45 years later, a Recap of Apollo 13 from the men who were there

I was fortunate to be able to attend a special recognition ceremony for the Apollo 13 crew, held a few weeks ago at the San Diego Air & Space Museum. Astronauts (and their wives) from Mercury, Gemini and Apollo projects attended, along with many of the engineering managers, control team and others who made the space program possible.

Flight above and around the earth is a constant theme around San Diego, with the Army, Navy, Marines, commercial and general aviation all keeping the skies busy and our citizens employed. The Air & Space Museum makes sure we don't forget the pioneers and current aviators.

My dad was a naval aviator, so of course, me being the son, I had a keen interest in flying.

And by some quirk of fate I bought a couple house which are within a long arm's reach of the airport flight path. The essential elements of my San Diego neighborhood are sunshine, blue skies, palm trees and aircraft.

For folks like me who grew up in the 1940's and 1950's "Space" was dynamite stuff, and I recall getting up in the dark to watch launches from Cape Canaveral (Kennedy) and landings in various wet locations. As we snuck into the living room to turn on the television, we made do with moonlight so as not to waken my mother and sister.

Recent posts on the Purists, such as the Breitling 809 Cosmonaute motivated me to dig up the Apollo photos and a couple videos of the event, which I am happy to share here.

GENE KRANTZ, NASA Flight Director, remembers how it started:

JIM LOVELL (the 1st man to fly in space 4 times; 1 of 24 men to fly to the Moon; 1st of 3 to fly to the Moon twice; the only one to fly to the moon twice without landing) gives his insider perspective. Note that there is a WATCH reference about 9 minutes into this 12 minute video:

It was really fun to listen to these guys talk, and to eat a meal with lots of other enthusiasts underneath some Navy Jets.

Here are the wives

and a few of the esteemed gentlemen. I will try to get a complete list of the names and insert them here.

What a thrill it was to sit, wander and converse for hours. No one wanted to go home, but as one guy said from the podium, "I'm 83 and it's way past my bedtime!"

I tried to get some exclusive wrist shots, but it wasn't easy, either in person or on the monitors. This is FRED HAISE (lunar module pilot on Apollo 13 who has logged 142 hours and 54 minutes in space). He's now president of a division of Northrup Grumman:

Although some of the guys have mellowed with time, you can see by the firm jaws and crewcuts that some of them still could kick your a** if necessary. A couple quotes from the astronauts that night:

"We were all fighter pilots and we would rather die than screw up"

"This was important for our country and we were willing to take the risk"

And finally,

"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win."

John F Kennedy

Here's the best "moon shot" I've ever been able to take with my Sony digital camera.

I hope you enjoyed this little trip into space, and that you'll go watch Apollo 13 again. I will!

Cazalea

This message has been edited by cazalea on 2015-04-07 19:08:50

TimeOut

45 years later, a Recap of Apollo 13 from the men who were there

45 years later, a Recap of Apollo 13 from the men who were there

Thanks for taking us with you.

Thanks Bill

It was great seeing you.

sounds like a fun event!

Thanks Cazlea

re: Thanks

cool event, I was just at KSC last week

wow..fantastic...

Great event !