WEBVTT

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Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg
Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is

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retired US Marine Corps aviator Randy Bresnik. He is now a NASA astronaut and

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a veteran of multiple missions to the
International Space Station. And Colonel, thanks

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so much for being with us.
How did you be with you? Greg?

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Where were you born and raised?
Sir? I was born in Fort

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Knox, Kentucky, and about two
weeks after I was born, my parents

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hopped in the car and drove me
and my older sister to southern California so

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that my mom could be there with
my dad's parents as he ateed off to

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Vietnam. And that leads right into
your history, your family's history of service.

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Tellus a little bit about your dad's
service in Vietnam. He was with

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the first Air CAF flying UH one
bs. He went over initially in the

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initial build up in sixty four,
then came home, had me went over

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for a second tour. He UH
was actually the UH recipient of the first

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battlefield promotion of the Vietnam War.
He had been a warrant officer and UH

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got a battlefield comission to become a
second lieutenant and then eventually uh uh left

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after his second tour in Vietnam as
a as a first lieutenant. Your family

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history of aviation goes back even further
though. Your grandfather had a connection to

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Amelia Earhart. Tell me about that. Yeah, he was her personal photographer

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for five years, and so she
uh he was pretty young at the time,

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but uh had shown his skills a
photographer, and she was tired of

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all the Hollywood glamour and you know, big name photographers, and so she

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hired him on. And so he
uh uh used to drive cross country from

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Santa Monica to Charleston, South Carolina, where I went to college with me

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as I you know, drove back
for my uh last few years of school.

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And so one of the stories he
told was how he was actually supposed

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to be with her on that mission
photograph photo documenting the the mission around the

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world, and his photographic equipment and
he were a bit too heavy, and

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she decided to trade them for fuel
on her aircraft instead. And so only

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because of that is why I'm here
today, Otherwise I would not be amazing.

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What did you have to say about
her as a person? He was

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wonderful. I mean, he felt
that she was like a big sister and

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she called him little brother. And
after she disappeared, he took all the

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pictures that he had taken of her
and put him in his negative vault.

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And it's where they sat for fifty
years. And it's when they're coming up

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with the fiftieth anniversary. He's like, I think I've got some photos and

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negatives in there, and so he
went in and republished him and then,

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you know, spent the rest of
his life traveling around the world, you

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know, telling the story of Amelia. You know, five decades later,

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well, as you mentioned, you
went to school in South Carolina, specifically

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at the Citadel. You did Navy
ROTC but commissioned in the Marine Corps.

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Giving your dad's service in the army. Why did you decide to go in

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a different brand? I simply figure
every generation has to improve the previous one.

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He was a helicopter I became a
jet pilot. Okay, you know,

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he was the Army. I went
in the Marine Corps. That was

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fun. He might actually served in
the Navy also previous to go into the

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Army. So we've got everything encountered
except for the Air Force. And I've

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got a nephew in the Air Force
right now. Fantastic Any particular reason you

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went that route because they gave me
a scholarship. So I was a you

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know, skinny high school kid in
southern California. I didn't, you know,

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know the difference in the services that
much. You know, I was

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a teenager. I applied for whatever
could allow me to go to college.

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And very fortunate that the Marine Corps, you know, was the one that

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gave me the scholarship, because when
I got to the Citadel and I saw

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the other services and how they conducted
themselves and how they were what their mission

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was. How did the Citadel prepare
you well for what would come after?

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Uh? Amazingly? Well, I
mean it was you know, I was

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against, skinny kid, but at
least I had the foresight to go,

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Okay, I know, I'm going
in the military when I graduate, so

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let me do something to prepare myself. And so I took the challenge of

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going to the Citadel. And at
that time, in the mid eighties,

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nobody in South California had heard of
the Citadel, you know, and so

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but I had heard about it,
and fortunately got accepted and made that call.

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I had never been east of the
Mississippi. I'd never you know,

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visited the campus and met anyone that
had gone there. It was blind faith

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that, you know, that was
the right place for me, and looking

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back, it could not have prepared
me better for where I am right now.

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Did you know you wanted to be
an aviator from the beginning? I

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did, But that was certainly the
there's a lot of there's a few wickets

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you got to go through to get
there. You know, first I had

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to you know, finish school.
At that point, you still had to

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have perfect vision. There's no laser
surgery to fix that, uh, and

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certainly have the aptitude. And that
was one of my you know, biggest

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concerns was that here I am,
I you know, want to be an

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aviator, but what if I go
to flight school, I'm no good.

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You know, it doesn't doesn't matter
how much desire you have if you can't

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fly. And so, you know, even all through my She'll start in

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the Marine Corps Vietnam flight school,
I was you know, what if I

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go down there and wash out,
you know, that's a real possibility.

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And so fortunately I didn't, and
you know, I ended up having the

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skill that skills that I've got,
you know, somewhat matched the desire and

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so here I am. So do
you feel like it came naturally to you

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or was it a tough slog I
have to say I thought that I grew

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up running motorcycles, and I think
that that was one thing that made it

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somewhat natural. Where the concept of
the bank angle and the power and the

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speed depends on whether you're not your
stand upright or making the turn in two

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dimensions of a motorcycle, all I
do was translate that to to the flying

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realm, and certainly the the joy
of flying was another part that made it

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really a good fit and just seemed
to be right up right up my alley

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as a as a pilot. From
what I've rid, you flown eighty one

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different aircraft, but the one that
keeps popping up is the Fa eighteen.

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So I assume that's your favorite,
or maybe it's just the one they gave

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you. But what did you love
most about that? Yeah, we're up

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to eighty six now, and yeah
that was my chosen well platform and record

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shows for me, But the one
that I would have chosen, you know,

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if I had had a say in
the matter, And so I've got

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where I've got the most of my
flight time, and you know what,

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I went and did test work as
a test pilot on so certainly having flown

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the fourteen fifteen, sixteen F eighteen
and experienced all those of that era,

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definitely the F eighteen, you know, stands out above, but having gotten

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to fly other airplanes from other services
and other countries as well, it definitely,

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you know, gave me insight to
the fact that it is, you

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know, of that era, you
know, the finest flying airplane, multi

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use airplane we've we've we've ever had
in that in that timeframe, in that

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fourth generation fighter, you also had
the amazing opportunity to go to top So

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I assume shortly after the movie came
out that was pretty exciting and probably would

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have been even without the movie.
But what was that experience Like that was

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another you know, fortunate opportunity I
had because in the Marine Corps you go

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to the Weapons and Taxis Instructor Course
WTI that we have in you Arizona,

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and then to become a fully fledged
pilot training officer in the fighter community,

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you go to top Gun as well, and so you've get the best of

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all the most intense, highest fidelity, you know, training with ground systems,

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early warning radar, multiplane, all
the different munitions. And your job

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is to go to the school,
learn all these things and then come back

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to the squadron and then teach all
those things to the rest of the pilots,

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because we can't send entire squadrons of
people of these schools. And so

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to me that was just here I
am, I'm an fat pilot loving what

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I'm doing, and I get to
go to the school to get even better

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at it and then come back and
teach it to the other the other pilots.

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And so that was a real,
real blessing, and it just begged

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the question then it was going to
finish that tour first four and a half

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years in the fleet, what next? I assume they sent you because you're

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already really, really good. So
what's it like to know that you're among

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the very very best. It's neat
because you know, iron sharpens iron,

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and so here you are with the
other students who are at the same you

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know, high, highly proficient tactical
level, learning from instructors who are you

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know, even a level beyond that, and having that opportunity to get better

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when you're already you know, pretty
pretty high level of your game. It's

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just it's it's thrilling, it's exciting, but you're also realized that you're there

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to learn it all and then you
go back and teach it and pass it

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on. So that's why it's still
such a successful school and program and still

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allowing us to maintain the proficiency tactical
proficiency that we enjoy with the US military.

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What kind of assignments did you have
following? So I got to my

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first squadn in Connieway Bay and we
did a short time there and then Deplotae

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Japan, and then we came back
to El Toro for a year and then

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we deplotged Japan. Then we went
back to Miramar, which is down Marine

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Corps base into Potsge, Japan.
This time I was there for a year.

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So after that I left and went
to the Amphibious Warfare School down in

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Quantico, Virginia for a year,
so our captain level professional military education.

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And then from there I was selected
to go to Test Pot School or Protection

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River, Maryland, And so that
was nineteen ninety nine a chance to go

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to test Pot School where they cram
about two years of education into one year

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and the party that they have about
the month end of is that you'll be

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sorry party. And they're not kidding
because you're not only doing the academics and

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all of that, you're flying while
you're there. And so that's where you

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get exposed to the concept of going
out and evaluating aircraft you've never flown before

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to see how they fly, have
the benefit of, you know, months

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of classroom instruction and simulators and things
like that. And you know, my

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final project for the graduation exercise,
called d T two Developmental Test two was

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I've got to be the first Americans
to fly the French two thousand and d

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and so we went over to France
and flew out of Strasbourg with a French

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tactical squadron. I got two flights
in it and had to write a one

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hundred page report on everything from the
way the cockpit was designed to how the

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lateral stability was and the dynamics and
the performance of the engine and things like

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that. So that's the culmination of
the one year of education test possible.

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How similar are the controls arranged?
Are they in some places completely different than

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what you expect The controls as far
as the stick in the throttles are pretty

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much standard around the world, especially
for fighters. You know, the sticks

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in the right hand throttles are over
the left. I was like, Man,

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I am left handed. What if
they put the throttles over here.

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Imagine how much better of a pilot
I could have been, you know,

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if I was flying with my dominant
hand. But as far as the way

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they organize the engines and the displays
for whether it's the attitude instruments or the

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systems displays of the raid, are
those things very per aircraft. And that's

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what I've loved about being a test
pike and to fly all these different aircraft,

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protocraft, you know, Goodyear blimp, seeing how at that time,

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with what technology we had, what
experience we had in flying, how things

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developed over the years. So it's
been really neat to see that some better

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than others, certainly for example,
the British Jaguar. It is I described

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the cockpit as you take all the
things you need in the cockpit with the

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instruments and controls, put them in
a shotgun shell and just blasted at the

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cockpit and it was there was no
rhyme or reason some guys put a switch

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here and engauge there, and you're
doing this to do startup rather than you

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know, simple you know in line, you know type of thing that you

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find in you know, modern aircraft. So it was, like I said,

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really very fun, very interesting.
That's US Marine Corps colonel and NASA

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astronaut Randy Bresnik. When we come
back nine to eleven and combat in Iraq.

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I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans
Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles.

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I'm Greg Corumbas. Our guest in
this edition is US Marine Corps aviator and

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Colonel Randy Bresnik. He's now a
NASA astronaut. But up next, Bresnik

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shares how he learned of the nine
to eleven terrorist attacks in two thousand and

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one and discusses his role in the
early months of the Iraq War. So

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I was at the test plot school
and talk to River Maryland. I was

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an instructor there two thousand and one, and it was actually my birthday,

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and so I was in my office
when the first plane hit and uh we

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had a TV out of the hallway
that uh was showing it, and uh,

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you know, it was one of
those things where oh, hey,

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the you know tower's on fire,
and then was actually sitting there watching as

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the second one went to the other
tower, and uh that's when you knew,

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you know, there was no accident. And so I was uh instructor

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test plot school, but had just
come off of the out of the test

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squadron, and so that's where we
had our fifteens, and so I went

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down to the flight equipment office,
grab my flight air in my helmet,

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knowing that things were gonna change,
and went over to the test squadron.

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It's one of the few native you
know, F eighteen guys. And sure

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enough, the uh, the Langley
had all the air force at fifteens and

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remember right they had the you know, uh Chesapeake Bay and North uh immediate

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air defense sector, and the Navy
out of Oceania had you know, basically

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Norfolk and South. And so we
actually had packs river F eighteens with test

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pilots up there on cap those f
that initial day or two, you know,

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in case there was you know,
something else that we didn't know,

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you know, the world had changed, and so we were doing that for

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a few days till things settled down
more. And that was not the best

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birthday I've had. Did you have
any standing orders if you had confronted something

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else? Yeah, there was certainly
are we that we had and it would

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have been the same that we had
from everybody else. But you know,

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it's a test community, and so
it was we had UH and we had

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a couple of fourteen folks around,
but you know, s three folks and

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other people who were in the test
on and who were flying the F eighteen

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but did not have a thousands of
hours in it and background did tactically employ

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it. They could fly and do
test points, but it wasn't something they

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knew how to employ the missiles and
things like that. Now you had had

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some experience in Iraq patrolling the no
fly zones correct Southern Watch. So after

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I finished up my tour in Packs
River in two thousand and two, i

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UH went out to Bank eleven out
in San Diego at h MCS Mearrimar and

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joined the UH the group staff from
AG eleven as the future operations Officer and

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we deployed over in January to Al
Jabber Base in Kuwait. And so from

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February to March I flew the Southern
Watch cap and so here I am a

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major at the time, and I
just come off of four years of packs

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River as a test pilot back into
the fleet, you know, back into

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my you know, talk gun WTI
qualls as a Michigan commander. And here

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I am, you know, leading
F you know, F fourteen's or F

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fifteen's over here in marlttle F eighteen
cap and I'm coordinating all that as a

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mission commander for Southern Watch, going
wow, this is very different from the

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test community now back in the fleet. And then then the war kicked off

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and we were flying missions out of
Al Jabra for the for the war from

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uh pretty much March till the initial
hostilities ended in may describe the type of

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missions you were running. For the
most part, uh, we were flying

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u we call arm WRECKI where you
know, the Marines and the the army

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you know, left the line of
departure and we were out doing all the

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battlefield interdiction stuff that was beyond,
so that by the time they got somewhere,

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we had taken out the majority of
the threat. And that's certainly what

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allowed the first Marine Division over on
the eastern side to pretty much go to

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Baghdad and get through I think it
was some like twelve Iraqi divisions along the

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way, because we were out there
doing the battlefield in addiction ahead of time,

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and so we would you know,
be leaving Al Jabber and flying areas

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you know, like to Kurt and
Bagdad and things north just a few days

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into the war, well before you
know they had a chance for any of

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those forces to move south to counteract
our archives moving north. We would fly

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close air support from time to time
when they needed and certainly that was something

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we've trained for in our bread and
butter as marines because we uh train the

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same way that our infantry guys do. You know, we're the only service

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where when a Marine goes into the
service, your marine officer you go to

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the basic school in Quantico, Virginia. Every single marine officer does it.

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What you're gonna fly, you know, airplanes, or you're gonna drive tanks,

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you're gonna be an infantry or if
you're gonna be the admin officer,

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and so we all start there,
and so every Marine has that rifle and

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mentality understanding. And so when we
do close air support, we know,

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you know, not all exactly what
they're doing, but you know, the

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people, and I had time to
do a close air support where the ford

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air controller was a voice I recognized
before I heard the call sign, you

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know. And so that's what makes
Marine Corps special is we are very small.

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We were very tight knit. We
know everybody, and that's why we're

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that much more invested than you know, uh, ensuring that we deliver the

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weapons on time onto our because we
know the people that are down there doing

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it. Let's talk about each of
those different missions. First of all,

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close air support. What's your altitude
when you're running those missions? How close

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to the ground are you. We
had a when we're doing our interdiction stuff.

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I think it was like about a
five thousand foot hard deck. They

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didn't want us down below that for
the most part unless we're doing close air

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support, and then it's whatever it
takes. How much resistance did you face

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in either of those close air supports? We would take small arms fire.

262
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Had one point when we were just
just east of Bagdads, So it was

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the last couple of days before the
first Marining Division went into Bagdad where we

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had it was a pretty big I
think it was tank battle that was just

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to the east of the city and
so we were called in and so it

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was employing our twenty millimeters cannon.
We had rockets maybe perhaps at that time,

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and that's where we had some man
pads or Sam's serfstair missiles shot at

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us. And so it's one of
those things that do all this training for

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years and then have someone called hey, missiles in the air and you're popping

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flares and breaking a plane to try
and you know, have the missile glomb

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off onto your flares and you just
all that training you do, you're training

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that you're gonna fight becomes instinct you
know, or you know, that's that's

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what we hope for everybody becomes instinctual, and that allows us to be survival

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and and you know, be successful
in the battlefield. Was it what you

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expected after all that training or was
it a little different? Yeah, that

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was you know, it's certainly I
remember the first time crossing the line,

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you know, into the hostile territory, and it did feel different. You

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know, it's kind of the bloodbelt
was constricting. You realize that, Okay,

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00:19:30.599 --> 00:19:37.400
if something happens, I'm not friendly
territory and you're you don't normally carry

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a side arm, you know when
you're on your flight gear. We have

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pockets for it, but you don't
carry it normally in training. And so

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now it's very very real, and
certainly the uh the intensities up a little

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bit. You know, the first
time you get shot at. You know,

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you're always wondering in training, well, how am I going to respond?

285
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And I think everybody you know would
love to be the heroes you see

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in movies and just respond with no
fear and charge the machine gun nests.

287
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But and certainly you have that level
of commitment to the r you know,

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marine to your left and right,
but you don't know that there's always that

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00:20:12.519 --> 00:20:15.000
wonder wh when the bulls start coming
the other way, how am I gonna

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respond? And you know, the
first time I remember seeing it was UH

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like c second day of the war
and we were up on a night mission

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00:20:22.839 --> 00:20:27.400
using our forward looking infrared to to
hit targets, and UH we dropped some

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UH ordnance on the on some tanks. And then as I'm pulling off target,

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I look back, I see these
you know, blinking little white lights,

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go, hey, what's that?
Well? I was flying with a

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uh A whizzo who had UH had
already seen that. Oh yeah, that's

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00:20:41.880 --> 00:20:48.039
small arms fire. Oh okay,
alright, and so you know it's there's

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always a little bit of uh,
the humor when you try and when you're

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in you know, stressful or intense
situations. And so he said, oh,

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I think they've given us MOSE code. They want some lead. So

301
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we turned around and gave him some
lead. I think it's five hundred pounders.

302
00:21:02.079 --> 00:21:03.200
At that point, I was just
going to ask you what kind of

303
00:21:03.240 --> 00:21:06.519
lead? So they have the five
hundred pounders, what else were you using?

304
00:21:07.039 --> 00:21:11.599
We had the canon on the gun. I don't remember strafing at that

305
00:21:11.599 --> 00:21:14.119
point because it was night so we
weren't going down super low and so that's

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00:21:14.160 --> 00:21:17.920
not as effective from higher altitude,
but yeah, it was. You had

307
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five hundred thousand pounders. And so
when you're doing close air support, any

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particular maneuvers you need to do when
you're taking on small arms fire to protect

309
00:21:25.720 --> 00:21:30.440
your more vulnerable parts of the plane. Certainly close air support we try and

310
00:21:30.480 --> 00:21:33.240
come in at an angle. You
know, the FOD air controller you know,

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knows where the bad guys are,
where they can see where the artillery

312
00:21:37.039 --> 00:21:38.799
is coming in to suppress them.
And so he gives us a running heading

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that should protect for the most part
until we'd started, you know, lower

314
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out to come in relatively fast,
and then we do what's called you know

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pop maneuver, where we're pulling up
to get eyes on the target and then

316
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drop in, you know, to
level out, employ the weapons, and

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00:21:53.079 --> 00:21:56.599
then pull off target and break away
from the plane that we were in.

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So if they're shooting at us as
we pull off target, we're dropping flat

319
00:22:00.359 --> 00:22:03.119
or shaff to decoy missiles and then
pulling off target to be able to then

320
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clear the clear the air space.
So there are you know, tack maneuvers

321
00:22:07.559 --> 00:22:11.319
breaking out of plane that allows us
to go ahead and hopefully defeat anything they're

322
00:22:11.319 --> 00:22:15.720
shooting at it. I assume you've
trained for this moment in many, many

323
00:22:15.720 --> 00:22:18.359
different ways, but obviously precision is
key here. You don't want to hurt

324
00:22:18.359 --> 00:22:22.759
any of our own people and you
need to be on target. How difficult

325
00:22:22.839 --> 00:22:25.440
is that when you actually have to
do it, I mean, it's challenging.

326
00:22:25.480 --> 00:22:27.200
I mean, but that's why we
have, you know, for the

327
00:22:27.240 --> 00:22:33.440
Marine Corps, we've got the twenty
nine Palms area that's out in the desert

328
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east of Los Angeles that we go
out there and do combined armed exercises where

329
00:22:37.039 --> 00:22:40.119
it's our marines on the ground they
are going against real targets. We are

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00:22:40.119 --> 00:22:42.720
doing FULLIP as if we were doing
you know, real time cast. We

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00:22:42.799 --> 00:22:47.680
drop you know, sometimes it's practice
weapons and sometimes it's it's full of ordinance.

332
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And so we get used to,
you know, listening to the nine

333
00:22:51.759 --> 00:22:53.240
line brief, having the target,
you know, a lot long for the

334
00:22:53.240 --> 00:22:56.640
target we can put into our systems
that give us a designation in our HUD

335
00:22:56.720 --> 00:23:00.039
to show, hey, this is
what the coordinate says. We visually confirm

336
00:23:00.119 --> 00:23:03.880
that, and then we can drop
ordance based on that, and if it's

337
00:23:03.880 --> 00:23:04.880
you know, it needs to be
a just then we can certainly adjust,

338
00:23:06.119 --> 00:23:08.960
uh, where that target point is. And so doing it for real,

339
00:23:11.200 --> 00:23:14.359
there was just a lot more.
You know, when you're in the in

340
00:23:14.400 --> 00:23:17.960
the desert and training area, there's
the target and and desert you know here

341
00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:21.640
where there's buildings or you know,
other other stuff going on or other parts

342
00:23:21.640 --> 00:23:25.599
of the fight going on. Uh. It's one of those things where the

343
00:23:25.599 --> 00:23:27.920
the training and be able to compartmentalize
and focus allows you to not be distracted

344
00:23:27.920 --> 00:23:33.200
by it by the other stuff.
Any particular days or moments or missions that

345
00:23:33.359 --> 00:23:38.079
that stay with you from your service
in the Iraq War. Certainly the the

346
00:23:38.200 --> 00:23:45.640
day that uh we rolled into Bagdad
after having been you know, pretty intense

347
00:23:45.960 --> 00:23:49.839
you know, every day all day
prior to that, and you know,

348
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knowing that uh the Marine Corps uh
half of the ao R we rolled through

349
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those all those Iraqi divisions and still
got the bag dead before the army did

350
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that. That uh was an enjoyable
moment. And then be able to fly

351
00:24:04.160 --> 00:24:08.240
over Bagdad without being shot at,
you know, that was s kind of

352
00:24:08.279 --> 00:24:15.519
surreal. One of the most memorable
times was there was I mean it was

353
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like the first week or so of
the war where we had an army group

354
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I forget the name Nazaria maybe where
they had a couple of them had been

355
00:24:26.519 --> 00:24:33.400
ambushed in and taken prisoner, and
we were t they were trying to uh

356
00:24:34.039 --> 00:24:37.759
uh take out the guys, take
out the group that had you know,

357
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taken them prisoner. And so normally
we always fly as a section, you

358
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know, two planes or or or
more together, you know, with that

359
00:24:45.319 --> 00:24:49.480
have eighteens for mutual support. And
so we had you know kind of a

360
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had planes that on alert in case
we found out where the group was a

361
00:24:53.839 --> 00:24:57.440
ad intel and more you know,
take'em out. And so that particular

362
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night, huge thunderstorms all over you
know, Kuwait and Ironraq, southern Iraq,

363
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and we get the call, hey, here's the coordinates they found that

364
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the bad guys would go or go
get them and drop you know, GPS

365
00:25:11.279 --> 00:25:18.799
guided weapons nine number two plane brakes. They say launch anyway. I mean,

366
00:25:18.839 --> 00:25:23.079
I've never heard anything where we are
launching single ship into a bad guy

367
00:25:23.119 --> 00:25:27.319
country, but it was that high
priority of emission. So we'd take off

368
00:25:29.160 --> 00:25:33.160
and or climbing out. The thunderstorms
are so bad, we're getting sand almost

369
00:25:33.200 --> 00:25:36.559
fire all over the airplane as the
the lightning's not striking it, but it's

370
00:25:36.839 --> 00:25:41.119
there's so much electricity in the the
clouds, seeing stuff light up, and

371
00:25:41.039 --> 00:25:45.839
it was just very intent. And
so we were getting set up literally to

372
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come back in to uh the pattern
to be able to drop drop the weapon.

373
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And as we're you know, maybe
ten fifteen seconds before hitting the pick

374
00:25:52.960 --> 00:25:57.880
a button to release it, they
call it off and so come on back

375
00:25:57.920 --> 00:26:00.759
having not dropped it. But have
I gotten through that to get there?

376
00:26:00.799 --> 00:26:04.920
And the decision process for them to
go you're launching solo into bad guy country

377
00:26:06.079 --> 00:26:10.960
was it was just pretty amazing and
something that you know, that's something we

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don't train to do. US Marine
Corps Colonel and NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik,

379
00:26:15.279 --> 00:26:22.519
when we come back shifting from the
Marine Corps to NASA and the family drama

380
00:26:22.559 --> 00:26:26.240
that played out while he was on
his first mission to space. That's next.

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I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans
Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles.

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I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Colonel Randy Bresnik, a

383
00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:44.559
US Marine Corps aviator who is now
a NASA astronaut. Even while serving in

384
00:26:44.599 --> 00:26:48.440
Iraq, Bresnik was also pursuing a
dream, one that would take him higher

385
00:26:48.440 --> 00:26:56.200
than he'd ever flown before becoming a
US astronaut. He tells us now how

386
00:26:56.279 --> 00:27:00.599
all of that came about and how
his first mission brought more drama than he

387
00:27:00.640 --> 00:27:07.039
could have imagined. So the actual
applicant announcement for applications came out while we

388
00:27:07.039 --> 00:27:11.440
were over there, and I filled
it out over there on the sandbox and

389
00:27:11.559 --> 00:27:18.480
sent it in and it was something
that you know, had certainly interested me

390
00:27:18.680 --> 00:27:23.319
and one of my Marine Corps at
eighteen buddies from all those deployments before becoming

391
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a test pilot. He got select
in two thousand. So it was like,

392
00:27:26.799 --> 00:27:30.359
wow, they take chunks, maybe
I've got a shot, you know.

393
00:27:32.359 --> 00:27:33.720
But it was one of those things
that it's just it so seemed so

394
00:27:33.759 --> 00:27:38.240
impossible. It doesn't seem really all
that realistic, you know, and so

395
00:27:38.279 --> 00:27:42.039
you put your application in. But
you know, I looked around and there's

396
00:27:42.079 --> 00:27:47.440
so many other test pilots are you
know, more experienced, more senior,

397
00:27:47.640 --> 00:27:51.400
you know, but you know,
you can't say, they can't tell,

398
00:27:51.440 --> 00:27:56.000
you know, if you don't apply. I was fortunate to get the opportunity

399
00:27:56.039 --> 00:28:00.599
to be asked down for a interview, which to me, you know,

400
00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:03.880
would have been was I was honored
enough. You know, they interviewed one

401
00:28:03.920 --> 00:28:07.119
hundred and twenty people for what ended
up being, you know, ten slots.

402
00:28:08.680 --> 00:28:15.680
But uh, after I got back
from Iraq in May, I ended

403
00:28:15.759 --> 00:28:19.480
up getting engaged that fourth of July, and so that was at that point

404
00:28:19.519 --> 00:28:25.039
where uh after my wife, uh
then soon to be wife, Rebecca said

405
00:28:25.119 --> 00:28:27.200
yes, I said, hey,
we're driving to a friend's house for for

406
00:28:27.240 --> 00:28:30.599
dinner. And I said, hey, I've gotta let you know now that

407
00:28:30.599 --> 00:28:33.160
we're engaged, that I I kind
of applied for this you know, this

408
00:28:33.279 --> 00:28:37.240
job. It'll never happened, but
just so you know, you have applied

409
00:28:37.279 --> 00:28:40.279
for this job down in Houston.
You're like, oh, that's nice,

410
00:28:40.319 --> 00:28:41.039
honey. You know you want me
an astronaut? Great, you know,

411
00:28:42.319 --> 00:28:45.519
and then uh, that fall got
the uh call to come down for the

412
00:28:45.559 --> 00:28:51.559
first first interview, and then uh
the rest is history. Did they ever

413
00:28:51.599 --> 00:28:53.960
tell you exactly what they're looking for? Yeah, good question, cause you

414
00:28:55.079 --> 00:28:57.480
never n you know, I think
every astronaut, no one knows why they

415
00:28:57.519 --> 00:29:00.680
got selected over over someone house.
You know, I know what we look

416
00:29:00.759 --> 00:29:03.480
for now, you know. We're
looking for people that obviously meet the basic

417
00:29:03.559 --> 00:29:11.319
qualifications as far as a science,
math, technology degree, heart sciences certain

418
00:29:11.519 --> 00:29:15.240
you know, for pilots, flying
experience, and being an expert in your

419
00:29:15.240 --> 00:29:18.680
field, whether it's a pilot or
an engineer, a geologist or anything like

420
00:29:18.720 --> 00:29:22.319
that. And then it's the intangibles
where you know, a lot of the

421
00:29:22.319 --> 00:29:26.599
military people we look kind of the
same on paper. You know, we've

422
00:29:26.640 --> 00:29:29.720
been here, we've deployed, we've
gone to this school, we wear similar

423
00:29:30.119 --> 00:29:36.960
ribbons. But what makes you different
and outside of just that cookie cutter mold

424
00:29:36.960 --> 00:29:40.720
that you've been in and so We've
had people that have climbed Mount Everest.

425
00:29:40.799 --> 00:29:44.519
We have people that are concert pianists. For me, you know, I've

426
00:29:44.880 --> 00:29:48.079
ridden motorcycles and worked on cars and
rebuilt an old house down a protection river

427
00:29:48.079 --> 00:29:53.200
from Maryland down down Solomon's Island,
and so those were things that were different.

428
00:29:53.720 --> 00:29:57.839
And it's amazing how much the working
on cars and fixing old houses applies

429
00:29:57.880 --> 00:30:03.279
to spaceflight, especially when you the
spacewalks, So that mechanical understanding and all

430
00:30:03.319 --> 00:30:07.079
that has been really helpful to me. But they also do an interview where

431
00:30:07.119 --> 00:30:11.160
you come down and you've got Chief
of the Astronaut and Office, a couple

432
00:30:11.160 --> 00:30:14.960
of astronauts, some HR folks,
people from the Johnson Space Center, and

433
00:30:15.079 --> 00:30:19.200
people from engineering that are sitting on
a board and you've got one hour where

434
00:30:19.200 --> 00:30:23.000
they interview you and you know,
make the termination what type of person you

435
00:30:23.039 --> 00:30:27.359
are versus what you look like on
paper and so all these there's a wide

436
00:30:27.440 --> 00:30:30.720
variety of people within NASA that are
at the board because you're not just coming

437
00:30:30.759 --> 00:30:33.680
into be an astronaut. You're coming
in to be you know, the face

438
00:30:33.720 --> 00:30:37.680
of NASA. I represent NASA.
You're there to work and with the engineering

439
00:30:37.680 --> 00:30:41.799
teams, you're there to work with
the public affairs teams and all that,

440
00:30:41.880 --> 00:30:45.079
and so they want to have an
understanding of what type of person you are,

441
00:30:45.119 --> 00:30:48.920
because flying in space is you know, this much of your time as

442
00:30:48.920 --> 00:30:51.960
an astronaut. The rest of the
time you're doing you know, training,

443
00:30:52.000 --> 00:30:55.440
you're doing development of new space vehicles, You're doing the work that needs to

444
00:30:55.480 --> 00:30:57.240
be done for the people that are
on orbit at that time, whether it's

445
00:30:57.279 --> 00:31:02.799
capcom and so one of those things
where they want to make sure they have

446
00:31:02.839 --> 00:31:07.119
a well rounded person who's not there
just for themselves. Character, team player,

447
00:31:07.720 --> 00:31:12.079
those sorts of things. Now,
the Iraq War was two thousand and

448
00:31:12.079 --> 00:31:15.240
three. Of course, the beginning
of it, the beginning of two thousand

449
00:31:15.279 --> 00:31:21.559
and three is the Columbia disaster.
How would you describe what NASA was like

450
00:31:21.759 --> 00:31:25.799
just a few months after that disaster? I still remember exactly. It was

451
00:31:26.119 --> 00:31:32.839
during Challenger and so I had actually
we were on our way to Iraq.

452
00:31:33.839 --> 00:31:37.480
We left the Marine Corrais Station Beaufort
with the whole Marine Air Group, and

453
00:31:37.480 --> 00:31:40.480
then we had one of the airplanes
have a problem. So actually three of

454
00:31:40.480 --> 00:31:48.200
our airplanes diverted into nas Brunswick up
in Maine, and we landed there I

455
00:31:48.319 --> 00:31:52.279
parked the airplane outside base ops.
I walk inside and I see the TV

456
00:31:52.480 --> 00:31:57.440
with these you know, cascading flaming
pieces of wreckage. I thought, oh,

457
00:31:57.599 --> 00:32:01.839
it must be like the anniversary of
Challenger. And so you take a

458
00:32:01.880 --> 00:32:05.440
flight year off, set down,
and you know, we're getting set cause

459
00:32:05.440 --> 00:32:07.200
we had not planned to go there, but we had to divert and talk

460
00:32:07.200 --> 00:32:13.400
to the guys and back and see
still seeing footage's found out. It was

461
00:32:13.400 --> 00:32:16.640
Columbia and so Challenger, I was, you know, a college student.

462
00:32:16.640 --> 00:32:21.039
I didn't you know, know anyone, but now I there were people I

463
00:32:21.079 --> 00:32:24.039
know that got selected in two thousand
and they were there, and so it

464
00:32:24.119 --> 00:32:30.200
was a lot more real to me. And so then you know, we

465
00:32:30.240 --> 00:32:34.319
then fixed the plane head over,
you know a couple days later, and

466
00:32:34.319 --> 00:32:37.400
then get over to the war,
come back and apply and and then when

467
00:32:37.400 --> 00:32:40.640
we uh, you know, it
was August of two thousand and four where

468
00:32:40.640 --> 00:32:46.319
we actually started at NASA, and
uh, my first day working for NASA

469
00:32:47.000 --> 00:32:52.119
was uh in late July where I
came to DC because they were having the

470
00:32:52.279 --> 00:32:58.559
UH thirty fifth anniversary of Apollo eleven, and so uh there were three of

471
00:32:58.640 --> 00:33:02.079
us UH Army pilots kimbro and Jim
Dutton air Force pilot, where the three

472
00:33:02.119 --> 00:33:07.480
of us were part of this new
class and we were the dubbed the Exploration

473
00:33:07.599 --> 00:33:13.799
Class first Exploration Class, and so
we were called it to DC because they're

474
00:33:13.839 --> 00:33:17.119
having the big anniversary at the Air
and Space Museum. And so I walk

475
00:33:17.240 --> 00:33:20.920
up to the hotel, I meet
my two classmates for the first time,

476
00:33:21.680 --> 00:33:24.240
and right inside the door is I
lean Collins in the sets one fourteen returned

477
00:33:24.240 --> 00:33:29.599
to flight Crew and so here I
am, I, you know, not

478
00:33:29.720 --> 00:33:31.119
started at NASA. I'm looking the
return to flight crew. Wow, you

479
00:33:31.160 --> 00:33:35.559
know, I'm amazed, and I
leaned, Hey, comrade, come on

480
00:33:35.599 --> 00:33:37.960
over. You know, I want
to introduce you to my crew. And

481
00:33:37.359 --> 00:33:39.519
okay, I know you have your
first st at NASA. We're gonna have

482
00:33:39.519 --> 00:33:43.160
Wendy Lawrence, you know, walk
you through and watch over you as you

483
00:33:43.200 --> 00:33:47.880
do the interviews and help out.
And immediately just felt like family. And

484
00:33:47.920 --> 00:33:53.000
that was pretty pretty good start.
And so then we get changed. We

485
00:33:53.039 --> 00:33:55.319
go to the Air and Space Museum. We're down the green room and I

486
00:33:55.359 --> 00:34:01.359
walk in and there's Jean certain and
Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong and Dallan Bean

487
00:34:01.519 --> 00:34:06.559
and Jack Schmidt, and I'm sitting
there going I'm talking to them, and

488
00:34:07.599 --> 00:34:08.519
you know, here's my first chance
to talk to people who have been to

489
00:34:08.599 --> 00:34:12.079
the moon. You know, something
I've just you know, it's always,

490
00:34:12.199 --> 00:34:16.239
you know, been such a guiding
interest of mine and just a source of

491
00:34:16.280 --> 00:34:21.679
amazement. And they were just as
insant to talk to me fresh out of

492
00:34:21.719 --> 00:34:23.480
the fleet and the war and what's
going on with the F eighteen and how

493
00:34:23.519 --> 00:34:27.960
we do as I was to talk
to them about their experiences, and so

494
00:34:28.039 --> 00:34:32.239
that again was just something that showed
me what a neat place NASA was and

495
00:34:32.320 --> 00:34:36.559
what the opportunity to become, you
know, one of our nation's astronauts was,

496
00:34:37.199 --> 00:34:42.440
but also the opportunity to see the
mantle with which they carried you know,

497
00:34:42.519 --> 00:34:45.840
all these years, and how I
had some pretty big shoes to fill.

498
00:34:45.440 --> 00:34:49.639
You mentioned Eileen Collins calling you by
your call sign, comrade. How'd

499
00:34:49.679 --> 00:34:52.360
you get that? So typically,
you know, people get call signs in

500
00:34:52.400 --> 00:34:57.159
the fighter community, doesn't matter what
service for, either something to do with

501
00:34:57.199 --> 00:35:00.960
your name or because you've done something
stupid. And so once we can stay

502
00:35:00.960 --> 00:35:05.559
in public. You know, a
guy who was on the catapult and had

503
00:35:05.559 --> 00:35:08.599
his forgot to take his feet off
the brakes and so the catapult takes off

504
00:35:08.639 --> 00:35:12.519
and then obviously when you go from
zero to about one hundred and you know,

505
00:35:12.559 --> 00:35:16.480
forty knots in two seconds, breaks
aren't going to holt. And he

506
00:35:16.559 --> 00:35:20.960
knew schedule tires and so he blew
both tires immediately, you know, the

507
00:35:21.000 --> 00:35:22.599
cat shot. So I got the
call sign bam bam. You know.

508
00:35:22.639 --> 00:35:28.000
So that's the way cal signs go. Well for me, I had not

509
00:35:28.039 --> 00:35:30.719
done anything stupid that far in flight
school, so I tried got winged.

510
00:35:30.719 --> 00:35:34.639
I went to Jacksonville and heyes,
Jacksonville for the F eighteen training Squadron,

511
00:35:35.079 --> 00:35:37.920
and my very first flight in the
FA team was with a Marine Corps captain.

512
00:35:37.719 --> 00:35:40.880
The call sign was Yoda and he'said, well, what's your call sign?

513
00:35:40.960 --> 00:35:43.920
I said, I don't have one. You know, they tried this,

514
00:35:44.039 --> 00:35:45.960
they tried that, and he's like, ah, those all stand all

515
00:35:45.079 --> 00:35:49.000
by time we land, I'll think
of something. So we go flying for

516
00:35:49.119 --> 00:35:52.239
the end the FA teams playing.
I dreamed about, you know, flying

517
00:35:52.280 --> 00:35:55.239
in my first flight, and it
was just awesome. One quick sidebar is

518
00:35:55.679 --> 00:36:00.159
you know the whole time I'd flown
airplanes, the you know, the T

519
00:36:00.239 --> 00:36:02.199
thirty four the T two, the
A four, none of them had a

520
00:36:02.280 --> 00:36:05.800
hut. So I'm playing an instruments
down here and everything. So we're in

521
00:36:05.800 --> 00:36:07.360
the landing pattern in the fat and
on my first flight, I had this

522
00:36:07.480 --> 00:36:12.400
hut up there and I was kind
of all over the place, and He's

523
00:36:12.440 --> 00:36:15.320
like, hey, turn the hut
off, turn it off. Rock solid.

524
00:36:15.360 --> 00:36:19.840
It was just interesting how after allthough
I training so far, the hud

525
00:36:19.880 --> 00:36:22.079
was a distraction, you know,
when you first start flying with it,

526
00:36:22.400 --> 00:36:24.400
and then you know, certain the
rest of my time in the Fateen training

527
00:36:24.400 --> 00:36:28.039
squad of learned how to use it, become then you know, rock solid

528
00:36:28.079 --> 00:36:30.880
on the hut. But anyway,
we get back in the debrief and Yoda

529
00:36:30.880 --> 00:36:36.400
go's Bresnik. That sounds like bridge
nev. We're gonna call you, comrade.

530
00:36:37.880 --> 00:36:40.679
And so in the now thirty one
years since I haven't done something stupid

531
00:36:40.719 --> 00:36:45.400
to get a new one. I
love that. I love that. But

532
00:36:45.480 --> 00:36:47.840
you can imagine, you know,
I'm on my first space flight, get

533
00:36:47.920 --> 00:36:52.480
up there, docked with space for
Atlantis to the space station, crossed the

534
00:36:52.480 --> 00:36:55.159
hatch and meeting the space station crew
that's up there, hugs all around like

535
00:36:55.320 --> 00:36:59.199
long lost family. One one was
an su twenty seven. POT one was

536
00:36:59.199 --> 00:37:02.280
a big twenty nine pot. I
never met the guys before, and my

537
00:37:02.360 --> 00:37:06.320
whole training in the Marine Corps and
top gun area everything else that taught me

538
00:37:06.400 --> 00:37:08.280
to you know, those those guys
are the enemy. And here I am

539
00:37:08.639 --> 00:37:14.039
lower thor Abit turned fifty miles up, going seventeen thousand miles an hour getting

540
00:37:14.079 --> 00:37:16.119
greeted, you know with these you
know, Russian pilots like I was,

541
00:37:16.280 --> 00:37:20.360
you know, a long lost cousin
and just kind of goes to show that

542
00:37:20.480 --> 00:37:22.800
human beings. When were you know, of the same mind on the same

543
00:37:22.840 --> 00:37:28.039
mission. It all that stuff doesn't
matter. Didn't expect to have a good

544
00:37:28.039 --> 00:37:30.199
feeling with a bunch of Russians calling
you comrade when you first joined the service,

545
00:37:30.280 --> 00:37:32.159
right, yeah, it's and so
you know, here my call,

546
00:37:32.360 --> 00:37:36.119
my shuttle crews going hey, comrade, the Russian guys like you know.

547
00:37:37.760 --> 00:37:40.679
So you were assigned to STS one
twenty nine. Tell me what the goal

548
00:37:40.760 --> 00:37:46.760
of the mission was and how you
prepared for it. So it was end

549
00:37:46.760 --> 00:37:50.280
of the summer two thousand and eight
when I hit the call from the chief

550
00:37:50.280 --> 00:37:52.280
of the Ashlant office saying, hey, comrade, I've got a spacelight for

551
00:37:52.320 --> 00:37:58.519
you. And it's like, Wow, that's what I've been waiting for.

552
00:37:58.559 --> 00:38:00.719
You know, it's two thousand and
eight. We'd been in Hasse four years

553
00:38:01.360 --> 00:38:08.679
and so when uh, we as
you talked about earlier, got hired right

554
00:38:08.679 --> 00:38:10.800
after Columbia accident, and there were
folks that thought, oh fh, you

555
00:38:10.800 --> 00:38:14.119
guys will never fly on shuttle.
You know, there's just too many people

556
00:38:14.119 --> 00:38:15.840
who haven't flown yet. And here
we are, our classes getting asigned,

557
00:38:15.880 --> 00:38:20.559
you know, with him, four
four years after being there, and so

558
00:38:20.880 --> 00:38:23.519
uh but within twenty four hours of
that, my wife and I get the

559
00:38:23.519 --> 00:38:28.440
phone call saying, hey, your
application to uh come adopt in Ukraine has

560
00:38:28.480 --> 00:38:31.320
been approved. You need to be
here in thirty days. So I have

561
00:38:31.400 --> 00:38:34.960
to go to the Chief of the
office say a, Sir, I appreciate

562
00:38:34.960 --> 00:38:37.840
the fly assignment and I'd still love
to do it, but we just got

563
00:38:37.920 --> 00:38:43.440
this call to go, you know, do it international adoption and can I

564
00:38:43.480 --> 00:38:47.000
go do it? And uh Fortunately
chief of the office was a member of

565
00:38:47.039 --> 00:38:49.920
the same church we go to.
He said, look, if you're back

566
00:38:49.920 --> 00:38:53.000
by Christmas, we're good. So
my wife and I I had about four

567
00:38:53.039 --> 00:38:58.000
weeks of tense training. Some of
my qualifications and training done and then we

568
00:38:58.119 --> 00:39:04.159
left on I think about Halloween,
and we're over in Ukraine for forty days

569
00:39:04.199 --> 00:39:07.159
and forty nights and adopted our son, who was two years nine months at

570
00:39:07.199 --> 00:39:12.440
the time. We get back early
December, right into training. Come January,

571
00:39:12.800 --> 00:39:16.559
my wife, who's was leading international
offer now so Johnson's spaceset at the

572
00:39:16.599 --> 00:39:20.639
time, goes over to Japan for
a trip. She comes back up feeling

573
00:39:20.679 --> 00:39:27.039
well and turns out she's pregnant with
our daughter. And so back in January

574
00:39:27.039 --> 00:39:29.480
after the holidays, I'd said to
her, Hey, look, I am

575
00:39:29.599 --> 00:39:34.039
way behind on training for this flight. Really need you to help pick up

576
00:39:34.079 --> 00:39:36.039
the slack and you know, take
care of our son Wyat, because i'd

577
00:39:36.039 --> 00:39:38.199
better, you know, get caught
up for getting ready for the space Light

578
00:39:38.199 --> 00:39:42.119
at the end of the year.
So she gets she's pregnant, and by

579
00:39:42.360 --> 00:39:46.320
February she's like, hey, I'm
delivering this baby and you know another seven

580
00:39:46.320 --> 00:39:49.480
months. I need you to pick
up the slack with our son Wyat and

581
00:39:49.639 --> 00:39:52.880
take care of him because I'm going
to deliver this baby. So tables turned,

582
00:39:52.880 --> 00:39:55.360
and so we went through being new
parents to our you know, two

583
00:39:55.440 --> 00:39:59.920
year old and now then three year
old, my wife being pregnant and training

584
00:40:00.079 --> 00:40:04.280
for my first base flight at the
same time. It was a busy time

585
00:40:04.320 --> 00:40:07.519
and you know, I never got
good sleep until I went into quarantine before

586
00:40:07.559 --> 00:40:09.760
the flight. But you know,
originally our daughter was supposed to be born

587
00:40:09.960 --> 00:40:15.599
after the flight. That was that
was all good, and then the doctors

588
00:40:15.639 --> 00:40:20.800
said, hey, we need to
induce and have you deliver early. So

589
00:40:20.840 --> 00:40:23.760
that kind of muddied the waters.
And then something happened with the launch window

590
00:40:23.760 --> 00:40:28.639
when actually slid to where the flight
was right over where my daughter was supposed

591
00:40:28.639 --> 00:40:34.400
to be, you know, deliver. And so go out there and go

592
00:40:34.480 --> 00:40:37.280
to the the H. Kennedy Space
Center for all the preparations for launch,

593
00:40:37.320 --> 00:40:42.280
and we're out there touring the launch
pad with you know, landis in the

594
00:40:42.400 --> 00:40:49.000
vertical and all our spouses and my
wife nine months pregnant, and it was

595
00:40:49.079 --> 00:40:51.760
just kind of God gave us a
piece that Okay, well, if he

596
00:40:51.840 --> 00:40:53.760
launches, then you know that you're
not going to be there for the birth

597
00:40:53.800 --> 00:41:01.400
of your daughter. And so we
launched on the sixteenth of November. My

598
00:41:01.440 --> 00:41:05.280
wife's sitting there with our son,
you know, a few miles away at

599
00:41:05.320 --> 00:41:08.679
Banana Creek, watching and she knows
that if there's about six seconds from when

600
00:41:08.719 --> 00:41:12.639
the Shuttle Maine engines lide off,
and we check them out and throttle them

601
00:41:12.679 --> 00:41:15.239
up to make sure that they're good
before we light the solids. Because you

602
00:41:15.239 --> 00:41:16.599
can turn off the shuttle main engine, you can't turn off the solids.

603
00:41:17.079 --> 00:41:21.760
And she when so solids lit,
She's like, Okay, I'm on my

604
00:41:21.840 --> 00:41:25.320
own. And so I launching the
space for my first mission, knowing that

605
00:41:25.360 --> 00:41:29.519
I'm leaving her behind. So people
a lot of times go, hey,

606
00:41:29.519 --> 00:41:31.960
well you're scared or anything on that
launch, I'm like, no, number

607
00:41:32.000 --> 00:41:35.639
one, people don't. We was
shooting at US number two. You know,

608
00:41:35.760 --> 00:41:38.840
the six million parts between the tanks
and the rocket engines and the shuttle,

609
00:41:38.880 --> 00:41:43.039
all that that were working in a
concert had been put together by people

610
00:41:43.079 --> 00:41:45.159
that were doing the absolute best that
they could for our space program, and

611
00:41:45.199 --> 00:41:49.920
they had done it successfully so many
times before. I didn't have a concern

612
00:41:49.960 --> 00:41:52.559
about that. I was concerned that
here is my wife, you know,

613
00:41:53.039 --> 00:41:57.480
gonna you know, I have to
go back to Houston deliver our daughter without

614
00:41:57.519 --> 00:42:01.199
me there to support her. But
like any good soldier, marine, or

615
00:42:01.280 --> 00:42:06.480
sailor or airman, you compartmentalize,
and so here I am, you know,

616
00:42:06.559 --> 00:42:09.719
doing the mission, and on day
three we dock to the space station.

617
00:42:09.840 --> 00:42:14.159
Day four, Bobby Satcher and Mike
Foreman, we're heading out the door

618
00:42:14.199 --> 00:42:17.920
for our first spacewalk because we we're
going up there to finish the construction of

619
00:42:17.960 --> 00:42:22.880
this of the space station. And
we brought up to especiallygistics carriers with a

620
00:42:22.920 --> 00:42:25.440
lot of pieces of equipment that we
were going to attach onto the space station

621
00:42:25.519 --> 00:42:29.519
so they'd have storage and stuff that
we were going to actually install in our

622
00:42:29.559 --> 00:42:34.519
spacewalks. And I'm inside, I'm
the choreographer what we call the IV for

623
00:42:34.599 --> 00:42:37.760
the EVY extra vehicular crew members,
you know, running them through the paces

624
00:42:37.800 --> 00:42:42.280
because you know, we trained for
these spacewalks. The next day, my

625
00:42:42.599 --> 00:42:45.679
h they were supposed to introduce my
wife live our daughter, and then the

626
00:42:45.719 --> 00:42:47.840
next day I was supposed to go
up for my first spacewalk. So they

627
00:42:47.840 --> 00:42:54.559
induce Rebecca and our daughter did not
come, and so I go to sleep

628
00:42:54.599 --> 00:43:00.320
that night for my first spacewalk with
my wife and labor wake up the next

629
00:43:00.320 --> 00:43:02.559
morning and expecting me to hear that
my daughter had been born and put on

630
00:43:02.599 --> 00:43:05.960
my spacewalk, had can go off
for my first space walk. She's still

631
00:43:06.000 --> 00:43:08.719
in labor. So that it was
once we started doing the prep for and

632
00:43:08.760 --> 00:43:12.679
started getting into the space suits,
it was that at that point there was

633
00:43:12.800 --> 00:43:15.119
you know, everything had to be
spacewalk only. So whatever happened, I

634
00:43:15.119 --> 00:43:20.719
wouldn't hear about till after we got
out of the spacewalk and uh get sued

635
00:43:20.800 --> 00:43:22.880
up, go do my first space
walk, you know, and uh come

636
00:43:22.920 --> 00:43:28.280
back in after it was about six
half hours expecting once we repressurized and they

637
00:43:28.320 --> 00:43:30.400
opened the hatch and came back and
put my helmet, I'll say, hey,

638
00:43:30.440 --> 00:43:34.639
congrats, you're your father again.
And she's still in labor. To

639
00:43:34.719 --> 00:43:39.559
that point, I know I'm in
trouble. Okay, I missed the birth.

640
00:43:39.599 --> 00:43:42.440
And oh, by the way,
she's been in a labor for you

641
00:43:42.440 --> 00:43:45.840
know, day and a half.
And uh so we finish up, eat

642
00:43:45.840 --> 00:43:49.800
dinner, go to sleep. That
night. I woke up the middle of

643
00:43:49.840 --> 00:43:52.880
the night to use the facilities,
and when we had a a satellite pass,

644
00:43:52.920 --> 00:43:58.039
I called down to her cell phone
and her sister picks up cell phone

645
00:43:58.079 --> 00:44:01.360
and my wife's still in labor,
and so she kind of set the phone

646
00:44:01.400 --> 00:44:05.199
down on the table next to the
delivery room. I heard the sights and

647
00:44:05.239 --> 00:44:09.079
sounds of the delivery room about three
in the morning, my time for the

648
00:44:09.119 --> 00:44:14.159
rest of the satellite pass and then
Sally passed, you know, ended lost

649
00:44:14.320 --> 00:44:16.320
the phone call. I went back
to sleep, and then the next morning

650
00:44:17.280 --> 00:44:22.239
over the radio from Houston, they
played Butterfly Kisses by Bob Carlyle, and

651
00:44:22.280 --> 00:44:28.960
that was the signal that our daughter
been born. So that was kind of

652
00:44:28.960 --> 00:44:31.880
special. So later that day I
finally get pictures sent up, get to

653
00:44:31.880 --> 00:44:35.320
see her for the first time.
I got a video conference with my wife

654
00:44:37.239 --> 00:44:39.599
to see her, talk to her
here and see my daughter for the first

655
00:44:39.599 --> 00:44:44.239
time. And as I'm finishing that
up, I'm in the Japanese module and

656
00:44:44.440 --> 00:44:50.719
in No. Two over here outside
the hatch was my commander going finish it

657
00:44:50.840 --> 00:44:53.679
literally float down from Japanese module down
the US segment into the airlock, closed

658
00:44:53.719 --> 00:44:58.000
the hatch. Bobby satur and I
depressed the air lockdown to ten point two

659
00:44:58.000 --> 00:45:00.800
PSI to get it so we can
called campouts. Were circing nitrogen out of

660
00:45:00.800 --> 00:45:06.199
our bodies for our spacewalk. The
next day, US Marine Corps Colonel and

661
00:45:06.320 --> 00:45:10.679
NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, when we
come back, returning his focus to the

662
00:45:10.719 --> 00:45:16.880
space mission and Bresnik takes us along
on a spacewalk to describe that amazing experience

663
00:45:16.960 --> 00:45:24.280
in detail. I'm Greg Corumbus and
this is Veterans Chronicles. This is Veterans

664
00:45:24.360 --> 00:45:30.800
Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our
guest in this edition is Colonel Randy Bresnik,

665
00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:36.840
a US Marine Corps aviator who is
now a NASA astronaut. Following the

666
00:45:36.880 --> 00:45:42.320
dramatic birth of his daughter many miles
below him. Bresnik quickly had to focus

667
00:45:42.320 --> 00:45:47.440
on the mission at hand and what
was required for a successful spacewalk. It

668
00:45:47.559 --> 00:45:54.880
certainly it is the most physically and
madly demanding aspect of spaceflight because you're wearing

669
00:45:54.920 --> 00:45:59.800
what is a three hundred pound suit, obviously your own space. You're floating

670
00:45:59.800 --> 00:46:02.880
but has mass, so you kind
of know, like when you're floating in

671
00:46:02.880 --> 00:46:07.599
the water. You know, if
you have a canoe, you know,

672
00:46:07.639 --> 00:46:09.280
you can pull a canoe along and
it has a certain amount of mass weight,

673
00:46:09.320 --> 00:46:12.679
but it's floating as well. But
if you're trying to pull an eighteen

674
00:46:12.719 --> 00:46:15.679
foot you know, ski boat a
little different. It still floats, but

675
00:46:15.880 --> 00:46:17.760
it you know, takes more energy
to get it moving and more energy to

676
00:46:17.800 --> 00:46:22.239
make it stop. So you're in
your own personal spacecraft. In the spacesuit,

677
00:46:22.679 --> 00:46:24.440
you have everything tethered to you because
if you let go, it's gonna

678
00:46:24.679 --> 00:46:29.760
float off as well as yourself.
So we have safety tethers that are attached

679
00:46:29.760 --> 00:46:31.880
to the space station all times.
We have one that's safety toether. It's

680
00:46:31.920 --> 00:46:36.159
about eighty five foot long cable that's
on a reel that you know, my

681
00:46:36.159 --> 00:46:39.079
reels in and out, and then
we have other shorter tethers so when you

682
00:46:39.119 --> 00:46:42.840
get to a work site, you
can put down in the tethers and let

683
00:46:42.840 --> 00:46:45.519
go and not float off, and
you can sit there and do work with

684
00:46:45.559 --> 00:46:49.320
both hands. And so that's certainly
the safety aspect of it. But when

685
00:46:49.320 --> 00:46:52.400
you're coming out of that air lock
for the first time, and it's the

686
00:46:52.440 --> 00:46:58.320
airlocks on the bottom of the space
station and you look out. Fortunately for

687
00:46:58.400 --> 00:47:00.480
me on our first spacewalk was it
was night time and so it's just dark,

688
00:47:00.519 --> 00:47:04.719
and so if to me, it's
like training in a neutral buoyancy lab,

689
00:47:04.840 --> 00:47:07.880
the big swimming pool that we have
down at the Johnson Space Center.

690
00:47:08.639 --> 00:47:12.840
We have a whole space station underwater
that we train on so that it's trained

691
00:47:12.880 --> 00:47:15.239
like you fight, you know,
same thing with NASA and every piece of

692
00:47:15.239 --> 00:47:19.800
equipment, every handrail, every cable, everything's like it is on a spacewalk.

693
00:47:19.840 --> 00:47:22.199
It's just here underwater and looking at
a concrete you know, twenty feet

694
00:47:22.239 --> 00:47:27.320
below you instead of Earth two hundred
and fifty miles below you. And so

695
00:47:27.760 --> 00:47:30.639
first blacewalk come out, it's dark. I'm supposed to go over to the

696
00:47:30.639 --> 00:47:34.480
back of the payload bay of the
Space Shuttle to get some equipment and things

697
00:47:34.480 --> 00:47:37.199
and go out install it on the
Columbus module. And it wasn't until I

698
00:47:37.239 --> 00:47:40.239
left the shuttle payload ban was coming
over top of the Columbus module when the

699
00:47:40.239 --> 00:47:45.639
sun came up. And so now
for the first time outside I am seeing

700
00:47:45.400 --> 00:47:50.280
the Earth. And they said I
said something like, oh Lord, what

701
00:47:50.360 --> 00:47:52.239
a heavenly sight, because you know, all of a sudden, now I'm

702
00:47:52.280 --> 00:47:55.480
holding on a little tighter because I
realized that two hundred and fifty miles up

703
00:47:55.599 --> 00:47:59.800
going seventeen thousand, five hundred miles
an hour, and I've got it.

704
00:47:59.800 --> 00:48:02.519
Now go you know, this Columbus
module. There's Japanese module, the US

705
00:48:02.599 --> 00:48:06.760
segment and the Columbus module over here, and I've got to go out on

706
00:48:06.760 --> 00:48:09.199
the very end and attach this antenna
on the very bottom of it. So

707
00:48:09.280 --> 00:48:13.320
imagine you get cars flying and you're
attaching something to the very bottom of the

708
00:48:13.400 --> 00:48:16.559
right front wheel, and so I'm
hanging out there and there's just nothing underneath

709
00:48:16.599 --> 00:48:20.880
me anymore. And I'd been in
space for you know, I think five

710
00:48:20.960 --> 00:48:23.880
days or so at that point.
But you're inside, be on the inside

711
00:48:23.880 --> 00:48:25.639
of an airplane. You know,
you can look out the window and go,

712
00:48:25.719 --> 00:48:28.800
yeah, I'm high up, but
you still have this in case in

713
00:48:28.920 --> 00:48:31.679
the safety of the fuselage. Well, same thing inside me. We had

714
00:48:31.679 --> 00:48:37.039
windows. I was looking outside and
see it everything. But until you're outside

715
00:48:37.199 --> 00:48:40.840
and you look down, there's nothing
between your boots, you know, between

716
00:48:40.920 --> 00:48:45.679
you and the earth except for your
boots. That's a whole different feeling.

717
00:48:45.280 --> 00:48:50.800
And so you can imagine if you'll
say we all went up to the top

718
00:48:50.840 --> 00:48:54.639
of the Washington Monument and went over
and put our toes on the edge and

719
00:48:54.719 --> 00:48:59.719
all leaned over, you can imagine
that physical sensation that you'd have, you

720
00:48:59.760 --> 00:49:01.480
know, your body seeing backup.
You know, Grandma is something to say.

721
00:49:01.800 --> 00:49:05.480
Imagine that times ten thousand. When
you're out there, you know,

722
00:49:05.639 --> 00:49:09.079
where there's nothing around you and you
just have turned in front feed you,

723
00:49:09.199 --> 00:49:13.559
I mean, your natural instant,
your whole life, your whole body has

724
00:49:13.639 --> 00:49:15.480
taught you if I let go,
I'm going to fall. And so that

725
00:49:15.639 --> 00:49:22.039
causes people to really grab onto things
really tightly and waste a lot of energy.

726
00:49:22.119 --> 00:49:25.960
And so fortunately we've had some really
good instructors and astronauts that have been

727
00:49:27.000 --> 00:49:30.360
there before, and Rex Walheim was
the one that passed on to me.

728
00:49:30.639 --> 00:49:34.920
And when you get outside the first
time, put your waistethers on and push

729
00:49:34.960 --> 00:49:39.239
off, it's like really, He's
like yeah, And sure enough, you

730
00:49:39.280 --> 00:49:44.679
put your waist tethers down and they
give you about three feet of tether.

731
00:49:45.199 --> 00:49:47.480
You push off, and you realize, oh, I'm floating at the same

732
00:49:47.880 --> 00:49:52.719
space and rate that the space station
is, so nothing's changed there, even

733
00:49:52.760 --> 00:49:54.280
though it was inside is flowing.
I'm outside and floating. I'm not falling.

734
00:49:55.119 --> 00:49:59.079
You know, you get away from
the station, the teathers reach their

735
00:49:59.280 --> 00:50:00.559
end, they kind of pull you
back in. Then they pull you back

736
00:50:00.559 --> 00:50:04.880
in towards structure and you realize,
okay, my teather's work. I'm out

737
00:50:04.920 --> 00:50:07.320
here. I'm just fine. I'm
not following, And that instantly just totally

738
00:50:07.360 --> 00:50:13.039
relaxed physically, and so now I'm
back to moving around, which is fingertip

739
00:50:13.039 --> 00:50:15.480
pressure on these things, you know, moving around and saving all my energy

740
00:50:15.480 --> 00:50:19.079
for the work that I had to
do. And it made it really work

741
00:50:19.119 --> 00:50:22.360
out really well, just that one
thing. And so you can imagine,

742
00:50:22.639 --> 00:50:24.920
you know, the veterans when they, you know, the combat veterans,

743
00:50:24.960 --> 00:50:28.519
are able to pass on to those
people who are going into combat for the

744
00:50:28.519 --> 00:50:30.760
first time, those little things and
the ways to calm down. Here's how

745
00:50:30.800 --> 00:50:35.239
you hold your you know, just
all the little things that allowed them and

746
00:50:35.519 --> 00:50:40.119
their compatriots from previous experiences to stay
safe and be most effective. You know,

747
00:50:40.199 --> 00:50:44.559
that stuff you know still works in
space flight too. You later and

748
00:50:44.639 --> 00:50:47.719
more recently went back to the space
station on a soilu's craft. How different

749
00:50:47.800 --> 00:50:52.199
was that experience? So space shuttled. You know, we had a flight

750
00:50:52.280 --> 00:50:54.760
deck with four seats and we had
windows in the back of robotox workstation.

751
00:50:54.920 --> 00:50:58.800
Down we had mid deck. We
had lockers and room to sleep, and

752
00:50:58.920 --> 00:51:00.320
two people down there on the way
up and three on the way back.

753
00:51:00.360 --> 00:51:04.280
It was a Cadillac. It was
like you know the airport limo. It

754
00:51:04.360 --> 00:51:10.599
was awesome. So you use a
little smaller and it's the same basic design.

755
00:51:10.639 --> 00:51:13.960
The Russian has been used, you
know, since you know, the

756
00:51:14.000 --> 00:51:15.400
original days of their space porker,
and they just continue to upgrade it and

757
00:51:15.800 --> 00:51:22.559
improve it. But it is imagining, you know. I think a lot

758
00:51:22.599 --> 00:51:24.320
of folks will understand, you know
what folks I can Beetle is right,

759
00:51:24.360 --> 00:51:30.480
you know. Small imagine're putting three
grown adults in spacesuits in the front seat

760
00:51:30.559 --> 00:51:37.760
of a Folkswagen Beetle. You are
in your little bed that is kind of

761
00:51:37.800 --> 00:51:42.960
a seat back that's molded to you
to fit you, and you have three

762
00:51:43.000 --> 00:51:45.599
of them lined up right next to
each other. You're basically touching elbows to

763
00:51:45.639 --> 00:51:49.079
the person next year. You kind
of lined up like pieces of pie where

764
00:51:49.079 --> 00:51:51.679
the heads are on the outer shell
and the feed all go towards the center

765
00:51:51.679 --> 00:51:54.840
of the vehicle, and so you're
you're you're in a heel cup that's at

766
00:51:54.840 --> 00:51:59.280
the bottom of the seat, so
your heels are right here, and so

767
00:51:59.320 --> 00:52:01.800
your neees are always bent and compressed
so that you have these straps that hold

768
00:52:01.800 --> 00:52:06.280
them together so they don't flail around. And your legs are touching the legs

769
00:52:06.280 --> 00:52:07.320
and they got it next to you
and touching the legs they got next to

770
00:52:07.320 --> 00:52:14.000
you. So that the smallness is
certainly a big change. The fact that

771
00:52:14.159 --> 00:52:16.679
everything's in Russian is a big change. The fact that all the radio calls

772
00:52:16.679 --> 00:52:21.800
are in Russian and you're you know, reading off the procedures and technical in

773
00:52:21.880 --> 00:52:25.159
Russian is it is a challenge.
But as far as the ride goes,

774
00:52:27.599 --> 00:52:32.559
we call it economy minus and and
it's one of those things where you'd never

775
00:52:32.639 --> 00:52:37.320
complain about seeing at the back of
the plane any anymore, no matter how

776
00:52:37.360 --> 00:52:38.920
small the plane, because at least
you can, you know, do this

777
00:52:39.039 --> 00:52:42.800
and move your legs instead of being
strapped in with your your knees, you

778
00:52:42.800 --> 00:52:45.679
know, pretty much almost in your
in your chin as you're you're flying up

779
00:52:45.719 --> 00:52:50.679
yelling. So that's why you see
astronauts and cosmonauts so excited and happy the

780
00:52:50.760 --> 00:52:52.079
day they launch, you, you
know, isn't the fact they're launching.

781
00:52:52.119 --> 00:52:55.880
It's that I get strapped in that
seat one more time for launch, and

782
00:52:55.880 --> 00:52:59.039
then I have to get it back
one more time to come back for landing.

783
00:52:59.079 --> 00:53:00.960
I never have to get that seat. Last question. Unfortunately, we're

784
00:53:01.000 --> 00:53:06.599
just about out of time, but
the United States Space program now looking forward

785
00:53:06.679 --> 00:53:12.000
to hopefully going back to the Moon
and possibly to Mars. You're still very

786
00:53:12.000 --> 00:53:15.679
active and NASA. How excited are
you about those plans? It is an

787
00:53:15.719 --> 00:53:20.760
amazing time to be part of the
space program. I mean we've had talked

788
00:53:20.800 --> 00:53:22.440
about you know, going to the
Moon, for back to the Moon for

789
00:53:22.480 --> 00:53:25.639
a very long time and finally,
you know, we're doing it. We're

790
00:53:25.679 --> 00:53:30.559
not just a country of PowerPoint vehicles
anymore. And so for the past five

791
00:53:30.639 --> 00:53:36.039
years I've been fortunate to lead the
astrant offices efforts and we'll call it exploration,

792
00:53:36.119 --> 00:53:38.639
everything that leaves lower to orbit.
You know I've been it'll be the

793
00:53:38.760 --> 00:53:43.719
kind of the lead person and use
that test pot experience that I've got into

794
00:53:43.800 --> 00:53:46.800
helping new spacecraft. And so first
it was just the the SLS rocket,

795
00:53:46.960 --> 00:53:51.440
you know, the Space Launch System, you know, proven that the world's

796
00:53:51.440 --> 00:53:55.400
most powerful rocket that carries humans so
far. It launched a last November and

797
00:53:55.559 --> 00:54:00.880
carried the Orion spacecraft on Artemus one. And so having worked in these vehicles

798
00:54:00.880 --> 00:54:05.320
for years to see them actually launch
and do their mission and do them as

799
00:54:05.519 --> 00:54:07.920
well as they did, the point
where now we could assign just you know,

800
00:54:08.559 --> 00:54:13.280
yes, still last month, them's
two crew and putting humans on the

801
00:54:13.320 --> 00:54:16.960
next flight. I mean that's huge
step forward. And the fact that We're

802
00:54:17.000 --> 00:54:21.800
now got production contracts to build these
as lessons and Orion's so we can do

803
00:54:21.840 --> 00:54:25.280
follow up missions basically one a year
is the goal. And then you know,

804
00:54:27.119 --> 00:54:30.480
being involved with the Gateway space station
that's going to be around the Moon

805
00:54:30.079 --> 00:54:34.239
in a seven day orbit around the
Moon, so we can launch from there

806
00:54:34.280 --> 00:54:37.440
down to the lunar surface that we
can build and try out elements that'll be

807
00:54:37.559 --> 00:54:43.400
on Mars class transfer vehicles to go
from Earth to Mars. They'll you know,

808
00:54:44.079 --> 00:54:46.400
and then the lunar landers, which
would call the the HLS, the

809
00:54:46.480 --> 00:54:50.920
Human Landing System where we selected SpaceX
was the first company. Now we just

810
00:54:50.920 --> 00:54:53.800
selected Blue Origin it's the second company. And working with those companies and being

811
00:54:53.800 --> 00:54:59.039
with SpaceX out in Hawthorne down in
Boca Chica as they're fabricating and building these

812
00:54:59.039 --> 00:55:01.599
things. It's not just you know, science fiction anymore. I mean multiple

813
00:55:01.679 --> 00:55:07.320
companies are building you know, multiple
vehicles that we are going to go ahead

814
00:55:07.360 --> 00:55:10.480
and take and get us to the
Moon as the stepping stone to proving out

815
00:55:10.840 --> 00:55:15.159
how humans live and work on another
celestial body, so that by twenty thirties

816
00:55:15.639 --> 00:55:19.679
we are going to Mars, we
will proven out the technologies on the Moon

817
00:55:20.039 --> 00:55:22.719
to be able to take us to
Mars and not just stopping at the Moon

818
00:55:22.039 --> 00:55:28.880
and you know, stopping with our
nearest heavenly partner and neighbor. So it

819
00:55:28.960 --> 00:55:30.760
is an amazing time. I mean, just look at Laura Orbit too.

820
00:55:30.880 --> 00:55:34.239
I mean, space station has been
up there for twenty three years, a

821
00:55:34.360 --> 00:55:37.239
continuous human presence. We've got,
you know, this Boeing Starline are getting

822
00:55:37.239 --> 00:55:40.880
ready to launch this summer. We've
had this SpaceX True Dragon going up there

823
00:55:40.880 --> 00:55:46.440
for years. We've got multiple companies
that want to build space stations, commercial

824
00:55:46.440 --> 00:55:52.199
ones. You know, it's like
aviation in the twenties where we've learned to

825
00:55:52.239 --> 00:55:55.679
fly and then all of a sudden
out everybody's building airplanes and suddenly look at

826
00:55:55.679 --> 00:56:00.000
where we are with aviation just one
hundred you know, a level one hundred

827
00:56:00.039 --> 00:56:02.280
years later. Imagine where we're going
to be if we're on Mars in the

828
00:56:02.280 --> 00:56:06.840
twenty thirties, what lowers orbit,
the Moon and now Mars are going to

829
00:56:06.840 --> 00:56:09.800
look like. And so to be
a part of that and contribute is certainly

830
00:56:09.880 --> 00:56:15.480
a very satisfying and enjoyable and be
able to use my experience from the Marine

831
00:56:15.480 --> 00:56:17.880
Corps and as a test pot to
bring that to fruition, is you know,

832
00:56:20.000 --> 00:56:23.079
just very fortunate opportunity. Well,
it's an incredible legacy already, and

833
00:56:23.320 --> 00:56:27.960
I look forward to seeing that all
unfold and to see your role as it

834
00:56:28.000 --> 00:56:30.960
does unfold. So, Colonel,
thank you very much for your time today.

835
00:56:30.960 --> 00:56:32.719
It's been a thrill to speak with
you. And best of luck as

836
00:56:32.719 --> 00:56:37.000
you continue forward in our new Artemis
missions. Thank you. Great Colonel Randy

837
00:56:37.039 --> 00:56:43.239
bresnik Us, Marine Corps, retired
Marine Corps aviator and still a NASA astronaut

838
00:56:43.280 --> 00:56:46.800
who served on the STS one twenty
nine mission and was also back on the

839
00:56:46.840 --> 00:56:52.079
Space station and with Expedition fifty two
to fifty three and the Soyuz spacecraft as

840
00:56:52.119 --> 00:57:06.119
well. I'm Greg Corumbus. This
is Veteran's Chronicles. Hi, this is

841
00:57:06.119 --> 00:57:09.159
Greg Corumbus, and thanks for listening
to Veterans Chronicles, a presentation of the

842
00:57:09.159 --> 00:57:15.480
American Veterans Center. For more information, please visit American Veteranscenter dot org.

843
00:57:15.880 --> 00:57:20.239
You can also follow the American Veterans
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844
00:57:20.320 --> 00:57:24.679
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845
00:57:24.760 --> 00:57:30.039
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846
00:57:30.079 --> 00:57:34.519
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847
00:57:34.599 --> 00:57:36.519
us next time for Veterans Chronicles