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| Neil Armstrong: 1958 |
One of my boyhood radio heroes was
Jack Armstrong, the “All-American Boy.” I can’t recall anything about him or
his radio exploits but I have never forgotten the name. Years later in 1969 as
I watched on TV with my wife and millions all over the world, I must have
thought, along with many of my contemporaries born in the pre-TV years, that it
was entirely appropriate that the first man to set foot on the moon should also
be named Armstrong.
Neil Armstrong was the epitome of
the American hero. Even after his epic landing on the Sea of Tranquility he
seemed to remain a quiet, unassuming Midwesterner much like his own boyhood
idol Charles Lindbergh. Anyone familiar with Lindbergh knows that rather than
being “Lucky” he was a skilled, competent pilot with an incredible amount of
flying experience before he made his famous cross-Atlantic trip to Paris in
1927.
Armstrong was much the same way. It
is hard to imagine that he would have been chosen by NASA if he wasn’t the best
of the “top guns.” Watching and listening to the video below makes it appear
that the actual landing on the Moon was a piece of cake. We hear the
methodical, matter of fact, intonation of flight statistics as the landing
vehicle makes its approach. What we don’t hear is that a crises developed in
the cabin just before the landing.
As they got closer to the surface
it became clear to Armstrong and his co-pilot, Buzz Aldrin, that the landing
zone was strewn with large boulders. Immediately he decided to seize control of
the vehicle from the computer and make a manual landing as if he was flying a
Midwestern barnstormer. We hear nothing on the tape that would indicate any panic
or lack of control on Armstrong’s part. He landed the ship without a hitch and
the rest is history.
I don’t think Jack Armstrong could
have done it any better.###
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