Leonard French

One summer evening, 50 years ago, resident Leonard French was stretched out in the grass in his backyard with his three year old son watching the stars. At the time, Leonard was a flight mechanic in the Air Force, stationed at Wright AFB in Ohio. It was a beautiful night out, Leonard recalls, a perfect night to star gaze.

"I told my son to watch the skies closely because tonight might be the night we see a falling star," Leonard said. "Little did I know that I was about to see something that would have a lasting impact on my career in the Air Force and well beyond.

"So here we are….quietly watching the sky and suddenly I do see something, but it's not a shooting star. It looked like a star but it had blinking lights and was moving slowly across the skies," Leonard said. "I showed my son and he asked me what it was. I wasn't sure at first, then I realized we were watching the Russian satellite Sputnik. I knew in that instant, watching this satellite cruise the skies, this is what I want to do... I want to be part of the U.S. space program."

When Leonard went to work the next day he starting asking questions about schools that were available for rocket mechanics. Realize that at this time, NASA had not been formed yet and all space exploration fell under the Air Force umbrella. And as fate would have it, Leonard was selected to attend an intense rocket mechanic school in Wyoming. The school was primarily made up of flight mechanics and in the months to follow they built complete rocket engines, fired them, tore them down and then rebuilt them.

Leonard was assigned to Patrick AFB. He and the team of rocket mechanics were bused over every morning to work at Cape Canaveral, which eventually became home for NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

During the next five years, Leonard's job was monitoring and testing the rocket systems that were being prepared for launching.

"I've seen a lot of shuttle launchings," Leonard said. "I was usually positioned within a mile of the launch so that if anything went wrong, I was close enough to get in, make the correction, and get out of there. It was dangerous work but it was what I did."

Eventually, NASA was formed and when Leonard retired from the Air Force, he was hired by McDonald Douglas to continue working with the space program.

"I was very fortunate to be on the cutting edge of the U.S. space program," Leonard said. "I have a hard hat with John Glenn's signature on it. It was an exciting time in my life."

Leonard has lived at the AFRH for five years.

"I remember paying my 25 cents into the Old Soldiers' Home back when I was active duty," Leonard recalled. "They used to pay us in cash back then. They took the 25 cents right there. We didn't have a choice. Now, I'm glad I paid it and can live here. It was a good investment."