Thursday, February 13, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

WILLIE MCCOOL: Grateful, proud parents

Mother, father of Columbia pilot say space program must continue

Audrey and Barry McCool, parents of space shuttle Columbia pilot Willie McCool, display cards they received from Henderson schoolchildren and a preschool at UNLV. Photo by John Gurzinski. Willie McCool, whose parents live in Las Vegas, died when the space shuttle Columbia broke apart on Feb. 1. AP File Photo

Audrey and Barry McCool, the Las Vegas parents of space shuttle Columbia pilot Willie McCool, said Wednesday they are not eager to assign blame for the tragedy that took the lives of seven astronauts.

The McCools, who teach in the hotel college at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said during a news conference that they want to know what caused the shuttle to break apart during its Feb. 1 descent.

"We're not looking for a witch hunt," Barry McCool said. "We're not looking for a contractor that failed to provide adequate equipment. We would like to know what happened. But ... holding people accountable and having a desire to see somebody chastised doesn't even enter into the equation. These seven people died doing what they loved and they had total confidence and faith in what they were doing."

"He was doing exactly what he wanted to do," added Audrey McCool about her 41-year-old son. "He died happier than he'd ever been in his life."

Barry McCool, a former military pilot who participated in airplane crash investigations, said he is confident about the integrity and skill of ongoing probes into the shuttle disaster. The McCools, who returned to teaching this week after attending Columbia memorial services in Houston and Washington, D.C., are spectators in the same investigative process that many Americans are watching unfold.

The couple met with the Las Vegas media Wednesday in part to express their thanks to a community whose children are sending inspiring messages and drawings.

"We've just been overwhelmed with the support in the Las Vegas community and way beyond that, from the world and across the country, not only for Willie but for the crew as a whole and the whole program," said Audrey McCool, with cards from UNLV's preschool and Henderson schoolchildren in hand.

"It's just been surreal," Barry McCool said. "I never expected this -- the support, the love, the expressions of appreciation."

Much of the support has come from colleagues at UNLV, where Barry McCool, 58, is a graduate student in the education college and teaches part-time in the hotel college. Audrey McCool, a 62-year-old former Army nutrition specialist, is a professor and assistant dean for research in the hotel college.

The couple were in the front yard of their Las Vegas home before 6 a.m. Feb. 1, watching the shuttle fly overhead and taking pictures of it with a 35mm camera. With their naked eyes, they were able to track it in the sky from north of Mt. Charleston southeast toward Boulder City.

"I was just totally thrilled," Barry McCool said. "I yelled out -- the neighborhood heard me -- 'There's our son. Willie's on his way home.' "

When they lost sight of the shuttle, they went inside, thinking everything was all right. The television news was on. Within minutes, the news got bad.

Barry McCool said he knew catastrophe had occurred as soon as he heard that communication with Columbia had been lost and that no target appeared for radar to track.

"I know what happens when you're flying at Mach 18.5 ... at 200,000 feet in the atmosphere," the father said. "When you see this thing coming apart, there's no doubt in your mind that your son's gone."

Barry McCool said he immediately started packing to get on a flight to Houston.

Audrey McCool, who stayed in Las Vegas an extra day, soon began receiving calls of support and concern from friends and family who knew Willie McCool was on the shuttle. Hours after the Columbia disaster, she told reporters outside her home that she still believed in NASA's space program.

On Wednesday, Barry McCool said he is committed to manned space flight despite renewed safety concerns. He said NASA does the best job possible.

"There are no guarantees," Barry McCool said. "It is not 100 percent that you're going to come back. It's unfortunate that these seven individuals made the ultimate sacrifice. ... They did it for the world."

When asked to elaborate on his strong feelings that the shuttle program should continue sending men and women into space, Barry McCool talked about comments made by Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, one of Willie McCool's best friends on the shuttle.

While Columbia passed over the Middle East, Ramon was asked to comment on the experience of seeing Israel from space.

"His response was, 'I see a world without borders,' " Barry McCool said. "The space program is just like that. Mankind's destiny lies beyond the stars, and there are risks involved with this. These seven individuals accepted that risk. We need to continue to have generations of astronauts that can explore and push those barriers back. If we're going to survive as a human race, our survival is beyond space. We need to continue the program. Scrapping the space program is not an option."

Audrey McCool said the continuous show of support from family, friends and strangers has helped her family deal with its loss. Additional support, she said, has come from knowing Columbia crew members were happy fulfilling their dreams of space flight. "How many of us could expect to perhaps die doing exactly what we wanted to do and being happier than we've ever been in our lives?"

Willie McCool left behind a wife, Lani, and three children, ages 22, 20 and 15.

"She is very committed to getting the message out about Willie and his interests in children and the environment and for the continuation of the space program," Audrey McCool said about her daughter-in-law. "That's her purpose. If you have a purpose, you can do well."

Willie and Lani McCools' oldest child, Sean, wants to become a naval aviator like his father, a computer and aerospace engineer who helped to rewire and reconfigure the pilot areas of shuttle cockpits.

He first wished to become an astronaut after test pilot school. He became an astronaut in 1996.

Willie McCool's 31-year-old brother, Shawn, is a Black Hawk pilot who since Sept. 11, 2001, has been dispatched to Afghanistan as a member of the 10th Mountain Division out of Fort Drum, N.Y. The family has no plans to try to exempt Shawn from combat duty in the event of U.S. war against Iraq.

His sister, 37-year-old Kirstie Chadwick, lives in Orlando, Fla., and is studying to get her doctorate in business. Teachers and students at the Orlando school where Chadwick's children attend already have planted seven trees and put up a memorial in memory of the Columbia astronauts.

In Las Vegas, there is talk of trying to get an elementary school named in Willie McCool's memory.

Within the month, there will be private and public memorial services in Annapolis for Willie McCool, whose partial remains have been recovered.