LOCAL KIDS WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE… Moapa Valley Native Recalls His Role In Historic Apollo Missions

By NICK YAMASHITA

The Progress

Crossing over the flood channel at a spot midway between Logandale and Overton, lies a bridge that holds the name of Yamashita. This bridge was named after Kiyoshi Yamashita who was a long-time resident of Moapa Valley, local farmer and leader. However, Kiyoshi wasn’t the only Yamashita from Moapa Valley to leave a mark on history.

George Yamashita was born on September 20, 1936 and was raised in Moapa Valley. He was raised working on the family farm which raised a variety of produce like onions, cantaloupe, melons and more.

George went to school at Moapa Valley High School, competing in sports such as football and basketball.
“I played the gridiron football back when we played both ways, offense and defense,” George recalls. “We played 6-man football for the championship. I kept the benches warm in basketball. I played a little, but I mainly kept the seats toasty.”

George went on to graduate in 1954 from Moapa Valley High School. “We had less than 20 students who graduated in my class,” he said.

After high school, George set his eye toward college in southern California. He decided to attend California State University, Los Angeles because it was a smaller, more intimate campus than others.
“I went to the campus of UCLA and decided it was just too big,” George said. “I didn’t like it. So I went to the smaller Cal State.”

George graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering in 1959 and immediately went to work for Convair Aviation in Los Angeles.

“We started almost immediately in joining the works of several companies that were working with NASA,” George said.

President John F. Kennedy gave his infamous speech “We choose to go to the moon” on September 12, 1962 at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

“It was within three months after that speech we were contracted to start on the new NASA project known as Apollo,” George said.

IBM reported in 2019 at a reunion of Apollo Program engineers that there were over 4,000 engineers who worked on the project. George Yamashita was one of the first 50 engineers to work on the program. He was also Japanese American which resulted in him being amongst the statistics of less than 1% of the engineers being of Asian American ethnicity.

“These were exciting times!” he said. “It was a race between us and the Soviet Union on who would be the first to the moon.”

George began working in LAX and also at the Convair Factory in Downey, Calif. in 1963 and would be with the Apollo program. His company and team were able to bring about the designs of the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) which provided a lighter load than earlier designs and was destined to be the final design chosen.

George was able to celebrate with the country on July 20, 1969 as US Astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong landed on the moon.
“We won the battle and the high ground!” George said. “At the time there was no place higher than the moon!”

George joyously recalled the day of the moon landing and how his work played a part in it. He would remain with the Apollo project for 10-12 years.

“After the Apollo project we all moved on,” George said. “It was a challenging task, but I learned a lot of things. I really enjoyed the creative part of the designs.”

George went on to do aeronautical engineering for over 20 years. Some other projects he worked on included the nuclear B-70 and the XB-70: Valkyrie which is still the fastest flightcraft ever, reaching speeds of 2,056 mph (Mach 3.08) in the late 1960’s. He also helped in the designs of the F-15 Eagle in the 1970’s which is one of the most common military jet fighters in the American military.

After retiring from engineering, George stayed in California and now resides in Manhattan Beach with his wife, Carol. Whenever he can, he comes to visit his hometown of Moapa Valley.

When asked about his feelings of his role in US History regarding space travel and the US winning the race to the moon, George simply replied, “I really enjoyed it.”