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Ben Gallup, Martin Hailey and Keith Hill

"I was browsing through the Bendix site yesterday and read Ben Gallup's stories of the "old days." They were very enjoyable. It struck me that there were no pictures of either Ben or Keith Hill in the BDA site things. Ben was the Bendix M&O at the time and Keith would eventually succeed him, then Bill Way (I think.) I ran across a photograph that I have of Ben and Keith presenting me with a Snoopy Award for Apollo 11 BDA computer services. I was the lead computer guy then. We were so tight on schedule wise in those days that I didn't have time to travel to GSFC for an astronaut presentation. Robert Dunham (TLM lead eng.) got one for telemetry support also.

Almost all of the operations group decided to grow beards and keep them until the astronauts got back home safely. I didn't win the beard judging contest afterwards but liked it so much I've had it ever since. There was a grand celebration after splash down. They roasted a pig (Bill Wells, USB supervisor was instrumental in the pig prep!) and a goat. They were roasted over an open pit barbecue down on the NASA beach. A grand time was had by all! "

Martin L. Hailey