Sunday the 20th was to be the day for
the landing and walk on the Moon so I went up to my old favorite haunt, the
Hilltop Service Club, hoping to see some of it on TV. The
drama was continuing a quarter of a million miles away as the lunar module undocked
from the command module and Neil Armstrong announced “The Eagle has wings.” Tension
was high as the intrepid duo of Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin maneuvered the craft
toward the surface while a gauge, later found to be inaccurate, showed fuel needed
for the return flight to the command module running desperately low. The suspense intensified as Armstrong reported
that the designated landing site was too rocky.
The seasoned test pilot switched to manual controls and altered the
module’s course toward an open expanse of the gray lunar sand. Finally his static-filled message ushered in
a new chapter in the history of human exploration: “Houston, Tranquility Base
here. The Eagle has landed.” The
module had touched down safely in the Sea of Tranquility.
At home I would have been glued to the TV set
watching all of this drama, and I did manage to see most of it on live TV either
at the club or back in the barracks where a venerable old portable set was
brought in for this unique event. The two astronauts spent two and one half
hours walking and running on the Moon and the way they jumped and
bounced around in the reduced gravity even while wearing their heavy spacesuits
was unforgettable. They placed scientific
measuring devices, collected core samples, and planted the iconic American flag
stiffened with wire to make it appear to be waving. They also left a plaque signed by Nixon and
the three astronauts with an inscription that concluded “we came in peace for
all mankind.” Only hours after the Eagle blasted off to rejoin Columbia for the journey back home to
Earth, the USSR’s unmanned exploratory craft, Luna 15, crash-landed on the surface of the Moon, adding a decisive
exclamation point to America’s technological victory over our chief rival for
world domination.
After
all the science fiction and space movies I had absorbed as a kid there was a
powerful sense of the surreal about this type of adventure actually
happening. The war touched everything in
those troubled days, however, and I also experienced an overwhelming feeling of
poignancy about this crowning achievement coming in the midst of America’s
greatest debacle. It was the best of
times, it was the worst of times; and there were few days without a high level
of emotional intensity, nearly as addictive as it was distressing, exacerbated
by an almost unbearable need to know what hints of our uncertain future
prospects the next day would bring.
A postscript to this unforgettable event is that five months later in December, 1969, I saw Neil Armstrong during his appearance with the Bob Hope Christmas USO Show at Lai Khe in the Republic of Vietnam, where I was assigned to the Adjutant General's Office of the 1st Infantry Division. For me, as for so many others, 1969 was truly a year like no other.
