John P. Hornung

Author

Williamsburg, Virginia

About the Author

John Hornung was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. He served eight years in the US Marine Corps Reserve. John funded his college education and received a BS in Physics from the University of Louisiana, Lafayette in 1963 where he became a member of the Sigma Pi Sigma Honorary Physics Fraternity. He received a Masters of Public Administration from The American University in Washington, DC in 1973.

John had four careers before retiring. He worked as a rocket scientist while employed by an aerospace company at NASA’s Michoud Rocket Plant in New Orleans. While with a consulting firm John worked in the field of military war gaming at the US Army Combat Development Command. As part of this work, he spent a short period in Viet Nam as a consultant to U.S. Army Headquarters at Long Bin. John began his government career when he was hired by The US Post Office Department in Washington, DC. There, he led research and development programs and rose to Deputy Director, Office of Statistical Programs and Standards. Later he took a position within The Department of the Treasury. John received the Department of the Treasury's National Telecommunications and Information Systems Security Award, in recognition of his Branch's outstanding contributions. John retired from Federal Service in 1997.

ABANDON SHIP!
 

Here is a collection of short stories of a teenager’s adventures in the Sea Scouts. The stories include: a harrowing attempt to survive a severe storm at sea; an unusual way of winning first place in a Boy Scout District Camporee; encounter with the US Army; and what it was like to attend a colorful Boy Scout World Jamboree.

They are not common tales of campfire sing-a-longs and scouts driving to excel to the highest rank. These Sea Scouts also concentrated on other activities and carried them one or two steps beyond such noble pursuits. While being adventurous and fun loving, they took their seamanship seriously and met challenges in a responsible manner. These stories are filled with wit and humor. “As the author, every time I read these adventures I laugh out loud. Maybe you will too.”

Private 1543868

I enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in my junior year of high school. My decision to enlist was driven by an unfortunate situation and an attempt to rescue my faltering plans to complete my education.
 

While I found my platoon’s experiences during Marine Corps boot camp to be brutal at times, I learned a half century later they were the dark side of Marine Corps life. Though we experienced the blunt force of the dark side, I did not realize how entrenched it was from the 1950s thru the mid 1970s. This came to light only after reading the book “see Parris and Die”, while researching material for this book. This is the story of my encounter with this force and my attempts to survive it.
 

To the Moon, Without Me

2009 "Space Show" Interview

John Hornung graduated from college in 1963 with a degree in Physics and was immediately hired by the Chrysler Corporation Space Division and assigned to the Space Division’s Engineer Management Training Program. The company constructed the first stage of NASA’s Saturn IB Space Launch Vehicle at NASA’s Michoud Rocket Plant in New Orleans, Louisiana. Eventually, John became a Reliability Engineer working in an organization that was the first to develop the mathematics and techniques of Artificial Intelligence. This technology was applied to deciphering the weak points in the Saturn IB rocket's design.
 

The Saturn IB was critical to achieving the goal of landing a man on the moon and returning him to earth because it was NASA’s workhorse in testing components of the giant Saturn V and its payload to the moon. It launched and tested the Saturn V’s third stage the Saturn IV-B, the Apollo spacecraft, the Saturn’s brain, and the lunar lander. The testing culminated with the Saturn IB’s launch of Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo spacecraft. With the very next Apollo mission, Apollo 8, the Saturn V headed to the moon.

Many of John’s assignments became a baptism of fire in the sink or swim approach to getting the job done that existed in the early years of the Apollo Space Program. He tells what he did after discovering that imaginary numbers were missing; an incident that may have led to his arrest; his attempt to discover what went wrong during a critical test of the Saturn IB’s superstructure; the little known facts surrounding the fire atop Saturn IB 204 which killed three astronauts; and the unseen test flights of the Saturn IB. The reader will find this and more written in an entertaining fashion. The book contains several fantastic photographs. This is John’s story of his exciting and demanding career in the race between the United States and the Russians to be the first to reach the moon.
 

The Silent Aftermath

In the mid 1950s, a battle bubbled to the surface between a group of Catholic intellectuals, intent on removing segregation in New Orleans Catholic schools, and their formidable segregationist foes. While the intellectuals began planning for the integration of New Orleans Catholic schools as early as 1949, Archbishop Rummel and his Church hierarchy refused to integrate his schools for years, putting off desegregating them until 1962, two years after the New Orleans public schools complied with Federal civil rights laws.
 

In the battle’s aftermath was a wake of difficult challenges our family had to face. This is the account of my attempt to understand the consequences of this epic struggle. The story begins with the description of our unusual childhood and the puzzles that surrounded it. Why were we treated harshly by our parents and at times by our schoolmates? Why was I sent to a boarding school a short distance from home and not allowed to return on weekends? Who was my adopted brother Joe? Was he used as an instrument of collusion in the battle between segregationist and integrationist? In the Silent Aftermath I tell how, more than fifty years later, I unraveled shocking discoveries of the mystery behind the difficulties we had as children and the early battle to integrate New Orleans segregated Catholic schools.