It was clear as day. It said, U.S. Air Force.
Dr. Gregory Rogers, a recently retired chief flight surgeon for NASA and the U.S. Air Force
Well, I was a flight surgeon for the United States Air Force and became the chief of aerospace medicine at the 45th Space Wing,
which included the Eastern Space and Missile Center, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Patrick Air Force Base,
And we had the Air Force Technical Application Center, which is a whole other story.
Some of the NASA managers wanted to make spacesuits, and they did not want to involve the Air Force or the rescue forces.
So even if you go back to, like, the first few launches, STS-1234, they had to go to Beale Air Force Base and borrow the yellow spacesuits that the U-2 and SR-71 guys fly because you couldn't fly with the NASA ones.
So, okay, so for context for the audience, you're at Patrick Air Force Base and Patrick Air Force Base...
And so the PBY that also went missing looking for them took off from flight ops at Patrick Air Force Base.
Do you, you know, what I've found just anecdotally is when I meet people inside the government or who've worked at, you know, NASA or the Air Force, you expect them to be less conspiratorial than people on the outside in the civilian world, right?
Are there any other things outside of the core experience that we're going to get into in 1992 that you experienced in a sort of government context, you know, Air Force or NASA, that really kind of widened your worldview?
Okay, the 45th Space Wing owned everything at the Cape Patrick Air Force Base, Eastern Space and Missile Center,
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is a large facility.
However, that does not reprise the U.S. Air Force from being responsible for it.
had to come through EG&G, even if you were working for the CIA or Air Force.
It said U.S. Air Force.
And then just above that was an Air Force flight insignia.
it didn't have the U.S. Air Force on it or the Air Force insignia,
And you saw U.S. Air Force.
And I saw U.S. Air Force on it.
and was not part of the U.S. Air Force inventory.
And I did not believe it's the U.S. Air Force.
then the Air Force said, okay, we're going to give you a contract.
And then the Air Force paid them for it.
And it went into the Air Force inventory.
So at that point, the Air Force owned it.
the U.S. Air Force did not own that, even though it had U.S. Air Force markings.
Do you have any sense of, outside of the U.S. Air Force insignia on it,
Just to get into Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, you had to have a clearance and a need to know.
If you put Project X on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, they can always say, oh, well, it's just related to the space program.
He was National Geospatial Agency, National Reconnaissance Office, Air Force, Space Force.
I think maybe just Air Force.
Lots and lots of soldier, sailors, Air Force, Marines have this.
but junior was an air force flight surgeon.