Mar 18 2024 26 mins
Many gave him the sobriquet the “Rocket Man,” the one who developed the Saturn V rocket that put six teams of American astronauts on the moon from 1969 to 1972. He was the father and superstar of our space program.
Werhner von Braun and three others flew from Huntsville, Alabama to Walnut Ridge AFB, where they drove to Jonesboro on December 26, 1959. The four traveled to Wallace Claypool's legendary and famous Wild Acres, located near Weiner, Arkansas, where Claypool told Von Braun they would hunt tomorrow in his favorite hole: “Hot Spot.”
Monday morning at the clubhouse, von Braun said with so much anticipation and eagerness, “I can hardly wait. This will do us some good. Let’s get it done. It will be shooting time before we know it.” Von Braun, Wallace Claypool, “Miss Sally,” Wallace's wife and also manager of the clubhouse,” and Claypool’s Lab George went to the green-timber hole Hot Spot, later painted by the famous artist Maynard Reese. The other eleven hunters split into three groups, each with one of Claypool’s and Miss Sally’s Labrador retrievers—Ike, Rip, and Buck, the latter being the son of Winchester-Western John Olin’s Buck on the 1959 Federal Duck Stamp, the first and only time a dog ever appeared on a U.S. duck stamp.
Beneath a clear blue sky with a morning temperature of 39 degrees, Claypool’s and Miss Sally’s calling had the ducks helicoptering down through the timber, where Von Braun made some very skillful and tough shots among the limbs. His shooting with his Browning Auto 5, 12-gauge was “uncanny,” knocking down a limit of four mallards with his first four shots. Soon thereafter, Claypool and Sally got mallard limits, shooting Winchester Model 12 pumps, while the others returned with their limits.
At the clubhouse, he remarked earnestly, “I had more fun shooting today than ever before. This hunt was fantastic. Getting away to Wild Acres, which has become famous across the nation, you just leave all your stress behind. This couldn’t have come at a better time. We have been so busy that there has been no occasion where we could escape from the pressure. I can’t wait until our hunt tomorrow. Miss Sally is one of the finest shooters and duck callers I have ever been around. ‘Clay’ taught her well.”