CHAPTER XII 



Rapid Development 



Bernard Smith 



Mr. Smith was born on May 15, 1910, in New York City. He received 

 a BA in physics from Reed College in Portland, Oregon, in 1948, and in 

 the same year gained employment with the Naval Ordnance Test Station, 

 China Lake, California. In 1961 he was promoted to Chief Engineer for 

 the Bureau of Naval Weapons where he remained until he fulfilled a 

 1-year tour as a civilian scientific officer with the Office of Naval Re- 

 search in London, England. In August 1964, he came to Dahlgren as 

 Technical Director. Mr. Smith retired from Dahlgren on June 29, 1973. 



The following interview with Mr. Smith was conducted in his home in 

 King George County, Virginia, by Cynthia Rouse on June 8, 1976. 



In 1932, you conducted the first public firing of a liquid-fuel rocket in America. 

 You were 22 at the time, which seems a very young age for such an endeavor. 

 How did you build up to this feat at that young age"? 



If you will recall, those were the years of the Depression, pretty much 

 the depth of the Depression, and there really was nothing very much to 

 do in New York where I lived. It struck me at that time that maybe 

 there's a better world. The thing to do is get off this planet and look 

 for another one. The only way to do it is with rockets. That's really 

 what started me off. 



Your first association with the Navy was at the Naval Ordnance Test Station in 

 California in 1948. There's a large gap between 1932 and 1948. What did you 

 do between those years'? 



Most of those years, with the exception of college years, were spent as 

 a mechanic, a welder, a blacksmith, a locksmith, doing odd jobs. Just 

 prior to my going off to college, I was a welder in a shop, sort of work- 

 ing into the managerial area and deciding after a while that the best 



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