Atterbury-Bakalar Air Museum    Ernie Pyle WWII Museum    Five Points Fire Museum    Fort Wayne Firefighters Museum   Freeman Army Airfield Museum   Virgil "Gus" Grissom Memorial   Hoosier Air Museum    Indiana Military Museum    Indianapolis Fire Museum   McClain Military Museum    Military Honor Park and Museum   Museum of the Soldier    National Military History Center/Automotive and Carriage Museum   National Model Aviation Museum    Rolls-Royce Heritage Center, Allison Branch    Ropkey Armor Museum    Wayne County Historical Museum

Indiana Museums - Aviation, Military, Automotive and Fire

Virgil I. Grissom Memorial
Spring Mill State Park
Mitchell, IN
Date Visited:  1-28-2017

Maligned by the press, not supported by NASA management, portrayed after his death by a nearly criminally incorrect account in Tom Wolfe's book "The Right Stuff" and subsequent movie, Virgil I. (Gus) Grissom has been delegated by these organizations and individuals to the dust bin of history.

The Virgil I. Grissom Memorial at Spring Mill Park, in south central Indiana, does not directly confront or address these issues.  It gives an excellent insight into the real Gus Grissom in a positive manner.  The visitor comes away from the Memorial/Museum with a new and different view of Grissom than that portrayed by the incorrect "The Right Stuff."

Until 2016, there was no documentation of Gus Grissom's life, when the publication of "Calculated Risk - The Supersonic Life and Times of Gus Grissom" by George Leopold was published by the Purdue University Press.  This biography of Gus Grissom was for sale at the gift shop in the memorial and I purchased one on the way out.  I am glad I did, as I have learned much about the real Gus Grissom, and many of the behind-the-scenes events at NASA that influenced his life and lead to his tragic and unnecessary death in 1967.

With what I learned from the "Calculated Risk," this trip report on the Memorial/Museum has expanded to address some of the inaccurate portrayals of Gus Grissom, and has taken me to a second Indiana museum and Purdue University.

Inaccurate portrayal of Gus Grissom Number 1:  In the movie "The Right Stuff" Gus Grissom is portrayed spending his time drinking beer with Gordon Cooper at Poncho's Bar outside of what is now Edwards AFB in California, when the search for the original Mercury Astronauts began.  This is false.  In 1958, Grissom was an all-weather flight test pilot at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, OH, where he racked up most of his 2,500 hours of jet time.  What is true is while at test pilot school in 1956 at Edwards AFB, Gus and Gordon Cooper spent time in the evenings at Juanita's Bar and Grill.  Pancho's Happy Bottom Riding Club previously burned down in 1953 and was not rebuilt.

Inaccurate portrayal of Gus Grissom Number 2:  He was recruited for the Mercury Astronaut program while while in California.  Actually Gus Grissom was summoned to Washington, DC from his position at Wright-Patterson along with 109 other test pilots. 

Inaccurate portrayal of Gus Grissom Number 3:  While the movie "The Right Stuff "portrays Grissom as somewhat of a dim witted test pilot, he earned a Bachelor's degree in Aero-Mechanics from the US Air Force Institute of Technology while at Wright-Patterson.  This is normally a two year program that Grissom completed in one year.  Grissom is listed by the Institute as one of its distinguished graduates, as is General Jimmy Doolittle.  This was not the first time Grissom graduated early from an engineering program, as he also graduated from the Purdue School of Mechanical Engineering one term early while working three jobs.

There are more, but I will stop with these three right now.

This is more than just a visit to the Gus Grissom Memorial at Spring Mill Park in south central Indiana.  It is compilation of four locations related to the life, and death of Gus Grissom.  

Gus Grissom's boyhood home in Mitchell, IN.  This is very much like the house I grew up in.


The Memorial is three miles to the east of the boyhood home in Spring Mill State Park.

Inside the entrance to the Memorial.  For Gus Grissom the American Dream was being the first person on the moon.  One of the many risks was an Apollo spacecraft with a pure oxygen environment and a haphazardly build and wired Apollo spacecraft.  Grissom was afraid if he complained about the obvious fire hazard, NASA would fire him, and he would not be the first on the moon. This was his "Calculated Risk."  

Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom graduated from Mitchell High School in 1945, and immediately joined the Army Air Force as an enlisted person.  With the end of the war he was released, returned home, got married, and went work in the local school bus factory.  Deciding building school buses for the rest of his life was not in his long term plans, he quit his job and enrolled at Purdue University. 

  Note the date on the diploma.  He graduated a semester early from Purdue Engineering School.  He did this through sheer will power and determination.  Once he decided what he wanted to do, he was relentless in pursuing his goal.  His goal was to graduate, join the US Air Force, and become a pilot.

A word on the photography.  The memorial is not well lit, and I had to use flash.  Most of the displays are behind glass or Plexiglas, so many of the photos show glare and reflections of the flash.  The photos are frequently offset, to keep the reflections to the side of the photo.

As the movie "Right Stuff" portrayed, Lyndon Johnson provided Stetson hats to the Mercury astronauts.  This is Grissom's Stetson.

Gus Grissom flew 100 F-86 missions in Korea, where he was the wing man for the squadron commander.  While he never shot down a MiG, his squadron commander was never shot down.  He had 4,600 total flight hours and 3,500 hours in jet powered aircraft.

 Gus Grissom earned a B.S. in Aero-Mechanics while a test pilot, and completed the two year program in one year.

The original Mercury 7 Astronauts.


This is a photo of "The Molly Brown," the Gemini III spacecraft that took Mission Commander Gus Grissom and pilot John Young on three orbits around the earth.  While the "Right Stuff" made much ado about the blowing of the hatch of Grissom's Mercury landing, NASA would not have retained him, nor let him command another mission, if he was the screw-up portrayed in the movie.  Nor would he have been commander of the ill-fated Apollo 1.

McDonnell-Douglas was the contractor for the Gemini spacecraft.  Grissom was the project's point person, representing NASA at McDonnell-Douglas.  He made sure that the spacecraft had the features needed after learning the shortcomings of the Mercury capsules.  His determination overcame resistance on the part of the contractor to make the needed changes to its original design.  Gus Grissom's determination won out!  NASA knew who to send to get the job done properly.

The heat shield was cored out in several areas.  One must assume the reason was to test the heat shield's performance during re-entry.

At Grissom's insistence, the Gemini capsules had ejection seats, and modular electronic boxes that could be pulled out and replaced without rewiring the capsule. 

The Mercury capsules were hard-wired.  Each of the hundreds, and even thousands, of engineering updates and changes prompted the whole instrument panel to be pulled out.  This drove Grissom to distraction.  It is the author's opinion that any one of these changes could have caused the technician to mis-wire a ground circuit, causing the infamous hatch to blow off on Grissom's Mercury landing.  Since each Mercury capsule, including Grissom's Mercury capsule "Liberty Bell 7," was wired differently and "Liberty Bell 7" was sitting two miles down on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, tests using  other capsules were not able to repeat the blowing of the hatch.  Also, the public was never informed that McDonnell Douglas redesigned the Mercury capsule hatch after the incident

For the complete story of the blowing of the hatch, and the several reasons it could have happened, I suggest one read "The Calculated Risk." 

There is also a short video at the end of the tour.  It is well done and helps complete the story of Gus Grissom.

Two hours and 96 miles north of the Grissom Memorial is the Indianapolis Children's Museum in Indianapolis.  On current display through November 2018 in its space exhibit is Gus Grissom's Liberty Bell 7, which sank to the floor of the Atlantic Ocean on July 21, 1961.  One can see both of Grissom's spacecraft in one day, if they plan accordingly.

My wife and I visit the Children's Museum several times a month with our grandchildren.  Once, my then three year old grandson went through a door and into a room, which we did not realize had a display in it.  There was Liberty Bell 7, which I thought was still on the bottom of the ocean.  Leave to it to a three-year- old to enlighten me as to my mistaken assumption!   Liberty Bell 7 was recovered on July 20, 1999.

After 38 years on the ocean floor, the spacecraft has been restored to original condition.  Note all of the wiring bundles.  Every time a wiring change was made the technicians were required to get pull the instrument panel out and make the change. 

There is an excellent twenty-minute film shown daily about Grissom's space shot in this spacecraft.  It is well worth the visit.  One of the claims made by the NASA management after the sinking of the capsule, was that Gus Grissom was near hysterical in the capsule and was trying to get out.  This is crap!  During the movie at the Indy Children's Museum one hears the audio tape of the launch, time in space, and landing.  Gus Grissom was "Mr. Cool" during all phases of his Mercury space trip.  He was the consummate test pilot/astronaut!

Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN - March 2, 2017

After returning from a short time in the enlisted ranks of the Army Air Force at the end of WWII, Gus Grissom returned home and built school buses for a while.  Realizing he didn't want to do that for the rest of his life, he enrolled in the Mechanical Engineering program at Purdue University.  In the background is the Purdue Union, which would play an important part in his life.

Gus Grissom graduated one term early from the Purdue Engineering school.  Toward the end his education he worked three jobs to cover tuition and living expenses for himself and his wife.  Graduating a term early from the Purdue Engineering school, or any engineering school for that matter, is not easy.  Gus Grissom was not the doofus he was made out to be in "The Right Stuff."  One morning during his last term, he and a friend were walking by the steps of the Purdue Union where an Air Force recruiter was standing.  This is when and where Gus Grissom started his flying and astronaut career.

After Gus Grissom's death in 1967,  Purdue University renamed this building in his honor.

Inside the door is this small display.

Cape Canaveral Air Station, Florida - July 18, 2012
Launch Complex 34

The plaque at the site where three astronauts perished covers up the fact that they died because of bad management and engineering by NASA and North American Aviation, the prime contractor of the Apollo Space Capsule.  All three astronauts were very concerned about the sad state of the Apollo capsule.  They expected an accident, but thought it would be during a space flight, and not on the ground.  They all thought they would die in space.