TRUE DEMOCRACY SUMMER 2001 TABLE OF CONTENTS
NASA Intelligence
Remarks at the Dedication of the Aerospace Medical Health Center
San Antonio, Texas
November 21, 1963
Mr. Secretary, Governor, Mr. Vice President, Senator, Members of
the Congress, members Of the military, ladies and gentlemen:
For more than 3 years I have spoken about the New Frontier. This is
not a partisan term, and it is not the exclusive property of Republicans
or Democrats. It refers, instead, to this Nation's place in history, to
the fact that we do stand on the edge of a great new era, filled with both
crisis and opportunity, an era to be characterized by achievement and by
challenge. It is an era which calls for action and for the best efforts
of all those who would test the unknown and the uncertain in every phase
of human endeavor. It is a time for pathfinders and pioneers.
I have come to Texas today to salute an outstanding group of pioneers,
the men who man the Brooks Air Force Base School of Aerospace Medicine and
the Aerospace Medical Center. It is fitting that San Antonio should be the
site of this center and this school as we gather to dedicate this complex
of buildings. For this city has long been the home of the pioneers in the
air. It was here that Sidney Brooks, whose memory we honor today, was born
and raised. It was here that Charles Lindbergh and Claire Chennault, and
a host of others, who, in World War I and World War II and Korea, and even
today have helped demonstrate American mastery of the skies, trained at Kelly
Field and Randolph Field, which form a major part of aviation history. And
in the new frontier of outer space, while headlines may be made by others
in other places, history is being made every day by the men and women of
the Aerospace Medical Center, without whom there could be no history.
Many Americans make the mistake of assuming that space research
has no values here on earth. Nothing could be further from the truth. Just
as the wartime development of radar gave us the transistor, and all that
it made possible, so research in space medicine holds the promise of substantial
benefit for those of us who are earthbound. For our effort in space is not
as some have suggested, a competitor for the natural resources that we need
to develop the earth. It is a working partner and a coproducer of these
resources. And nothing makes this clearer than the fact that medicine in
space is going to make our lives healthier and happier here on earth.
I give you three examples: first, medical space research may open
up new understanding of man's relation to his environment. Examinations of
the astronaut's physical, and mental, and emotional reactions can teach us
more about the differences between normal and abnormal, about the causes
and effects of disorientation, about changes in metabolism which could result
in extending the life span. When you study the effects on our astronauts
of exhaust gases which can contaminate their environment, and you seek ways
to alter these gases so as to reduce their toxicity, you are working on problems
similar to those in our great urban centers which themselves are being corrupted
by gases and which must be clear.
And second, medical space research may revolutionize the technology
and the techniques of modern medicine. Whatever new devices are created,
for example, to monitor our astronauts, to measure their heart activity,
their breathing, their brain waves, their eye motion, at great distances
and under difficult conditions, will also represent a major advance in general
medical instrumentation. Heart patients may even be able to wear a light
monitor which will sound a warning if their activity exceeds certain limits.
An instrument recently developed to record automatically the impact of acceleration
upon an astronaut's eyes will also be of help to small children who are suffering
miserably from eye defects, but are unable to describe their impairment.
And also by the use of instruments similar to those used in Project Mercury,
this Nation's private as well as public nursing services are being improved,
enabling one nurse now to give more critically ill patients greater attention
than they ever could in the past.
And third, medical space research may lead to new safeguards against
hazards common to many environments. Specifically, our astronauts will need
fundamentally new devices to protect them from the ill effects of radiation
which can have a profound influence upon medicine and man's relations to our
present environment.
Here at this center we have the laboratories, the talent, the
resources to give new impetus to vital research in the life centers. I am
not suggesting that the entire space program is justified alone by what is
done in medicine. The space program stands on its own as a contribution to
national strength. And last Saturday at Cape Canaveral I saw our new Saturn
C-1 rocket booster, which, with its payload, when it rises in December of
this year, will be, for the first time, the largest booster in the world,
carrying into space the largest payload that any country in the world has
ever sent into space.
I think the United States should be a leader. A country as rich
and powerful as this which bears so many burdens and responsibilities, which
has so many opportunities, should be second to none. And in December, while
I do not regard our mastery of space as anywhere near complete, while I
recognize that there are still areas where we are behind--at least in one
area, the size of the booster--this year I hope the United States will be
ahead. And I am for it. We have a long way to go. Many weeks and months
and years of long, tedious work lie ahead. There will be setbacks and frustrations
and disappointments. There will be, as there always are, pressures in this
country to do less in this area as in so many others, and temptations to
do something else that is perhaps easier. But this research here must go
on. This space effort must go on. The conquest of space must and will go
ahead. That much we know. That much we can say with confidence and conviction.
Frank O'Connor, the Irish writer, tells in one of his books how,
as a boy, he and his friends would make their way across the countryside,
and when they came to an orchard wall that seemed too high and too doubtful
to try and too difficult to permit their voyage to continue, they took off
their hats and tossed them over the wall--and then they had no choice but
to follow them.
This Nation has tossed its cap over the
wall of space, and we have no choice but to follow it.
Whatever the difficulties, they will be overcome. Whatever the hazards,
they must be guarded against. With the vital help of this Aerospace Medical
Center, with the help of all those who labor in the space endeavor, with
the help and support of all Americans, we will climb this wall with safety
and with speed-and we shall then explore the wonders on the other side.
Thank you.
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Note: The President spoke at the Aerospace Medical
Health Center at Brooks Air Force Base, Tex. His opening words referred to
Secretary of the Air Force Eugene M. Zuckert, Governor John B. Connally of
Texas, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, and Senator Ralph W. Yarborough
of Texas.
Public Papers of the Presidents [472] JOHN F.
KENNEDY, p. 882.
NOTE: The report "U.S. Participation in the UN" is Department of State
Publication 761, International Organization and Conference Series 45 (Government
Printing Office, 1963, 452 PP.).
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John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library - Columbia Point - Boston, Massachusetts
02125
Tel: 1-877-616-4599
Fax: 617-929-4538
Email:
library@kennedy.nara.gov
John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library Foundation - Columbia Point - Boston,
Massachusetts 02125
Tel: 617-929-1200
Fax: 617-436-3395
Email:
foundation@kennedy.nara.gov
Page created April
7, 2000 updated: November 20, 2000
JFK wanted a Joint Mission to the Moon with the Soviet Union
to help ease Cold War tensions. However, NASA and the Military completely
disagreed with the President. They felt who ever got to space first and
learned how to live there could control the world.
http://http://www.cs.umb.edu/jfklib/j032362.htm
documents that this is what President Kennedy wanted to do.
Ed's note: You can see that there is nothing about NASA Intelligence.
NASA needs very little funding for intelligence. The fact that it has it
has nothing to do with space travel and research. In fact, there would be
more funding for research if the funding was ended for intelligence because
according to Dr. Boylan NASA Intelligence "gathers intelligence data relating
to space flights, sabotage threats, astronaut and reconnaissance satellite
encounters with UFOs and ETs, and coordinates the transfer of alien technology
to U.S. and allies aerospace operations."
All these aspects are unnecessary except relating to space flights. Let's
allow them to keep a small budget for that aspect. The rest must end. There's
no sabotage. That's untrue and the UFOs and ETs need to be left alone.
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