"Houston we have a problem" , this statement will always be remembered from the flight of the Apollo 13. Of coarse it did not catch on until the movie was made about there mission. This story was very different from the other stories I have read and I would consider this story the white collar of survival stories. Part of me thinks that Joe Simpson from Touching the Void and Steve Callahan from Adrift would laugh in the face of this story. Actually survival is survival and what is at stake is your life no matter which way you do it, we will all pay the same in the end. 
          It is difficult to put myself in their position because I can't relate with all the technology. The biggest difference from the other stories I have read  were in the fact that these men were not alone, in fact they had the entire world watching them. They had the best people seeing them through this mission and pretty much anything they needed at their finger tips. Which does not down play the danger that these three men were in because they were in serious danger of losing their lives, the odds were against them. That loneliness is a real stinger to deal with, when you have no one to bounce ideas off or even talk to. You are the only one who can make decisions and you only have yourself to rely on. And when these decisions that your making can take or save your life that will make it  hard to be alone. I think there is safety in numbers and these men had the best chance possible in their situation. It is one thing to have your children with you and another to have peers with you. Having my children with me in a survival situation would be much harder on me because I will have to look out for them, they are children. This could happen with a peer also in fact on the flight of the Apollo, Fred Haise did become ill and he started to become a liability he was not able to do his duties on the ship and one wrong  push of a button and it could be disastrous. At one point the ship had to separate from part of itself and Haise was still in the part that they were going to send into oblivion. John Swigert who was beginning to panic was actually contemplating making  the separation before Haise made it over to the safe side.
          Some might say that these men asked for this mission and they new the danger involved. These survivalist don't seam to bring that up, when they are on a 20,000 foot cliff, sailing across the sea or taking a trip to the moon. I would not do these things because I don't want to die. For me it is not worth the excitement or the achievement of the event to risk my life. I think we owe it to ourselves and our families to take care of our selves and not to treat our lives so carelessly.  This sounds like a statement from a real couch potato and from someone who doesn't want to take a risk. Risk are fine but lets make them non life threatening. I have to admit that this book does make me want to achieve something great.  The way there families were waiting for them and the public and how they looked up to them. The fact that they were planning on walking on the moon which only two men had ever done. It would be nice to do something where people were watching you and cheering you on, that has to be a good feeling. I have overcome a lot in my life but never were there more than a few people paying attention. I have often said to myself that I would like to achieve greatness and when I read stories like this, I become more aware of my desire.
           What a way to die out there in space in front of millions of people. If they had died they would of been the first to do so in that way. I don't think they felt much comfort in that though. I felt such a feeling of helplessness for the men, they had all this  technology around them and for the most part they couldn't use it.  At one point they had to reconstruct a device that would take the carbon dioxide out of the air, there was no more technology or computers that could do this, so they had to construct this device from cardboard and duct tape. They were given specific instructions from the ground team on how to construct this. The ground team first constructed it on the ground and then instructed the men. They were running out of air and they had to get this device together quickly. I think two of the key issues when you are in a survival situation is not to panic and not to give up. As long as your still alive you have a chance. I think people underestimate themselves so much and that people can accomplish so much more than they ever thought they could. All this technology around them and it came down to the men looking out the window and flying this module like a common bi-plane.  Billions of dollars on this  spacecraft and the reason for the explosion was a faulty coil, which was planted in the spacecraft two years before they launched.  This coil was the reason for the explosion and the lose of the oxygen, which led to the electrical collapse.
           The white collar survival story affected me in such a way that  it gave me the desire to achieve greatness. I have always had this desire in me but this story sparked it again for me.