:
: I will let Chuck tell the story, if he is so
: inclined, but an amazing aspect of the
: interview is that Chuck was scheduled to
: interview astronaut Stafford, and only had
: an hour's notice that he would be talking
: with Schirra.

Well, actually, it was closer to three or four hours... Since I had received an email that the interview I had prepped for was had been cancelled early that morning, I had left my laptop (and any chance for internet research) back in my hotel room safe when I went down to the Omegamania event. All I had were the prep materials I had for the cancelled interviewee the half a dozen watches I had brought with me and a blank pad of paper. So when I learned of the opportunity to interview Mr. Schirra had been hastily arranged, all I had on me were my somewhat useful notes on Mr. Stafford, the aforementioned pad of paper, my memory/knowledge of of Wally/his accomplishments and the choice of going back to the hotel or just putting pen to paper and revising my question pool. Fortunately for me Mr. Stafford and Mr. Schirra shared the Gemini 6 mission so I had done some cross-referential research that was useful.

But there will be more on this in the days to come.

: as Chuck and I have commented, sort of like
: preparing for Dale Murphy, then finding that
: you will meet Hank Aaron, instead.

Well, I would probably choose different baseball personalities...

It was like preparing for Mantle or Dimaggio and having to switch gears and having Gearig or Ruth at the last moment. Any of them would have been a excellent topic for a conversation/interview, but out of necessity some of the real specific questions needed to be re-targeted...

-- Chuck