Apollo 1 is the official name that was later given to the never-flown Apollo/Saturn 204 (AS-204) mission. Its command module (CM-012) was destroyed by fire during a test and training exercise on January 27, 1967 at Pad 34 (Launch Complex 34, Cape Canaveral, then known as Cape Kennedy) atop a Saturn IB rocket. The crew aboard were the astronauts selected for the first manned Apollo program mission: Command Pilot Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Senior Pilot Ed White and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee. All three died in the fire.

Although the ignition source of the fire was never conclusively identified, the astronauts' deaths were attributed to a wide range of lethal design hazards in the early Apollo command module. Among these were the use of a high-pressure 100 percent-oxygen atmosphere for the test, wiring and plumbing flaws, flammable materials in the cockpit (such as Velcro), an inward-opening hatch that would not open in this kind of an emergency and the flight suits worn by the astronauts.

Although I do feel very bad for them, at least their deaths helped prevent the deaths of others, deaths that may have occured in space, in which case we would have an orbiting casket. The three brave men passed to another world doing what they loved, and, although they never saw the achievement of their highest goal, landing on the moon, they still played a vital role on our nation's history. Rest in peace to those three men of Apollo 1.

It's strange for me to think how young those guys look to me now. I was a kid when that happened and my dad worked in the space program in Houston. He still has two personally autographed photos of Ed White making the first American "space walk" from a Gemini space capsule and the other photo he's posed seated with a scale model of the Gemini rocket.