01-28-1986

[marksjeep]

35 years feels like a long time. The day is still vivid. Fresh snow on the ground in NJ, middle school kid with the day off due to the snow, not a cloud in the sky or a care to be had. I always remember this day.

 

[Salmonchaser]

Damn, great achievements punctuated by disasters. Some things you always remember what you were doing.

 

[Dave N]

Sitting around the house and saw it live. Also saw the other one break up live. I quit watching.

 

[Addicting]

We paused school to watch it live, teacher was speechless trying to explain it to a bunch of 3rd graders.

 

[Otto Matic]

Didn't watch it, but I saw the replay soon after on the TV display at the WalMart in Wichita Falls, Texas.
My two were young enough (3 and 5), it never really fazed them.
Pop, on the other hand, was a bit shaken.

Really torqued me when people asked, "What happened?"
The damn thing blew up, what difference does it make "What happened?", people died!

Same thing when people would tell me my grandson was "in a better place".
Hell no! A better place would be his bed, taking a nap! Not a casket in the ground!
But I digress.
I know people were trying to be kind! They had no idea of the thoughts running, screaming, yelling, racing, raving, screeching like a lunatic in my mind.

Again...I digress!
My apologies.

 

[Nemont]

I was on day three of Army Basic Training at Ft. Leonard Wood standing in line to be issued my TA50. One of the civilians turned on a TV for us and let us watch it all unfold.

Nemont

 

[MNHunter]

I recall watching it live as a first grader in the school library area with the other grades. All I recall is the teachers quickly ushering us all back to our rooms

 

[MarvB]

Watched it bedside in a hospital room, pops had just come out of open heart surgery. Stressful ass day all around

 

[turbobrick]

Kindergarten was 1/2 day then and I went in the afternoon, so I was outside at home playing in the dirt, and my mom called me in. I watched it, didn’t really understand, then I went to school and we watched the news and talked about what happened. We had been learning about the shuttle program, so all I really remember is a profound sadness. Years later I visited the Space Mirror Memorial and it seemed like a very fitting tribute.

 

[dcopas78]

I watched it live in class as well. If you get a chance, watch "The Challenger Disaster" which goes into detail about Dr. Feynman's (played by William Hurt) investigation into the cause and what design flaws led up to the disaster. It's a great movie.

 

[marshman]

I was on a crew building a electrical substation.
We all went home for the day for safety, some of the guys were shaken up pretty good.
Me too.

 

[Cousin Basil]

Last year of college. Had a professor walk into the room and announce "The Space Shuttle just blew up" - and the idiot then rambled on for an hour about how to properly complete a job resume.........

 

[huntid73]

I watched it live in class as well. If you get a chance, watch "The Challenger Disaster" which goes into detail about Dr. Feynman's (played by William Hurt) investigation into the cause and what design flaws led up to the disaster. It's a great movie.

Netflix has a great 4 parter on the Challenger...I wasn't a twinkle in my parents eyes yet in 86, but my dad worked for Kaman in Pocatello ID, and I believe Thiokol bought some material from Kaman back then, so it sent ripples out into the industrial community too...and I vividly remember waking up on the day the Columbia broke up and watching that unfold.