Thomas Ronald "Tom" Baron ( 1938 – April 27, 1967) was a quality control and safety inspector for

North American Aviation North American Aviation (NAA) was a major American aerospace manufacturer that designed and built several notable aircraft and spacecraft. Its products included the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F- ...

(NAA), when NAA was the primary contractor to build the

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

command module.

Early life and education

Baron was born in or around 1938, in

Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania Wilkes-Barre ( , alternatively or ) is a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it had a population of 44,328 in the 2020 census. It ...

. He attended Liberty High School in

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Bethlehem is a city in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Northampton and Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Bethle ...

Career

Baron initially enlisted in the

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its origins to 1 ...

, where he was stationed at

Eglin Air Force Base Eglin Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) base in the western Florida panhandle, located about southwest of Valparaiso, Florida, Valparaiso in Okaloosa County, Florida, Okaloosa County. The host unit at Eglin is the 96th Test ...

Okaloosa County, Florida Okaloosa County is a county located in the northwestern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, extending from the Gulf of Mexico to the Alabama state line. As of the 2020 census, the population was 211,668. Its county seat is Crestview. Okaloo ...

. He was later hired as a quality control inspector with

, the prime NASA contractor for construction of the Apollo spaceship.

Whistleblower report

Baron compiled a 169-page report critical of safety standards at North American Aviation, and leaked his report to the media. After NAA learned of this, they fired him. After the

Apollo 1 Apollo 1, initially designated AS-204, was planned to be the first crewed mission of the Apollo program, the American undertaking to land the first man on the Moon. It was planned to launch on February 21, 1967, as the first low Earth orbital ...

fire, Baron wrote a 275-page report on

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

safety protocol violations, which he gave to Rep. Olin E. Teague's investigation at

Cape Kennedy Cape Canaveral () is a cape in Brevard County, Florida, in the United States, near the center of the state's Atlantic coast. Officially Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973, it lies east of Merritt Island, separated from it by the Banana River. It i ...

in Florida, on April 21, 1967. The chairman of the NASA Oversight Committee claimed that Baron had made a valuable contribution to the Apollo fire probe, but that he had been "overzealous".

Death

Six days after his testimony, Baron was killed instantly, along with his wife and stepdaughter, when a train crashed into their car. near their home in

Mims, Florida Mims is a census-designated place (CDP) holding the single zip code ''32754'' located within Brevard County, Florida, United States. The population was 7,336 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Palm Bay—Melbourne—Titusville Metropolitan ...

."Shuttle Workers Say They Are Afraid to Talk About Challenger"
''Orlando Sentinel'', July 23, 2021

References

External links

''Missing 500 page report''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baron, Thomas Ronald 1930s births 1967 deaths Apollo 1 Apollo program Liberty High School (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) alumni North American Aviation Place of birth missing Place of death missing People from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania Road incident deaths in Florida Year of birth uncertain