Reflecting on the True American Spirit- Rereading The Right Stuff

 

Tom Wolfe received the 1980 National Book Award for The Right Stuff and the 2010 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. His was a singular voice in the era of New Journalism. 

The Right Stuff illuminated for readers the indescribable qualities that  led, at that time, a select group of men, many of whom were fearless aviators during World War II, the Korean War, and veteran test pilots that exemplified the American Spirit, to volunteer as lab rats in the early years of the Mercury space program. 

My childhood was filled with dreams of space travel, the quest for the moon, the launches that caused most of America  to gather  around their black and white televisions to watch, with wonder, excitement, trepidation, bated breath, or sheer amazement as rockets launched from Cape Canaveral with men in tiny capsules atop unimaginable firepower in a quest to beat the Soviet Union to a moon landing.

President John F. Kennedy set that goal. Congress approved billions in funding. American pride was the prize.

For those who have no memory of The Cold War, it may seem inconceivable that the Space Race was so critical to our national psyche. But it was. In my childhood, astronauts were my icons. The few NASA disasters, such as the Apollo 1 fire that took the lives of Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee, and Ed White, led the nation to mourn and caused my 7 year old self to sleep with the Life Magazine that profiled the lost astronauts under my pillow. 

That disaster did not cause NASA to scrap the program. Instead, the engineers studied the wreckage,  made adjustments, changed the design of the capsule, and moved forward. Ultimately, NASA achieved the goal set by JFK to land on the moon before 1970. 

Tom Wolfe captured the spirit of the early fighter pilots and test pilots, the resilience of the military spouses and family members, the courage of those who choose to go where no man or woman has gone before, the fiery life choices that included drinking and driving and flying with hangovers, of competition and egos, that je ne sai quoi that constitutes The Right Stuff.

Part of me fears we have lost that brazen ambition, the ingenuity, the determination to reach for the stars, that steely resolve to reach for the stars.

Yet, I know there are heroes among us with just that scrappy ambition, faith and belief in what can be! I only hope our government doesn’t devolve to a place where dreams are dashed because of complacency, fear, corruption, softness, loss of idealism, or sheer laziness. 

Thank you Tom Wolfe for this brilliant ode to incomparable humans.