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Curt Nail
Curtis L. Nail Sr. grew up as a sharecropper in Baxley, Georgia. He went to school at Berry College in Rome, Georgia. Berry is a national treasure. It allowed students to attend class four days a w...view moreCurtis L. Nail Sr. grew up as a sharecropper in Baxley, Georgia. He went to school at Berry College in Rome, Georgia. Berry is a national treasure. It allowed students to attend class four days a week and work two. He graduated from Berry in 1962 with a major in physics, a major in mathematics, and a minor in chemistry. After Berry, he was an aircraft maintenance officer in the US Air Force with service in the Strategic Air Command (SAC) and the Pacific Air Force (PACAF).
In 1965, he made his life’s most important decision. He married Ms. Marilyn Ann Jeffries of Rome, Georgia.
After he finished his tour in South Vietnam, he worked at The Boeing Company for six years on the Apollo Lunar Landing Program. He used computer simulation analyses to determine the payload capacity of all the Saturn V launch vehicles and assisted in development of guidance commands for the first stage (S1-C) on each of the Saturn V missions. The third vehicle stage (S-IVB) actually burned twice on each mission. The first burn placed the vehicle in circular orbit about the earth. After a specified time delay, the S-IVB engine was reignited to place the payload on an orbit to the moon. Curtis helped develop the target pre-settings for the second S-IVB burn. Pre-settings specified the conditions for second S-IVB burn termination. When the termination conditions were reached, the engine was shut down and the payload was on an orbit to the moon. On July 20, 1969, he helped placed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon, a good day by any measure.
Curtis was associated with the Computer Sciences Corporation for eleven years. He performed simulation analysis studies on intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and sea-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs). He assisted in the development of electronic countermeasure algorithms for radar and antiradiation missile (ARM) systems. As a part of the algorithm effort, he helped design the first decoy system for the Patriot Radar. The decoy system was designed to protect the Patriot missile system from attacks by ARMs. Unfortunately, the decoy system was too expensive and was never fielded.
After the Computer Sciences Corporation, Curtis spent twenty-three years with a small engineering firm called SRS Technologies. Here he conducted simulation performance studies on President Regan’s “Star Wars” concept. After these studies, he helped generate requirements for development of the ground-based midcourse defense (GMD) system. The GMD system was designed to defend our country against small ICBM attacks. It uses an interceptor missile equipped with a kinetic energy (non-explosive) warhead. The warhead destroys the incoming ICBM by crashing into it. The GMD system is currently operational. Let’s pray that we never have to use it.
After a forty-five year career, Curtis retired in September 2007 and is working diligently to become a Grumpy Old Man. With proper preparation, he will first become a Fogey, then a Codger, and finally, the ultimate achievement, the Grand Order of Geezer.view less