【誰にともなしに、独り言レス―その3453】
この現場（ホリデイ・イン）には実は（どこにでも顔を出してそうな―その3445参照）あのミルト・トンプソンが（グリソムのリバティベル打ち上げの見学で）ジョー・ウォーカーと一緒にいて、グリソムとの一悶着をトム・ウルフが「ザ・ライト・スタッフ」に（例によって）さも見てたかのように活写してることに（とっくに当事者は二人とも死んでるし）逆に驚いている。（と言いつつ、リークした張本人だったりして？）
トンプソンによれば、ジョー・ウォーカーは X-15 と Redstone のパフォーマンス（about who would fly the highest and the fastest）に大差はなく比肩しうるもので、しかもパイロットが操縦する X-15 と違ってグリソムは Redstone にオマケで乗せてもらってるだけ（just along for the ride）だと指摘したが、何も本気（マジ）でそう言い張ったわけじゃなく、最終的には宇宙飛行士に及ぶべくもないと承知（自覚）していた。
ただ、同じ NASA で働いてるのに情けないほど大差のある扱い（待遇）にイラついて（irritated）いて、一介の公僕（civil servant）たるウォーカーはマーキュリー宇宙飛行士のように至れり尽くせりの余禄を頂戴したり、もちろんライフ誌との破格の契約（その3119参照）などできない―どころか、航空機パイロットの半分程度の薄給にムカついて（upset）いて、ついグリソムに難癖付けてマウント取りたくなったか。（飲んでたし）
ま、んなことでアームストロングみたいに鞍替えする（その2896参照）ようなジョー・ウォーカーではなかったけれど。（1966年 F-104 で XB-70 に空中接触事故死―その2916参照）
In his book, The Right Stuff, Tom Wolfe mentions the argument between Joe Walker and Gus Grissom about who would fly the highest and the fastest. I am surprised that Tom knew about that argument since both Joe and Gus were dead long before the book was published. I happened to be with Joe and Gus when they had that argument. Joe and I had traveled to the Cape to watch Grissom's flight. We sat around for over a week waiting for the flight to launch because of the many delays and aborts. In that discussion, Joe pointed out that the X-15 engine had almost as the Redstone booster engine—60,000 pounds of thrust in the X-15 versus 76,000 pounds in the Redstone, and the X-15 engine had a throttle. He also pointed out that the X-15 pilot was flying the boost profile, while Gus was just along for the ride. In terms of actual performance, the X-15 and the Mercury-Redstone were comparable.
Not a huge difference between the performance of the two vehicles. The X-15 theoretically had the performance to reach an altitude of 100 miles, but it could not safely reenter from that altitude.
Joe was not really arguing seriously. He knew the astronauts were ultimately going to go much faster and higher. He was just giving Gus a bad time, but Joe was a little irritated by the special treatment that the astronauts were receiving. They were allowed to accept gratuities and sign a contract with Life magazine for their exclusive stories. Joe, as a civil servant, was not allowed to accept any kind of gratuity and yet, he and the astronauts both worked for NASA. Joe was also upset that his salary as a NASA pilot was approximately half that of an airline pilot. Joe did a lot of this type of griping, but he would not have traded jobs with anyone. He loved his job and it was a sad day for American aerospace when he perished in a midair collision in 1966. （At the Edge of Space: The X-15 Flight Program）
