'Forever in my mind': Readers reflect on Challenger disaster after 40 years

Forty years ago, on Jan. 28, millions of people watched Space Shuttle Challenger take flight from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Then, they watched it break apart 73 seconds later. All seven crew members died. The Kingsport Times News asked its Facebook followers to share memories of the Challenger disaster. Here are some of their responses: "I was 15. School was closed because of snow. I was mad because my Dad wanted to watch the launch (we only had one TV). I was in the kitchen and heard my Dad say, 'oh dear Lord.'" — Deborah Mullins Collette "I watched Kingsport native John Palmer break into NBC network programming to report the news. I was a reporter at The Bakersfield Californian. My beat included covering shuttle landings at Edwards Air Force Base. I immediately drove to Edwards to interview NASA employees who knew crew members." — Rob Walters "I was sick and home from school that day and I was standing in the backyard [in Kissimmee] by our pool and watched it explode. The explosion shook the ground and our entire home... seeing the different smoke trails was confusing at first and then quickly we all learned what happened." — Randy Randy "It was a snow day from school so I was at my dads watching my step brothers. We were all just kids watching this terrible thing happen on tv." — Kerry Amy Trinkle Lee "I lived in Hawkins County and was a senior in high school. It was a snowy January, so we were out of school that day. I was watching television and it happened on live TV. I remember the announcer saying there appeared to be a malfunction, but it was obvious that the shuttle had exploded." — Wes Carter "I lived in Lake Hamilton, FL and was attending elementary school. It was a school thing to go out and watch the space shuttles take off, but this one was extra special, it had a teacher on it! We were all outside watching when we saw it explode and we all knew something [wasn't] right because that was unlike any other launch we had witnessed. When we all went back inside to our classrooms, it was all over the TV. A day I will never forget." — Kay McKenzie Salyer "Got home from working 12hrs in SICU in Johnson City. Turned on the TV and there it was: launch and flames returning! Horrible!" — Karen Hall Dykes "I was in Ms. Simpson Kindergarten class at Washington Elementary. I remember coming home and complaining to mom that they kept interrupting cartoons with a news reports. She set me straight very quickly about the importance of what had happened." — James Phillips "Getting ready for work and I watched the launch with my mom and dad and we all just sat in stunned silence when it exploded. Sad day." — Greg Cassell "Oddly enough I was in preschool and can remember sitting together with the other kids eating bologna sandwiches and we watched it happen. The teachers immediately put us down for a nap. It's wild that I can still remember that, I was only 4." — Dustin Elliot "I was in college in Texas and I remember walking through the student center and seeing it on the televisions in the lounge. Many folks on campus had ties to the space program in Houston and it hit them hard." — Susan Harrison Emery "4th grade, Mrs. McCarters class, West [View] Elementary in Knoxville....brought the TV on it's rolling cart into the classroom for us to watch and watch we did. Hard to believe that was 40 years ago but it is forever in my mind." — Erik Watson "At school, we watched the news for hours in our classroom." — Regina Presnell "I was in Dr. Shirley Chapman's American Government Class at ETSU. The way I heard it was on my brother's Walkman that I listened to when I went in-between classes. I still can't stand to watch that video..." — Wade Littleton "Our furnace was out of commission, we were in the laundry room with the wall heater and a portable TV. I'll never forget how horrible it was to see this on that 13 [inch] tv." — Frankie Light "I was in 4th grade, home with the flu, playing with my GI Joes on the coffee table in front of the TV. This had been the talk of the school, a teacher was going into space. So I was extremely excited, as I watched the TV, counting down with whoever that guy is, watching that shuttle take off. In minutes my elation turned to confusion as it blew into a million pieces. I just sat there, the battle between GI Joe and Cobra forgotten, just sat there…" — Adam McElyea