JimOberg, on 29 December 2012 - 06:09 AM, said:
So what you consider doing 'research' on McClelland is to read what McClelland claims?
I do not think that word means what you seem to think it means.
Jim, Here his father's obituary. It appears the Clark C. McClelland fellow is real and does have a space program background. I can't vouch for his claims though.
http://www.findagrav...&GRid=29271361
Clyde Clark McClelland
Photo provided by Clark C. McClelland.
Clark had this monument inscribed to honor his father, Clyde, by showing his WWII battles in Europe with General Patton. The backside of the monument honors the programs that Clyde was a pioneer at Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center, Florida, 1957-1970. He was a hero to his country. Photo and caption provided by Clark C. McClelland.
Birth: May 26, 1913 Death: Jul. 7, 2001
Son of
Charles B. McClelland & Grace Viola (Clark) McClelland Pandolfino. Husband of Elizabeth Helen Mackovitch.
Obituary
In his 88 years, Clyde C. McClelland left Western Pennsylvania for only two extended periods, and only to serve his country. Mr. McClelland, who served with a tank destroyer unit during World War II and was a missile technician for the space program at Cape Canaveral for 15 years, died from complications of viral pneumonia Saturday, July 7, 2001 in the VA Medical Center in Aspinwall, PA. Mr. McClelland was born in Sligo, Clarion County. His father died when he was in his early teens, so Mr. McClelland moved with his mother, Grace, and sister, Lois, to the North Hills, near where his mother worked for Singer Sewing Machine Co. After he graduated from high school, Mr. McClelland worked for Pittsburgh Railways, predecessor of the Port Authority, until he enlisted in the Army in 1943. He served in France until 1945. He was part of a tank destroyer unit that attacked powerful German Tiger Tanks, a task his son Clark compared to "a rabbit hunting a tiger." During the Battle of the Bulge, Mr. McClelland, a technical sergeant, was caught behind enemy lines. He escaped Nazi capture and was later attached to Gen. George Patton's 3rd Army. He came under fire a number of times and suffered back injuries crossing the Remagan Bridge, while under intense enemy artillery fire. It eventually left him with a permanent 100% disability. He continued with General George S. Patton and his powerful US Third Army where he was part of the capture of the German Concentration Camp at Buchenwald. The Third Army liberated the tortured and sad people there. He met General Eisenhower at Buchenwald. He underwent some minor surgery in Europe and was hospitalized for two six-month periods in the US Veterans Hospital in Aspinwall, PA. He was operated on twice by the world renowned, Doctor Peter Lindstrom, who did not charge my father, in honor of his services in WW II. Doctor Lindstrom had a famous wife, movie actress, Ingrid Bergman.
Although he was not decorated at the time, his family is attempting to see that he is awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star posthumously.
After returning to his family after WW II in Pittsburgh and working at Pittsburgh Railways for another 10 years, Mr. McClelland decided he wanted to participate in the still-embryonic space program and moved his family to Cape Canaveral, Florida. Initially, he worked on a team that fueled rockets and spacecraft, and was on the fueling team that sent Alan Shepard into space and John Glenn into earth orbit. Later he did work in air-conditioning and environmental control during the Saturn V Apollo missions to the moon. His sons, Clark and Robert L., also worked in the space program. Around 1970, Mr. McClelland and his wife, Elizabeth, returned to Pennsylvania, moving first to Mount Troy and then to McCandless Township. Mr. McClelland worked for the U.S. Postal Service there and retired in the mid-1980s. After years of helping others fly, Mr. McClelland learned to pilot a seaplane after retiring. He had wanted to fly during World War II, but was disqualified because he was colorblind, his son Clark said. The Rimersburg Veterans of Foreign Wars conducted a military burial with an honor guard firing their rifles and a bugle sounding taps. I promised my father that honor. The funeral for Mr. McClelland was 1 p.m. at Sligo Cemetery. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) - July 13, 2001
Astronaut Clark McClelland, "the real Fox Mulder," has ties to Sligo.
Written by Clark C. McClelland, former ScO (Ground Test Astronaut), Space Shuttle Fleet, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Submitted 08 November 1999.
My father was raised in Sligo, PA, and born on May 26, 1913. His father was employed by the railroad; and my father, Clyde Clark McClelland, and aunt, Lois Evelyn McClelland, lived with their mother, Grace Viola McClelland, while the father was away. The railroad company apparently had some financial troubles, and Charles B. McClelland, my grandfather, was released from his many years of employment with the company. He was out of work and worried himself into an early grave in Sligo Cemetery. He was only 41 or so. My father, his sister, and their mother moved from Sligo and came to Pittsburgh, where my grandmother went to work for Singer Sewing Machine Company.
My mother, Elizabeth Helen (Mackovitch) McClelland, married Dad and had my brother, Robert Lance McClelland, and I. She lost a baby girl when she had a miscarriage.
My father was drafted into the US Army Tank Destroyers and sent to Fort Hood, Texas, for training. He was soon after sent to England and landed in France during the D-Day invasion. Eventually, he was trapped behind enemy lines during the Battle of the Bulge, where he eventually was wounded twice; one being serious, he was sent to a hospital in France to heal. He returned to his Third Army assignments under General George Patton. With Patton, Dad was involved in the release of many thousands of concentration camp prisoners. He won the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and many other medals and battle stars.
My dad and mother, along with Bob, moved to Titusville, Florida, in 1956, where my father joined the US Space Program. He, my wife, brother, Robert, Uncle Joseph Mackovitch and I were five of the first to become pioneers in that great effort. I arrived there in 1958 with my former wife Anna Mae (Smoller) McClelland. She gave birth to our son, Clark Michael McClelland, and daughter, Colleen Marie McClelland. I continued to work on the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs along with other members of our family. My uncle, Joseph Mackovitch (my mother's brother) worked the Apollo program; my sister-in-law, Margaret Dabelko (Minuteman program); and my wife, Anna Mae (Mercury program). It was a family affair.
My Father left the space program due to my mother's requiring a more northern, seasonal atmosphere for her asthma. They returned to Pittsburgh with my brother.
I remained at the launch bases and worked the Apollo-Soyuz mission of the meeting and coupling of the US and USSR spacecraft in orbit, the unmanned Lunar Orbiter, program, and launching the many Space Shuttles to the International Space Station.
During my years at Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center, I was also involved in the search for extraterrestrial life and investigating UFO sightings by our astronauts. I was the Director of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) and the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) at both launch bases. I was actually the real "X-Files" and the real Fox Mulder. Yes, our astronauts have seen UFO's.
I ended my Space Center career in 1992. I have been writing three books concerning my space program history and disclosing the REAL X-FILES to the tax paying public.
I am a member of the Masonic Order (F&AM) and a York Rite Knight Templar at Lodge 301 in Florida. I am an honorary Blood Brother of Chief White Wolf of the Native American Lakota Sioux Nation, being made a Blood Brother and a member 1993.
Our family history includes such historic people as Civil War General George B. McClellan (he did not use the "d" in his last name); William Clark, of the Lewis and Clark Expeditions; Abraham Clark, signer of the Declaration of Independence; Revolutionary War General George Rogers Clark; John Clark, first mate of the Mayflower (Pilgrims, 1620); William Clark(e) Quantrill, of the Confederate guerrilla band that scourged the west with Jesse and Frank James and Joseph Clark, who had an apartment across from Ford's Theater in Washington, DC, where President Abe Lincoln was carried and lay in his (Clark's) bed, where the President died.
For more information about Clark and his space career, visit his Web site at:
Stargate Chronicles
Used with permission of Clark C. McClelland
email: clark0003@gmail.com
email: clark0003@hotmail.com
Note: Clark C. McClelland will eventually be buried next to his father in Sligo, PA! OUR family heritage grounds.
Family links:
Parents:
Charles V. McClelland (1882 - 1925)
Grace Viola Clark Pandolfino (1888 - 1945) Burial:
Sligo Cemetery
Sligo
Clarion County
Pennsylvania, USA
Created by:
Pamela Myers-Grewell
Record added: Aug 24, 2008
Find A Grave Memorial# 29271361
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