The Eagle Has Landed (Epilogue)

The Right Stuff
There are — thank you, Jesus — a number of things in my life for which I feel very proud. Most of them are privileges I have been given, not necessarily of my own making.

I feel as blessed to be me as I could possibly imagine any man could feel. I am humbled by my fortune in this life.

Among my proudest and most honored moments came when Michelle’s Mom asked me to deliver the eulogy at her husband’s funeral. It was an assignment I received with gladness.

I can’t say that I was quite as nervous as I was almost exactly nine years earlier, when I delivered my Step-Mom, Maxine’s eulogy. However this one held added meaning to me.

Not only was I honoring a wonderful Father to my wife, Granddaddy, to my kids, and friend to me, but also a great man, whose humble service to his country — and really, to our society — cannot be easily measured.

I’d like to close this tribute to my Father In-Law with the text to his eulogy, which I delivered on Wednesday June 10, 2009 at Williamson Memorial Funeral Home & Gardens, in Franklin Tennessee.

But before I do, I kinda need to explain one more thing; not because I’m worried no one will ‘get it,’ but rather to underscore the way I feel about this man; something even now I’m a little shocked at myself for feeling.

Right now, even months after his death, I actually, feel closer to my Father In-Law than I ever did when he was alive. And as you might imagine, I feel a little guilty about that.

Is it only now that he’s gone that I realize what a special guy he was? Did it take losing him to make me realize how valuable he was, not only to his family, but to me, personally? I mean c’mon, I’ve never been ANYONE else’s freaking ‘guru.’ It’s always been me who has pursued relationships with others — never the other way around.

But he valued me. He appreciated what I knew and who I was. Why the HELL didn’t I appreciate him more while I had the chance?

Why didn’t I make the effort to spend more time with him individually — particularly over the past year, when we actually lived in the same state; when the distance between us was only 30 miles instead of 650?

These are always questions that have no answers; that are always asked too late; that will haunt us if we let them.

He called me ‘Fell’r’ — you know, the country equivilent of ‘fellow’ or ‘fella’ — a term of endearment.

I really liked that.

And I really miss him.

Ed Carpenter had the right stuff.

No, he wasn’t an astronaut, or even a test pilot; he wasn’t ‘Scott’ Carpenter, or James Lovell, or Neil Armstrong, but he knew them all, worked with them all, and ALL of them trusted him with their lives.

Someone once asked if he ever wanted to trade places with the astronauts whom he helped send to the moon. He replied simply, “No, I don’t want to go…I’ll just make sure that all who DO go are safe.”

My Father In-Law was a significant spoke in the wheel of U.S. History, but he’d never tell you that. “Just doing his job,” he’d say. I never once remember hearing him brag or boast about the work he did in the Space Program, or the fact that the GPS navigation units we all consider a part of our lives exist in significant part due to his efforts.

Nope; he wasn’t anything special.

The heck he wasn’t!

His dedication and excellence as lead test-conductor for the second stage of the Saturn V rocket that powered Apollo 11 to the moon wasn’t his only calling card. Edwin Lee Carpenter was everything to his family, because his family was everything to him.

He learned that from his parents, Bill and Louise Carpenter of Pensacola, Florida. Born in 1931, Edwin and his younger brother Larry enjoyed a happy childhood, despite beginning their lives in the latter years of the Great Depression.

Bill Carpenter was a mechanic at the Naval Air Station there in Pensacola, where his impeccable work ethic and sense of dedication in supporting his family during those lean times heavily influenced his two boys.

In his teen years Edwin was fascinated with all things mechanical and especially, all things electronic. He and Larry were grease monkeys, always working on boats, cars, motorcycles — and Edwin’s newest fascination — radio and television sets.

That fascination with electronics would serve Edwin well, as when he entered the Army in 1949, his superior test scores landed him the role of radar technician — stateside, instead of being a soldier ‘over there,’ fighting in the Korean War.

His career as an electrical engineer was a direct result of that experience.

Ed joined North American Aviation as a technician in 1955, launching a 35-year career with the company that would eventually become Rockwell International, arguably the largest and most important technology contractor in the history of the Space Program.

The key word was LAUNCH.

His integrity and attention to detail as an engineer won him the respect and admiration of both his military and civilian managers, from his work on the Hound Dog Missile project, to the Saturn V Rocket that helped place the first man on the moon, to the Navstar Global Positioning System initiative that sent the first round of GPS satellites into orbit around the Earth.

And when the U.S. Space Program’s proudest moment arrived, on July 16, 1969, it was Ed Carpenter who was asked to give Apollo 11’s final launch countdown to zero before turning things over to Mission Control in Houston.

Just another day at the office for the man who one day, correcting me for introducing myself to someone as his ‘Son In-Law,’ said, “No, he’s my ‘Son in-LOVE.’ Sure it was embarrassing…but I know why he said it; he said it because he had so much love to give.

Ed Carpenter loved his family, and his family loved him just as much.

He met Mary Ellen Collier quite by accident one afternoon, when she accompanied a family friend to his parent’s house. It was truly a love-at-first-sight circumstance, as 8 weeks later, Ed and Marian were walking down the aisle, and would remain by each other’s side for the next 55-plus years.

Eleven months later, a daughter, Vickie, was born, followed by Michelle and Kal. Their life together as a family was a celebration of all he knew and believed in.

Ed Carpenter LOVED his family; in 1979 when I married Michelle, I found out how much (in no uncertain terms either, buddy). But I soon learned that this was a man with a heart as big as all outdoors.

Today, his loss leaves us with a hole in our hearts that’s about the same size.

He is survived by his brother, Larry, his wife, Mary Ellen, their daughter, Michelle, son, Kal, and three grandchildren: Trevor, Shawn, and Amy.

Ed Carpenter LOVED the Lord, and served dutifully and humbly as a Baptist Deacon for many years.

But while we’re all feeling a little lonelier at his passing, he no doubt has plenty of company there in the presence of our Heavenly Father.

His Mother, eldest daughter, and Father preceded him to Heaven and there’s no doubt in my mind that they’re all here with us today, celebrating the life of a great man; a great American; a man who made me feel like a son to him; a man I loved and will miss very, very much.

Thanks, Fell’r…

finis