On 26 Sep 2004 16:27:07 GMT, (MasterShrink)
wrote:

It is kind of curious how Deke ranked the New Nine. Clearly he felt McDivitt
and Borman were the strongest, and Elliot See the weakest. Armstrong he clearly
felt was very capable as Deke never gave him anything less than crew commander,
but he was kind of "bringing up the rear" in that category in Gemini, and was
one of the last of the Nine to move over to Apollo because of that.

....Some of the recollections of Neil's interactions amongst the rest
of the Astros may shed some light into why Deke had him ranked
somewhat lower than Borman or McDivitt. He was somewhat of an aloof
person at times, and difficult to read at others. A couple of stories
come to mind that reflect this:

* Neil would be asked a question by someone, to which Neil would
immediately stare back blankly at the questioner, as if he hadn't
heard the question and/or understood it. Just when the question was
about to be asked again, Neil would suddenly go into a precision
diatribe in response, and even give alternative suggestions and/or
observations as to why the question was or wasn't valid to begin with.

* Neil and Yeager, IIRC, were out at Edwards after a rainstorm had
passed through the region, Neil argued that the dry lake bed was once
again dry enough to land on. Yeager disagreed. Neil went into one of
his precise diatribes, and the two took a plane out to test Neil's
theory. The plane landed safely, but got stuck in the mud and the two
had to wait for retrieval rather than taxiing back to the hangar.
Yeager basically said "how now, brown cow?", to which Neil replied
with a "."

OM

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