OSJ: So, famous author man and Cold War hero, how did you discover St. John?

HH: Well, I'd been looking for an island home for a very long time. As a scuba instructor, I visited the island of Guanaja in Honduras way back in 1973. I thought it was paradise. I bought property there, explored the reefs (and named a lot of them), and started saving money to eventually build there. I kept visiting the island over the decades but somehow never got around to building. Maybe it was just too hard to get to. Anyway, I kept looking, working my way through the various Caribbean islands. My wife Linda and I really liked Nevis, Dominica, Montserrat and Tortola and considered buying property on all three. Of course, the volcano did in our Montserrat dream. Then, in September, 2001, just before I went out on book tour for one of my memoirs titled Sky of Stone, we decided to take a quick trip to St. John. Linda had been there for carnival once and said it was really nice. Once I got a look at it, I saw St. John had most of what I was looking for, great beaches, mountains (we love a view), nice people, and, thanks to the park, a lot of unspoiled country. As we were preparing to return home, we got word of 9/11 and that all flights were canceled until further notice. This meant we had to spend almost a week more in St. John than we had planned. I have trouble getting sympathy about this, by the way. Anyway, we met Bill Dove of BookitVI.com and he started showing us real estate. Eventually, we settled on a lovely home in Upper Carolina near Coral Bay with a great view of Sir Francis Drake Channel and the BVI. We've extensively remodeled it and call it Skyridge. I love our St. John home and look forward to spending more and more time there.


OSJ: Why is St. John in your blood?

HH: I've always been intrigued by islands and the sea, don't ask me why. I was raised in West Virginia which doesn't even have a coastline. After I returned from duty in Vietnam (I was in the 4th Infantry Division), I was sent to Puerto Rico to be a reserve adviser. I didn't have all that much to do so I went out to the naval base at Roosevelt Roads and learned to scuba dive. A year later, I was a scuba instructor. When I moved to Huntsville, Alabama to take a job with the Army Missile Command, I started to be an extremely active instructor and also began to write about my diving adventures. I became well known for a series of articles about expeditions to German U-boats and other wrecks off North Carolina. This eventually led to my first book, Torpedo Junction, which is the history of the U-boat war along the American Atlantic coast during World War II. It came out in 1989 and is still in print, I'm proud to say. As a scuba instructor, by the way, I trained many of the astronauts AND David Letterman. Anyway, I love the sea and I love islands and what better place to satisfy those passions than St. John. I am proud to be a St. Johnian.


OSJ: Did you just say you taught Letterman how to dive???

HH: Yep, I taught ol' Dave. There I was sitting in my NASA office back in 1987 minding my own business when I got a call from the Letterman producers to come up and teach Dave to scuba dive. Turns out they wanted an underwater show with Dave and his guests using Lama helmets. That's a French-made bubble helmet that has a built-in single stage regulator. They called France and they told them I was the expert on the thing. It was true. I had used one to build an underwater space suit for the U.S. Space Camp. So I happily repaired up to New York and met Dave and spent a weekend training him in a swimming pool at a Red Roof Inn in New Jersey. We were instant pals. But when I asked his producer what the plan was, I was told Dave and his show was going to be underwater at the Mystic Aquarium. I asked about the water temp and they checked and came back with around 60 degrees. I told them by the time Dave had finished his monolog, he'd be trembling from hypothermia, by the time he finished interviewing his first guest he'd be unconscious, and by the end of the show, he'd be pretty much dead. They didn't do the show but I had fun, anyway. Later, when October Sky came out, Dave had me on his show. Rather than show a clip from the movie, he showed a clip of me teaching him to dive. The movie producers didn't like it but Dave and I did.


OSJ: Tell us about your house on St. John?

HH: Skyridge is located in Upper Carolina near Coral Bay. The most striking thing about our home is its view. I think it is one of the best in the Caribbean! I could sit out on our deck and watch the boats pass through Sir Francis Drake channel all day. It is so relaxing. I also can't imagine how they are able to make that transit without me supervising. I guess they muddle through when I'm not there. Skyridge is a big house with five bedrooms, four baths (three are outside balcony showers), four decks, and a lovely swimming pool. It is in a very natural setting, all rocks, trees, and flowers. As its name implies, it is high on a ridge which is what gives it its wonderful view. Like all island homes, it is NOT maintenance-free. It requires a lot of work to keep it spiffy but I enjoy working on it.


OSJ: Do you do any writing while you're on the island?

HH: You bet I do! I'm always on deadline so I can't stop. I wrote a significant portion of The Keeper's Son, The Ambassador's Son, The Far Reaches, and Red Helmet while there.


OSJ: You're an avid diver, right? Do you do much diving in the Virgin Islands?

HH: I bet if I added up all the hours I've spent underwater, it would be at least a year. That includes all the work I did underwater training the astronauts in a big tank called the Neutral Buoyancy Simulator when I worked for NASA. I used to rack up twenty-four hours a week back then and I did it for twenty years. Naturally, that eventually caught up with me and I suffered a Type II decompression hit in the spinal cord after a long series of dives to train the Hubble Space Telescope repair crew. Although I eventually recovered, a hit like that is nothing to mess around with so I tend to be careful on my diving. St. John is really perfect since the diving is mostly pretty shallow. The truth is Linda and I tend to do more snorkeling than diving when we're there. Our favorite snorkeling spots are Francis Bay, Yawzi Point, Waterlemon Cay, Kiddel Bay and Grootpan Bay. Kiddel and Grootpan are also favorite shore dives.


OSJ: Your new book, Red Helmet, begins and ends on St. John. Is this the first time you've actually written about the island?

HH: Yes except for our newsletters that go out to fans who subscribe to it through our website. I needed Song and Cable, the two main characters in the novel, to go to a romantic setting and impulsively decide to get married. What better place than Love City?


OSJ: Sum up the Red Helmet plot. In two sentences. Compound sentences allowed.

HH: That's easy. A rich, beautiful, and successful businesswoman meets a handsome, hard-working West Virginia coal mine manager, impulsively marries him, then follows him back to the Appalachian coal country which she absolutely hates, manages to embarrass herself by trying to seduce her new husband at the mine while she's drunk as a skunk, runs back to New York, sues for an annulment like Zellweger/Chesney, then is astonished when her father buys the company and she has to go back to figure out what's wrong with the mine even though her estranged husband doesn't want her back so just to show him, she decides to learn all about coal mining and puts on the red helmet of the novice coal miner and then has adventure after adventure until murder, mayhem, and tragedy strikes. Oh yes, it's also romantic.


OSJ: Your second book, back in 1998, Rocket Boys (which I should point out is about how you helped saved us from the Commies) made it to the big screen as October Sky (which I should point out was a really good movie.) Did you get gobs of Hollywood money for that?

HH: Hmmm. Well, Rocket Boys was about growing up in a little coal town in West Virginia so I'm not sure how that saved us from the Commies but, if so, that's a good thing. I should point out that it is a REALLY GOOD book, better than the movie which is also good. Yes, I got good money for both the book and the movie but I deserved it (hey, I worked hard on both!). By the way, the book is studied in nearly every school system in the United States although I don't think it's reached the USVI yet, sad to say.


OSJ: The movie wasn't exactly like the book. Don't you hate when that happens!

HH: Not really. The movie isn't the story I told in the book but I had a lot of fun helping to make it. I was on set during most of the filming. Also, every time the film is shown, it sells lots of books!


OSJ: Did you look like Jake Gyllenhaal when you were a kid, because he's pretty good looking.

HH: It's astonishing how much we resembled each other! No, actually, if I'd have looked like Jake in high school, I would have never bothered to build rockets. I would been too busy beating the girls off. These days, when I give speeches, I always apologize to the teenage girls in the audience for not actually being Jake. I understand he also apologizes for not actually being me to his audiences, especially if it filled with grandmothers.


OSJ: Did your dad look like Chris Cooper?

HH: Dad didn't look much like Chris who, by the way, is a very nice guy. I'd love to have him and his wife visit Skyridge some day. Dad looked a lot like Roy Rogers.


OSJ: Have you had a couple of beers with Cheech from the Tap Room?, because he's a former NASA engineer too.

HH: No beers with Cheech but I recently met him when I gave a talk at the Elaine Sprauve Library in Cruz Bay. Next time I'm on-island, I intend to continue our conversation, this time at the Tap Room.


OSJ: I read that you got to carry the Olympic Torch through Huntsville as part of the lead up to the 1996 Games in Atlanta. How'd you get that honor???

HH: This was pre-Rocket Boys/October Sky so it wasn't for that. Actually, it was for a rescue attempt of the passengers on a river boat that sank in the Tennessee River.


OSJ: How heavy is it? Were you worried it would blow out?

HH: It weighs a few pounds, I forget how much. My only concerns were that I didn't drop it or set my hair on fire.


OSJ: Did you really build the Hokies Skipper?

HH: Yes, I built the Skipper when I was at Tech. Nearly flunked out of school doing it too!


OSJ: You're a big advocate for reading and education. What can a guy like you do to help out on St. John?

HH: Honestly, when I'm on island, supporting reading and education isn't much on my mind. I apologize for that and I'll try to do a better job in the future. Certainly, I would love to help where I can.


OSJ: Do you sometimes sit on your deck in St. John with your wife, staring out at the water, and say "Not bad for a coal miner's son!"

HH: Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. Did I mention YES?