Former FBI Agents Share Emotional Accounts of the Challenge of Recovering Space Shuttle Columbia

This week marks the 20th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy. For the first time, two FBI agents share their emotional stories of the astronauts’ recovery.

The Columbia was only 16 minutes away from its scheduled landing in Florida when it broke apart over Texas. A piece of fuel tank foam broke off and pierced the left wing during takeoff 16 days earlier.

NBC 5 photojournalist caught an unusual and sinister streak that filled the sky. Shortly thereafter, the nation learned that all seven astronauts on board had died when the shuttle broke apart over Texas.

Photos: Former FBI agents share emotional tales of the task of recovering Space Shuttle Columbia

“I just hear this loud hum. And I thought, “Something’s wrong here,” said Brent Chambers, an FBI agent who lived in Rockwall at the time and remembered being outside. “I’m just going to where I heard it from. And it was, it was the east.”

Allen Wilson was among the Dallas FBI agents who rushed east, not knowing what they would find. “I had no idea,” Wilson said.

The trail of debris stretched hundreds of miles from west Fort Worth to Louisiana. The largest concentration was near Nacogdoches and Lufkin.

UNRIVALED RECOVERY MISSION

“I’ve never been to East Texas before and the terrain is tough,” Wilson said. “It was a dense forest, swampy, swampy.”

Wilson and Chambers were on the Evidence Team, a unit that specializes in twisted crime scenes with lots of unknowns.

“We learned along the way because we had never dealt with all this jet fuel before. And also with all of space and radiation,” Chambers said.

Pieces of debris rained down along the highway and crashed into rooftops.

“It’s amazing to me that no one on earth was hurt,” Wilson said.

Photos: Former FBI agents share emotional tales of the task of recovering Space Shuttle Columbia

Texans everywhere along the path of the tragedy played a critical role in the recovery.

“They put up barricades around things, put up flags everywhere,” Chambers said. “And they would be there with guns protecting him. One guy, remember, he stayed there for a day and a half until we got there, he wasn’t going to move.”

Approximately 25,000 people from dozens of agencies discovered more than 80,000 parts of the shuttle.

“He has it in his hand and I have the bag and then he maps where we are,” Wilson said of the recovery process.

GPS coordinates were plotted on massive maps to pinpoint the location of the wreckage.

“You can see the concentration,” Wilson said, pointing to a map of the debris field. “I had no idea. The scale of it until you got in and started seeing some of it being displayed.”

Law enforcement agencies and the National Guard combed the forests and fields.

“If it was human remains, or they thought it was human remains, then they would have called my team,” Wilson said.

The astronauts and chaplains joined Wilson, Chambers and other agents on a deeply personal mission. Farewell to the dead astronauts.

“It was very, you know, unlike a crime scene in that regard — very solemn, very sacred, righteous retrieval of these remains,” Wilson said.

When searching for the crew of Columbia, helmets and patches were found lying on the ground.

“You know, you would have people choking and crying, including me,” Chambers said.

The rescue mission did not end until the agents learned that each of the astronauts had returned home.

“Our mission was to keep going until we have the entire team back on track. And on the 13th or 14th day, we got a call that it had happened,” Wilson said. “

Before Chambers left East Texas, an astronaut gave him a keepsake, and he has treasured it ever since. He has a patch on the last mission of the Space Shuttle Columbia on his wall. It bears the names of the seven astronauts he and Wilson brought home to their families.

“It’s the best thing I can do to just help them bring each other home,” Chambers said. “It was a touching time.”

Wilson recently retired from the FBI. Chambers also retired from the FBI and now works as a police captain in the small town of Lindale in East Texas.

TEXAS A&M CELEBRATES ANNIVERSARY WITH TREE PLANTING

The Texas A&M Forest Service played a critical role in the recovery operation. On Wednesday, he held a memorial at Nacogdoches.

Seven trees were planted there in honor of the crew of the Columbia.

They are now joined by two more trees in honor of the two Forest Service pilots who died in a helicopter crash while searching for the wreckage.

The Forest Service also installed a new plaque with information about the shuttle crash.

ON THE LAST THURSDAY OF EVERY JANUARY, NASA READS A REMEMBER TO MEMORY ASTRONAUTS

A fire at the Apollo 1 launch pad killed three astronauts on January 27, 1967. The Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart on launch on January 28, 1986, killing all seven on board, and the Space Shuttle Columbia was destroyed on re-entry on February 1, 2003.

Because of the combination of these three dates, NASA sets aside the last Thursday of every January to honor the dead astronauts. Flags were flown at half-staff and ceremonies were held at spaceports across the country.

This year, more than 100 people gathered under gray skies at the Kennedy Space Center to honor not only the Columbia crew of seven, but also 18 other astronauts who died in the line of duty. Two NASA shuttle accidents account for more than half of the names carved into the black granite of the Space Mirror Memorial; everything else is to blame for the plane crashes.

The ship’s bell tolled after each of the 25 names were read during a ceremony last week.

Maria Dunn of AP contributed to this report.