Endeavour shuttle pilot has ties to region

By MARTA HEPLER DRAHOS
mdrahos@record-eagle.com

Tue, May 13 2008

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TRAVERSE CITY -- Henry Johnson didn't hesitate when NASA shuttle Endeavour pilot Gregory H. Johnson asked if there was anything his uncle wanted him to take into space.

"It just seemed appropriate that he take his grandfather's watch," said Henry "Hank" Johnson, 72. "Of everything I received from my father, this is it. It has history, significance, all those qualities that make an object special."

The timepiece, an old Illinois Central conductor's pocket watch in a gold case, rode along with Endeavour's seven-member crew on their 16-day mission to the International Space Station about 200 miles above Earth, Johnson said. It's one of several treasured objects astronauts took up in space with them to be "blessed by the cosmos," he added.

A Traverse City native and retired dentist, Henry Johnson said his father, Harold, received the watch as a gift and later passed it on to his son.

"It's a real gem. His parents gave it to him for graduation. He handed it to me one day over dinner," said Johnson, who had a jeweler rebuild the by-then stopped watch. "It's been running now for about 20 years. I've been winding it every day, except in space."

The watch has significance to Johnson's nephew, too. He grew up in Ohio, but shuttle pilot Gregory H. Johnson was close to his grandfather and watched the Apollo 11 landing on a black-and-white TV at his grandparents' home in Caro, Henry Johnson said. In fact, it was then that the 7-year-old decided he wanted to become an astronaut.

After graduating from the United States Air Force Academy in 1984, Col. Johnson became a pilot instructor and test pilot, eventually racking up 4,000 flying hours in 40 different aircraft types. He was twice deployed to Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War, where he flew more than 60 combat missions.

This was his first trip in space after completing astronaut candidate training in 2000.

"He was as excited as anybody could be," said Henry Johnson, who watched the March 11 launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. "He was going on waiting nine years."

He wasn't on hand to witness the Endeavour's return to Earth Wednesday, but Johnson said he'll be waiting to reclaim the watch. After traveling 17,500 miles an hour, keeping time on Earth should be easy.

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