Challenger

Watching the Weather Channel when Weather Changed History brings back memories of that awful day.
I'll always remember it.
I was home that morning, in my on-base Army family housing apartment in Germany with my pregnant wife and my almost 2-year-old daughter when the warrant officer across the hall knocked on my door and told us to turn on Armed Forces Network.
We did and saw some of the first re-runs from the tragic launch. That was such an awful day.
It was a tense time for all of us because we were forward deployed during the dying days of the Cold War, when it was obvious that the Soviet Union was under a lot of stress, but it was far from obvious that they would react to their troubles non-violently. It was considered much more likely the Kremlin would resort to desperate measures to retain power.
But for the next couple of days our problems receded into the background as we followed the recovery effort as best we could. AFN did a good job of keeping us informed. They seemed to be able to pick from the best of the available TV. so we got a lot of CNN but also the other networks.