From: "Joe Barr" 



Blessed by my own ignorance, I said goodbye to Columbia without even
realizing it.  I had already had my coffee, so I let the dogs out and the
three of us went outside to feed the donkeys.  As soon as I stepped out on
the desk, Anna started singing for her breakfast.

My deck faces north, towards Bergstrom Airport.  I looked up and saw a long
contrail streaking across the sky.  Aha, I thought.  A fighter from one of
the San Antonio bases making a run to Bergstrom.  I stared because this
time it seemed a little different than usual.  The contrail was larger. 
And there was no sound.  Usually it is the roar of the jets that alerts me
to a fighter going overhead.

I kept staring and for a second I thought there were two jets, not just
one.  But a few seconds later the smaller one disappeared.  Then I saw what
looked like sunlight glinting off a windshield.

Anna called again for her grain, so I stopped watching the sky and headed
out to the donkeys.

It was two hours later before I learned what I had seen.  I was stunned. I
couldn't believe it.  I called a news station and asked if it were possible
that I had seen Columbia disintegrating.  Yes, they said.  Others did too,
some even videotaped it.

200 miles away and 39 miles high, I stared at death happening and hadn't
even known it.  Hadn't even remembered the early morning a couple of years
ago when I had gotten up early to watch it streak through the same sky
towards a landing in Florida.  Sometimes ignorance is my friend.















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