On Feb. 1, 2003, at the conclusion of their mission, Space Shuttle Columbia disintegratef during reentry over Texas, killing all seven astronauts on board.
The disaster was the second of two fatal accidents in the space program, after the 1986 breakup of Challenger soon after liftoff.
During the Columbia launch, a piece of insulative foam broke off from the Space Shuttle external tank and struck the thermal protection system tiles on the orbiter’s left wing. When Columbia reentered the atmosphere of Earth, the damage allowed hot atmospheric gases to penetrate the heat shield and destroy the internal wing structure, which caused the orbiter to become unstable and break apart.
The astronauts onboard the Columbia were Rick Husband. commander, and astronauts Mike Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Ilan Ramon and Willie McCool. Several places have been named in their honor.
In March 2003, the Iraq War began with the United States and allied forces attacking Iraq. A month later, the U.S. forces seized control of Bagdad. In December 2003, Saddam Hussein, the former president of Iraq, was captured in the small town of Ad-Dawr by the U.S. Army.
There were a few other happenings in 2003 worth noting. The Human Genome Project was completed, with 99% of the human genome sequencing to 99.99% accuracy. Dewey, the first deer was cloned by scientists at Texas A&M University. Prometea, the world’s first cloned horse was born. In July 2003, Tesla Inc., the American electric car company, was founded. And in October 2003, the supersonic airliner Concorde made its last commercial flight.
Back in the Lapel community, in 2003 several area service personnel were in the process of being activated to deploy into active duty because of the Iraq war. If you were in the National Guard, you were probably already on stand-by. Anyone in the military reserve or guard would be the first to be called up for active duty.
Becasue of the Lapel High School Band’s great performance at then Indiana State Fair, Scott Hersberger and Connie King presented LHS Band Director Greg Scott with a handmade quilt. The band placed 16th in the summer contest at the fair.
In 2003, the Indiana Chamber of Commerce had an educational program called, “Best Buy Honor Roll Awards.” It was designed to recognize and encourage the 346 Indiana High Schools to improve their programs. This award was presented to Lapel Jr. Sr. High School and Frankton Jr. Sr. High Schools based on their SAT scores, graduation rate, ISTEP scores and expenditures per student by the local school district. Go Bulldogs!
In January, American Legion Post 212 played host to a catfish dinner for the community. Skip Turner, Rusty Whetsel, Brad Wilcox and Gerald Lowhorn fried and served 170 pounds of catfish. Funds from the meal and other events went to local charity and scholarships for LHS seniors.
Also in 2003, according to the Lapel Post “Old man weather was not kind to the Lapel residents. Matt McDole of the Town of Lapel had to get the Backhoe out to remove piles of snow. North Woodward and other streets were snow covered with snowdrifts.” At that time, this writer was living in sunny Florida.
In February 2003, Lapel High School played host to the Class 1A regional basketball tournament. A few minutes into the first quarter of the championship game between Tri Central and Southern Wells, the gym went dark. After a few minutes, they announced a transformer had short-circuited. The emergency generator kicked in. It was only good for 30 to 45 minutes. They decided to evacuate the gym. The basketball fans left the gym orderly, thanks to the Lapel police and fire departments.
On April 2003, Congressman Mike Pence came to Lapel High School and met with the students. Amanda Ahlquist, Jason Cook and Beth McDermit met and shook hands with the congressman and future vice president. Pence spoke about the war in Iraq and other current events.
There were several events worth mentioning during school year 2002-03. Two snipers terrorized the Washington, D.C. area; Nancy Pelosi becomes the first woman party leader in the House or Senate; the new architectural design for the World Trade Center site features a memorial to the Sept. 11 victims and a 1,776-foot tower, making it the world’s tallest building; Actor Robert Blake is arrested for murder; Elizabeth Smart is nabbed at gunpoint from her Salt Lake City home. And the price of a 42-inch plasma television dropped to $6,000.
Also, in April 2003, Lapel American Legion Ladies Auxiliary and American War Mothers got together and packaged goods to be shipped to local servicemen and women who were activated during the Iraq War. The group of women participating were Valerie Zeiss, Kathie Danford, Darlene Wilson, P.J. Armstrong, Marilyn Eliston (president, Ladies Auxiliary), Kelly Snyder, Lorraine Light, Irma Bliss, (state president, American War Mothers), Peggy Liptow, Lynn Carpenter, Marjorie Howell, Maria Turner, and Juanita McDaniel.
I was in the Marines during 1954-55, and anytime I received a package from home, I always shared it with my buddies.
This writer mentioned several articles ago how much appreciation there is for a group of Lapel residents who first took on a job of installing Street Lights in our community. They got that done without the job costing Lapel taxpayers any noticeable amount. The street lights initially cost about $2,500 each, however, as time passed, the lights increased in cost. That did not discourage this group of Lapel residents! They also took on the job of decorating those streetlights with the American Flags and Christmas wreaths. I hope I don’t leave anyone out, but we need to always remember the group of Hershel and Nancy Hinkle, Neil andLou Whisman, Sallie Scott, Peggy Molina and Ron Nunley and the Lapel Community Association. They are looking out for us.
The 2002-2003 faculty were Cary Aubrey, David Barker, Mark Boudrot, Judy Brown, Dorinda Cassiday, Richard Cassiday, Bill Chase, Amy Clark, Diane Clark, Katherine Ewers, Bobby Fields, Woody Fields, Denise Gray, Lisa Hagan, Cheryl Hensley, Tim Hilderbrand, Debbie Johnson, Marianne Julius, Brent Keck, James Keller, Sharon McDermit, Brenda Mills, Janet Passwater, Susan Roberts, Danita Roudebush, Greg Scott, Derek Shelton, Cindy Stephenson, Jeannine Terhune, Zoe Terhune, Phillip Thomas and Susan Tudor.
Senior Class members were Amanda Ahlquist, Emily Alvarez, Jesse Armstrong, Jeff Bartel, Stephanie Brannum, Stephanie Bloomer, Tori Buchanan, Angel Burton, Stephen Cates, Rachel Conrad, Katlyn Cowgill, Tyler Crandall, Dwayne Daniels, Autumn Deley, Ryan Edwards, Jordan Filburn, Brandon Forrer, Sarah Goldsmith, Chris Hamlyn, Eli Hershberger, Emily Hoover, Alex Hoover, Mark Mahoney, Ashley Newby, Amanda O’Leary, Trey Orbik, Cassie Owen, Holly Sauerwein, Ryan Schmollinger, Jamie Smay, Racheal Sylvester, Jennifer Turner, Tara Veach, Brandon Wayman, Hayden Williams, Stephanie Williams and Rachel Yeryar.
In LHS sports for the 2002-03 season, varsity football team went 5-5. You can sum it up like this; Lapel scored 121 points against their opponents; their opponents scored 213 against Lapel. It was an unusual year. For some reason, they stopped listing LHS athletic scores in the yearbook? In this yearbook, varsity football and boys tennis scores were listed.
