Gus Grissom: the name itself represents different things to different people. What went wrong with Gus Grissom's life and career? Was he a national hero, worthy of the respect and admiration of his colleagues and the public, or was he purposely maligned by the media, shamelessly pursued in all aspects of his private and public life? Was he a victim of himself or a victim of other forces? Or was he a victim at all?
On January 27, 1967, the world lost the opportunity to ever ask Gus Grissom what he thought about his situation. He perished in a fire atop what was to be Apollo 1 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Even in death, Grissom is still tormented by those who would believe that he did not live up to his country's expectations, not to mention his own expectations.
Born in Mitchell, Indiana, on April 3, 1926, Gus would grow up in that small, Midwestern town yearning to "prove I could do things as well as the big boys." Known as "Greasy Grissom" in those days, Gus was always small for his age and was known even then as a perfectionist, for working twice as hard to do things the right way.
Gus always had big dreams of being a pilot some day, but not having the money to go to college pretty much ruled that out. To solve this problem, he enlisted as an aviation cadet in 1944, but was discharged from the Air Force before he had won his wings. His service time, however, enabled him to pay for college and get a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering at Purdue University, which in turn set him up to be commissioned in the Air Force and finally learn to fly.
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