Thursday, July 18, 2019  - Week 29

Recovering Apollo 11

William L. McDonald Jr., a Lake Limerick resident since 1997, was a 28-year-old Air Force captain when he led a C-141 crew that took part in Apollo 11’s return to Earth on July 20, 1969. Certificates from July 1969 note McDonald’s role in the Apollo 11 mission. Journal photo by Gordon Weeks / Courtesy documents

Lake Limerick resident helped astronauts safely return to Earth after moon mission

By GORDON WEEKS
gordon@masoncounty.com

On July 20, 1969, a man who now lives near Lake Limerick helped ensure data streaming from Apollo 11 reached receiving stations on Earth as it plummeted toward the South Pacific Ocean.

Capt. William L. McDonald Jr. of the U.S. Air Force’s 4th Military Airlift Squadron headed the crew of a C-141 Starlifter jet transport based out of McChord Air Force Base south of Tacoma. His crew provided logistical support for an Air Force EC-135 jet aircraft, an electronic-laden plane that served as a communication link between Apollo 11 and receiving stations on Earth during the late orbits of the flight when direct communication was impossible.

McDonald’s C-141 Starlifter joined forces with 52 other aircraft, nine ships and more than 6,800 people to help support the return of the planet’s first trip to the surface of the moon.

McDonald was 28 years old at the time.

“It was quite intense being part of it,” said McDonald, now 78.

Born in Wheeling, West Virginia, and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico, McDonald was accepted to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1959, with an eye on a career in the military. He passed the flight physicals and applied to the Air Force. He learned to fly at Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma, and was introduced to Washington after being assigned to McChord Air Force Base.

In Vietnam, McDonald was a forward air controller, looking for targets over the Ho Chi Minh Trail. He returned to McChord in 1967.

On July 8, 1969, McDonald and crew departed McChord for Australia. After three days there, he and his crew headed for Honolulu to await the Apollo 11 crew splashing down in the South Pacific. Teams of EC-135 and C-141 aircraft were stationed throughout the world in case the splashdown point was altered at the last moment.

McDonald didn’t see the splashdown up close. “We were tracking it on TV,” he recalled.

One of the planes airlifted the command module from Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii to Ellington Air Force Base in Texas. McDonald’s crew flew maintenance personnel and film footage nonstop to Florida.

Three astronauts spent 21 days in quarantine so they could be monitored for germs. The next two crews underwent the same process until the practice was dropped for Apollo 15, 16 and 17.

McDonald continued to watch the progress of the moon missions, including the aborted mission in April 1970 that produced the memorable phrase,

“Houston, we have a problem.”

“I think we were all glued to the TV with Apollo 13,” he recalled.

​McDonald said he believes the Apollo missions were worth the enormous cost because of the science and medical data that was amassed. Also, “The international space station is a fabulous thing,” he said.


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Auditor to observe election
in Ukraine

By MICHAEL HEINBACH
michael@masoncounty.com

While the Elections Department of the Mason County Auditor’s office kicked off election season earlier this week by sending ballots for the Aug. 6 primary election, first-term Auditor Paddy McGuire focused on another election on the other side of the globe.

The U.S. State Department recently selected McGuire, a former Oregon Deputy Secretary of State and deputy director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program for the U.S. Department of Defense, to be one of 750 observers from 55 countries representing the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) at Sunday’s 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election. According to its website, OSCE’s mission is to “assess the elections for compliance with OSCE commitments and other international obligations and standards for democratic elections, as well as with national legislation.” Observers monitor election administration and relevant governmental bodies, and the resolution of election-related disputes.

On election day, McGuire and others will be deployed throughout Ukraine in multinational teams of two to monitor polling stations, voting, ballot counting and tabulation of results at all levels.

How did the U.S. State Department come to select Mason County’s auditor to be one of America’s representatives to OSCE, helping ensure the parliamentary election in Ukraine is held without outside interference?

“I applied about 10 years ago to be a part of any OSCE mission, not specifically for Ukraine,” McGuire told the Shelton-Mason County Journal on July 11. “At the time, I was working at the Department of Defense and they said that would look bad, and that made sense. So, about 2 ½ weeks ago I got an email just completely out of the blue saying I was on the waiting list to go to Ukraine, and was I available. I said I was, and they said, ‘we’ve got a spot for you,’ so it all happened pretty rapidly.”

McGuire said the plan was to spend two days in Kyiv for training, followed by a day of traveling to the area he’s responsible for. After that, there’s a day of preparation that includes visiting polling places before election day, a day’s travel back to Kyiv, and a day to debrief OSCE and provide further information on the election.

“What we’re looking at is really the performance of the election officials, making sure that everyone is treated the same, polling places are open, there aren’t problems intended to influence the outcome of the election, and that in places where there are people opposed to the ruling party, the polling places are open, they have enough ballots and service isn’t compromised,” he said.
McGuire added that regardless of what he witnesses during election day, his job is only to report back to OSCE on what he sees and not to interfere with the process as it’s conducted.

“They’re running their election, so it’s just as we wouldn’t want people from Ukraine coming here and standing in polling places in areas where we have polling places, or in our elections offices telling us what we were doing wrong,” McGuire said. “There’s a report at the end, and it’s important to the government, whoever wins the election, it’s important to them that the election be seen as legitimate. The final report from OSCE that I’ll be a part of is a very important thing, particularly in developing democracies as sort of the seal of approval.”

​Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dissolved parliament a day after his May inauguration, citing a lack of a government coalition. Ukrainians will elect 225 new members of parliament from more than 20 political parties.

​For more of the Shelton-Mason County Journal, subscribe to our weekly edition.

On Monday at Oakland Bay Junior High School, the Shelton High School football team held a voluntary summer workout. The Highclimbers wrapped their summer team drills this week. Shelton opens the season Sept. 6 against county rival North Mason High School at Phil Pugh Stadium in Belfair. Journal photo by Justin Johnson

Worth a second chance?

By JUSTIN JOHNSON
justin@masoncounty.com

Do you believe in second chances? 

Last week, I came across the news on ESPN.com that Art Briles had been hired to coach prep football at Mount Vernon High School in Texas. 

For those who need a refresher, from 2008-2015 Briles was the head coach of Baylor University’s football team. 

The Bears were a moribund team on the field prior to his arrival in Waco, Texas, but Briles’ squads quickly rose to the top of the Big 12 Conference pecking order and won 10 or more games four times in five seasons. 

In 2015, Briles’ final season at Baylor, the Bears went 10-3.

A few months after the season, Briles was fired by Baylor in the aftermath of a sexual assault scandal that engulfed the university. 

Baylor University president Ken Starr – yes, that Ken Starr – later resigned, as did athletic director Ian McCaw. 

In 2017, the New York Times reported on a lawsuit filed against the university that claimed at least 52 rapes by at least 31 athletes occurred between 2011-2014.

Allegations of preferential treatment for athletes by university officials and Waco police were rampant.

The university hired Pepper Hamilton, a Philadelphia law firm with experience in investigating potential violations of Title IX — the federal law mandating gender equity in education, to look into the allegations. Pepper Hamilton found 17 women, who reported being sexually assaulted by 19 players.

​The investigation resulted in resignations, firings and changes, not just in the football program, but throughout the school. 


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