Shuttle Black Box Found

Captain John Hogmire
and Florida Four NASA Debris Recovery Team
Hemphill, TX, March 2003

Captain John Hogmire, a firefighter with South Trail Fire & Rescue since 1981, was a member of the 20-person Florida Four NASA Debris Recovery Team that found the shuttle "black box" near Hemphill, TX. The team spent two weeks, from dawn to dusk, searching through the East Texas brambles and brush for pieces of the space shuttle Columbia. On March 19, Captain Hogmire's team made the discovery of a lifetime when they found, intact, on a slope in an oak hammock, the Columbia's flight data recorder. Two Florida teams found nearly 200 pieces of the shuttle during their two weeks in Texas.