200 msTORV OF THE COMMITTE1 ON SCIENCE AXD TECHNOLOGY 



Unable to obtain any satisfaction through the committee or from 

 NASA, Ryan decided to proceed on his own. From a source he would 

 not disclose, he received a copy of the Phillips report. With the help 

 of Washington Evening Star Reporter William Hincs, Ryan ran off 

 duplicates of the report at the newspaper office and then called a press 

 conference to distribute them publicly. Despite the fact that Ryan had 

 the text of the Phillips report printed in the Congressional Record of 

 May 1, 1967, Webb would never concede either the accuracy or com- 

 pleteness of the Ryan version. The issue still troubled Webb many 

 years later, as he wrote in his foreword to NASA's Administrative His- 

 tory, 1963-69: 



One of the difficult matters which faced NASA during my term as Administrator 

 was the demand, in the context of the congressional investigations of the Apollo 

 204 fire, for the public release of what became known as the Phillips report. This was 

 a collection of contractor evaluations generated by a group under Maj. Gen. Samuel 

 C. Phillips, Apollo Program Director, about a vear previous to the fire. NASA's 

 response to the requests of individual legislators to produce these evaluations for 

 release to the public was based upon a strong need not to destroy the system which 

 had been carefully worked out over the years whereby contractors and their key 

 personnel cooperated to the fullest extent in assessing inadequacies in performance of 

 both in-house and out-of-house organizations and equipment. This system was 

 designed to assist in overcoming the inadequacies rather than to fix blame. 



Although Ryan, in letters to both Teague and Chairman Miller, 

 asked that the committee seek to obtain a fully authorized copy of the 

 Phillips report and incorporate it into the official record of the fire 

 hearings, no action was taken. Following an executive session with 

 the Senate committee at which Webb furnished a copy of the report to 

 the Senate committee, Webb offered to do the same for the House 

 committee. But Chairman Miller advised Webb on May 17: 



I appreciate vour furnishing me with the information on your agreement with 

 Senator Anderson relative to making certain details of the original Phillips notes 

 available for staff study. 



Before we make any arrangements in this committee, I would want to assure 

 myself that all of the members of the committee are available to receive such informa- 

 tion which can be presented bv NASA. It so happens that in the next 2 or 3 

 weeks a number of our members have pressing engagements outside the city. Foi 

 example, you will recall that the Paris Air Show is scheduled to take place shortly 

 and we have several members and staff planning to attend. 



There was no further action. 



Another report, made by a North American employee, Thomas R. 

 Baron, was not only made available to the subcommittee, but Teague 

 also invited Baron to testify at special field hearings of the subcom- 

 mittee at Cape Kennedy on April 21. Baron, a "preflight inspector," 

 had listed a number of incidents and deficiencies which he had observed, 

 and reported, only to be dismissed from his job for his pains. A large 

 percentage of these deficiencies North American acknowledged were 



