Credit Fred Yanker at a formal military dinner with Dr. Wernher Von Braun. (Yanker at 1st left, Von Braun at head of table)
Fred Yanker will celebrate his 100th Birthday Thursday, March 11th. He was born in 1921, that’s some incredible math!
Fred is a 30 year Army veteran, enlisting in the US Army at the beginning of WW2. He served in many roles and rose quickly in the ranks. At the end of the war he was transferred to White Sands Proving Grounds, now called White Sands Missile Range, WSMR. Throughout his career there he held multiple roles involving security, rocket launches and equipment design.
The First Malta Rocket Test By Paul Perreault | Sponsored by The Saratoga County History Roundtable | History View of Rocket Test from Observation Bunker. Photo provided.
O
n Christmas morning, December 25, 1945, the residents of Malta were startled by a loud noise coming from the heart of Luther Forest. It was not the clatter of Santa’s reindeer on the roof but instead America’s race to the Moon had begun.
Toward the end of World War II the American Army became concerned about the V-2 missiles Germany was raining on London so they asked that engineers from the Schenectady General Electric plant go to Europe and interview the captured Germen scientists and select the papers, drawings and actual rocket parts to be shipped back to America. A team, under the direction of Dr. Richard Porter, went to Peenemunde and Nordhausen where the rockets had been developed. They interviewed Werhner von Braun and his team, confiscated “tons” of papers and drawings, as