the metal mesh and bond to the tissue of the heart, serous cavities, lymph vessels, and blood vessels. (Press Release, Introducing Palmaz Scientific, Inc., Inventor of Renowned Vascular Stent Forges Novel Platform for Improved Patient Outcome, Oct.14, 2008).
Today, Palmaz Scientific holds nearly 118 U.S. and international patents issued and over 109 patent applications pending on its technologies including thin-film technologies and physical vapor deposition process innovations for use in manufacturing medical implantable devices (Palmaz Scientific). Plamaz has extended intellectual property to cover an entire system of inplants and device interfaces. His patents are the interface for healing and not just in intravascular applications but in the bodies lymphatic system and the serous cavaties of the human body. The patents cover device interfaces between man made materials and the pericardial cavity (surrounding the heart), pleural cavity (surrounding the lungs) and peritoneal cavity (surrounding most organs of the abdomen).
Taboada Research also has commercialized a device capable of projecting a uniform ribbon of laser light, the Laser Ribbon. Additionally, TRI is marketing a universal optical mount called the Omni Mount. It is a simple mount capable of mounting optics of sizes between 2mm to 200mm. It can also mount other odd shaped objects. (TRI, Company)
Today, Fort Sam Houston is home to the San Antonio Military Medical Center, the largest military hospital in the Department of Defense. Officials opened the new $730 million hospital's inpatient and administrative tower on October 7, 2011 (San Antonio Business Journal, Ft. Sam Houston to unveil completed hospital expansion, Wednesday, September 21, 2011).
San Antonio Military Medicine City (SAMMC) - Consolidated Tower Construction Progress
Image - U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
The Military Medical Center delivers patient care, graduate medical education and research, as well as taking care of wounded service members. Staffed by both Brook Army Medical Center and the U.S. Air Force personnel, the hospital staff provides inpatient care in a 425-bed facility, 1.5 million square foot, state-of-the-art facility. As a certified Level 1 Trauma Center, the center receives more than 4,000 emergency room visits each month. It is one of only 15 hospitals in the United States that holds both Level 1 Trauma certification and accreditation from the American Burn Association: 40 beds are dedicated to the Army Institute of Surgical Research, which operates the only Department of Defense Burn Center — the Army Burn Center. (GoArmy.com) San Antonio Military Medical Center - Watch US Army videos about Army AMEDD and Military Medical City.
