Thomas Baron
Thomas Ronald "Tom" Baron was a quality control and safety inspector for North American Aviation, when NAA was the primary contractor to build the Apollo Apollo [command and service module|command module].
Early life and education
Baron was born in or around 1938, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He attended Liberty [High School |Liberty High School] in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.Career
Baron initially enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, where he was stationed at Eglin [Air Force Base] in Okaloosa County, Florida. He was later hired as a quality control inspector with North American Aviation, the prime NASA contractor for construction of the Apollo spaceship.Whistleblower report
Baron compiled a 169-page report critical of safety standards at North American Aviation, and leaked his report to the media. After NAA learned of this, they fired him.After the Apollo 1 fire, Baron wrote a 275-page report on NASA safety protocol violations, which he gave to Rep. Olin E. Teague's investigation at Cape Kennedy in Florida, on April 21, 1967.
The chairman of the NASA Oversight Committee claimed that Baron had made a valuable contribution to the Apollo fire probe, but that he had been "overzealous".