Apollo 11

As others are commemorating the 40th anniversary of man on the moon, I will, yes, give my little tribute.

I was 13 years old watching the events on a black and white TV. Fortunately for me the broadcast from the moon also was in B&W. But I was just a kid watching with my own fascination. I was rabid following the progress of NASA. I was constantly sending away for the latest information on research and design at the various locations around the country. There was no internet access, I actually had to send a letter through the US mail to receive info back in the mail. I copied articles out of the local newspapers. I still have much of this original information. I made my own models of the various rockets from kits. But probably the best part of my collections were the astronaut photos I got. Forget sports heros. I still have an autographed photo of astronaut Dick Gordon (Apollo 12). No relation to me, but it was neat to think about it.

I could walk almost anybody through mission agendas as if I were the one that wrote it. I knew where they landed on the moon and talk about what they were doing in that location. Other kids had earth globes, I had a moon globe. I had wall maps. My science fair projects were recreating space flight.

But it comes down to the fact that American ingenuity and determination accomplished this feat. There were the human losses. Americans did it. We had a goal bigger - and better - than ourselves.

That is what is needed today.