A giant step for mankind
Iwas invited over to Eric and Lois’ apartment in Leominster, Mass., to watch the historic moon landing and walk. I didn’t have a TV at the time, and surely this was the type of event one wanted to share with friends. I went hesitantly. The whole country was talking about this. The entire world. But I had my eye on the calendar.
The United States was boasting to the world that it could walk and chew gum at the same time. It was waging a war against godless communism in Vietnam while beating the USSR in landing a man on the moon. Heady times both for NASA and the Pentagon. Unfortunately, my name was on a list in a file in a drawer somewhere in the Pentagon. It was so impersonal and abstract. As of July 1969, I had been in the Army for one year. I had been commissioned a second lieutenant, aa graduate of a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program the prior year.
Somewhere along the way of my college career, my view of the world had changed. It had changed drastically. So I went from a naive 17-year-old, gung ho, pro-Army guy, to a Vietnam War doubter. Guys older than me who went into the Marines or Army before I graduated were reported missing or killed in action. What’s not shown in the contemporary, game-like armed forces ads on TV is that the enemy shoots back, often with accuracy.
So as I sat down on Eric and Lois’ comfy couch to watch the moon walk, my mind was thousands of miles away. I just couldn’t focus on the historic moon landing. What an incredible feat. It was so amazing that even years later people in this country, Asia and Africa, people throughout the world could not accept that astronauts had landed on the moon. A mythical object in the night sky. For some, it was probably a desecration, disrupting creation myths and spiritual beliefs.
But there was Neil Armstrong on TV walking on the moon. “One small step for man, one giant step for mankind.” He and Buzz Aldrin spent over two hours on the moon and collected about 48 pounds of rocks. Nowadays, and especially this week, some 48,000 pounds of rocks will be reported to be owned by collectors throughout the world. Amazing how collectibles multiply. We may even see one appraised on PBS’ “Antiques Road Show.”
I can’t remember arriving at Travis Air Force Base outside Sacramento, but there we were in line queuing up for boarding that big iron bird. An airman second class asked each of us for identifying scars. I didn’t realize at first why he was doing this. And then it became obvious, we’re entering a war zone. It was the most quiet flight I have ever experienced. There was little conversation and lots of reflection.
This year’s 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission deserves all the TV and media time devoted to it. A Los Angeles Times article casts doubt on the ability of the United States to accomplish such a space voyage today. The technical expertise and technology is so much better, but Washington, D.C., politics are fractured. Also, the country does not seem inclined to devote so much wealth to space travel.
Cheer for the Apollo 11 crew. They were almost as happy as I was to get back safely to the United States.