Remembering the Moon Landing

THE ISSUE: The 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969.

The insert in The Post about the Apollo mission brought back great memories of the lunar landing 50 years ago, especially the “Where were you?” section (“The moon landing,” July 18).

I had just started my plebe year at West Point on July 1, 1969. Weeks later, all new cadets were exhausted, and most, like myself, had very little idea that the launch of Apollo 11 even took place.

On the night of July 20, all 1,444 plebes were marched to South Auditorium in Thayer Hall for “a briefing.” We had briefings all the time, so none of us anticipated the momentous evening we were about to experience. After we were all seated, the lights dimmed and the movie screen came to life with cryptic images and sound that we didn’t, at first, comprehend. Then, like most of my classmates, I promptly fell asleep.

At almost 11 p.m., I felt a sharp elbow in my side and woke up to witness Neil Armstrong plant the US flag on the moon and say, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Jay O’Brien Fairfax, Va.

I vividly remember that on the night of the moon landing, we were all sleeping in our Army basic training barracks at Fort Knox after another day of training.

One of the drill instructors entered our quarters and started yelling, “Fall outside now!”

He told us: “This is your last chance to see the moon without footprints. So we all mustered outside and stared with amazement at the moon. He was correct.

Steve Ramant Hague