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Chuck Ordahl Memoir

memoir

Chuck Ordahl Memoir Summary

In 2019 I retired the from a long and exciting career in the aerospace business. Subsequently, I wrote a memoir of this journey and one of my GHS classmates urged me to distribute it more widely in the GHS Alumni newspaper. The highlights of the memoir are briefly summarized here:

I was born and raised in Grafton, was a member of the GHS class of 1952 and graduated with a degree in electrical engineering from UND in 1956. After graduation I was employed with the Douglas Aircraft Company (later becoming McDonnell Douglas and Boeing) in California in their missiles and space business. In 1957 I married Eileen Lembke. She is from Pembina and was a student nurse working in Grafton when we met at the 1956 Park River New Year’s Eve dance . Together we have raised a family of two children followed by four grandchildren.


I was born at a good time (1934) a period of low birth rates during the great depression and in a good place (Grafton) where education is valued highly and where there is a culture of strong people working together. At GHS I was very fortunate to have had excellent teachers that dramatically shaped the rest of my life. Key among them were: Cora Lykken (English); Joe Birkland (band); Harold Bliss (science); Hazel Sutterlin (literature/speech). Being a member of the Grafton band that marched in the Rose Bowl parade on January 1,1949 and winner of the ND science fair contest and GHS Stockwell oratorical contest in 1952 were important events that helped p[lace me on a path to an engineering career in California.

In 1956 I was fortunate to begin my career as a young engineer assigned to help develop the Thor IRBM which was the Nation’s first strategic long range ballistic missile during the cold war period. Eileen and I were a part of the “Emily Project” that installed these missiles in England during 1958 to 1960. They were on full alert during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.

Later after return to California I helped develop the Skybolt missile which was another strategic ballistic missile of that era and the years from 1963 to 1965 were devoted to developing early space satellite launch vehicles (rockets) based on the Thor rocket technology. This included launching the earliest military reconnaissance, weather and scientific satellites as well as the first communications satellites. In following years, I became Chief Engineer and Program Manager of the Delta rocket which launched many communications satellites in the 1970s through 1990s. This was technology which enabled much of the TV watched most Americans. It also included launching the first constellation of 28 global positioning (GPS) satellites which provide the underlying technology for many smart phone applications. Eventually in 1984 I became Vice President for Space Transportation.

In 1986 Delta was used for the Delta180 “Vector Sum” project which was an orbital experiment accomplishing an early demonstration of “hit to kill” space vehicles collision technology now used in today’s Ballistic Missile Defense System. President Reagan used the results in his negotiations with Mikhail Gorbachev at Reykjavik about nuclear disarmament and the need for defensive systems.

In the 1990’s I became Senior Vice President for Space and Defense programs with my primary office at Huntington Beach, California. During this period the Space Station was developed and placed into orbit. I retired from my executive position at Boeing in 1998 shortly after the merger with McDonnell Douglas.

Following this first retirement and starting in 1998 I returned to my engineering roots with aerospace consulting. The most important work was for the Ground Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) Program. GMD is the central element in the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) which forms the operational defense of the US homeland against intercontinental ballistic missile threats. During the period 2000 to about 2014 numerous technical challenges were met and overcome by the GMD team which I supported. In 2019 there was a full operationally realistic test of the GMD system which demonstrated its' effectiveness by destroying a mock reentry vehicle warhead weapon heading for the US. After this very successful test I once again retired.

Throughout these years there have been many opportunities for international travel and vacations which of course have greatly added to this adventure.

I started this career in1956 as a young engineer working to develop the Nation’s first long range ballistic missile and finished with the GMD system standing tall in defense of the Nation against a similar ballistic missile threat from an adversary. There were many other things in between but these are two good book ends and I will leave it with that.

Today, Eileen and I continue to reside at our homes in Newport Beach, San Diego and Lake Arrowhead . Our life is much slower now but that is okay. We have had our time.

Once again, thank you GHS for giving me a very good start for this long journey.

Chuck Ordahl



P.S. - For anyone that wants to read more details and pictures they can be found in the full memoir at:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/n13gjclrenk5t89/Memories%20of%20Chuck%20Ordahl%20-%20R1-%20final%20reduced.pdf?dl=0

Download PDF - Memories of Chuck Ordahl .pdf