by Dean L.
I recall three interesting speakers at
Sunnyvale Lockheed Missiles and Space Company Management Association banquets
in the late 1970s.
Neil Armstrong spoke to an audience of about
400 in July 1976. What a sense of humor he had! His answer to my question if he
still looked at the moon and marveled that he was there was, "I've learned to live with it!"
When I was president of the association in
1979, Kelly Johnson spoke to about 700 about Skunk Works. He was seated next to
our special guest, 82-year-old Neta Snook Southern (1896 to 1991), the woman
who taught Amelia Earhart to fly in 1921. She showed me Amelia's flight log
when I picked her up at the adobe home she had built herself in Los Gatos. She
had even made the bricks!
Neta surprised everyone with an impromptu
speech while we waited for a late food serving. I sat on her other side at the banquet
and overheard Kelly ask her what flight instruments she used when flying in
1922. He was surprised with her answer that all she had was an altimeter and a
dangling pocket watch. She said she also followed the roads!
