View Full Version : Where were you?
Sunday July 20th, 1969 ???
At exactly 4:18pm EDT, a garbled voice came over a radio stating....."Houston.....Tranquility base here. The Eagle has landed."
With only 30 seconds of fuel remaining, and several alarms going off (1201 and 1202), Neil Armstrong and "Buzz" Aldrin, landed their Lunar Module on the moon, capping off President John Kennedy's call to the nation, to land a man on the moon, before the end of the decade.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QS3JSRGk3o
For the full transcripts of the landing, here's a great site.
http://history.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11.landing.html
If you have the time, here's another great documentary about the launch and landing and final recovery of Apollo 11. The video is 50 minutes long.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6055631735307978494
As for myself, I was about to turn 3 years old, living outside of Chicago, so I don't really remember much of the excitement of this landing, but am able to relive the event through all the videos available.
I was in 1st Grade with Mrs. Hess and we were watching it on TV in the auditorium if I am not mistaken. Correction it was a Sunday no school, probably at home watching it on the Zenith B&W.
60_Driver
07-20-2008, 08:35
I was 12 1/2 months old, so I imagine I was crapping my diaper from all the excitement.
The Reaper
07-20-2008, 08:40
It was a Sunday, I was at my great-grandmothers home, watching it on the TV, marveling at the abilities of this great nation and wondering where we would go from there.
39 years later, I am still wondering.
Well done, gents. Neil and Buzz, and all those who made it happen, thank you.
TR
Rumblyguts
07-20-2008, 09:16
I was at birth-7 days, getting ready to land here on earth.
Don't remember the landing obviously, but still do remember seeing splashdowns broadcast live from other missions.
Soft Target
07-20-2008, 09:16
It was the summer between my Junior (2nd Classman) and Senior (First Classman). In summer school due to a lackluster academic performance. I was occupied with much more important activities; to wit, drinking on Sunday (in Pennsylvania) at the Ukrainian Catholic American Citizens Club (known as the "Uke Club". Wonderfully patriotic citizens!
Kyobanim
07-20-2008, 09:20
Sitting in the living room with my dad watching those first steps, wishing Walter would just shut up for once.
Sitting in the living room with my folks...dad had just returned from Vietnam...
rubberneck
07-20-2008, 09:56
I was still 3.5 weeks from being born. I did however have the chance to have lunch with Buzz Aldrin when I was 14 years old. Still ranks as one of the coolest experiences in my life.
2018commo
07-20-2008, 09:57
My Grandparents had a fishing camp on a lake not far from Ft Devens, nightly we listened to an old tube radio on the sun porch.
We did drive back to their house in North Jersey, (Booton) to watch the moon walk on the new fangled color TV, might have been a Zenith or Heath Kit.
Hoi and I just got off of Mutter's ridge, we were wandering back to our A/O. We stopped at a MT base. Wandered over to the EM club. decide to take a rest and have cold one. Looked over and there were some Stars and Stripes news paper. The front page mentioned the landing. I explained to Hoi what happened. He had doubt in his eyes but did not say anything. I don't think the pair of us was very welcomed at the MT base. We where both unkempt, smelled and I was not sure what the others thought of Hoi. Moon is trang in Viet-Namese. For me it was one of those events that seemed like it happened in another world.
Hoi was a VC mortar man who chu hoi-ed and became a KCS
Sitting at home watching it with the family and could not hardly believe it.
Something I will never forget.....
Red Flag 1
07-20-2008, 10:31
US Army 2 Lt stationed in DC; watching on the tele with my new bride.
Still married to her today!
RF 1
I was on Okinawa. The landing was early in the morning on the 21st, and I don’t have a specific memory of it. I may have been asleep or on duty. We couldn’t get radio or TV in our bunker.
The first walk was about noon and was carried on AFRTS. We watched in the rec room.
Later a couple of us took a cab down to Kadena AFB and the cab driver had a Japanese language newspaper with a picture of Neil stepping on the moon. He kept shouting, “We walk on moon. We walk on moon.” The Okinawans were, understandably, a little schizophrenic about their national identity. :D
Pat
4-1/2 mos old. Dad had the whole family watching, including me, in the living room. Yeah, I don't remember much......
Sunday July 20th, 1969 ??? At exactly 4:18pm EDT, a garbled voice came over a radio stating....."Houston.....Tranquility base here. The Eagle has landed."
JFKIMA Underwater Operation Course, Fleming Key, Trumbo Annex, NAS, Key West.
I was probably snorkeling off the dock looking for dinner. As a newly commissioned 2nd Lt making ?? $275 @ month, ++/jump pay, money was a little tight. We took advantage at every opportunity to partake of all local indigenous food (lobster)... We didn't have a TV and I'm not sure we even had a radio.
I do know we were very sore, stiff, and sunburned,, But we were happy as I think the prior week we had the 2nd cut,, and were still in class.. Only one(1) more cut before graduation..
I missed most, if not all, the news about Armstrong and Aldrin famous landing..
Thanks for the refresher,,,, seems so very long ago.
I had just returned from extension leave and was in the little club at B34 waiting for the work chopper to get backto A 341.
I was thinking about all the fun I had at home, especially with my buddie's
sister who had become "legal."
They had a teevee tuned to RSVN, but the mountain next door, Nui Ba Ra, blocked the video.
We heard it but didn't see nuthing.
The Reaper
07-20-2008, 12:04
I was on Okinawa. The landing was early in the morning on the 21st, and I don’t have a specific memory of it. I may have been asleep or on duty. We couldn’t get radio or TV in our bunker.
The first walk was about noon and was carried on AFRTS. We watched in the rec room.
Later a couple of us took a cab down to Kadena AFB and the cab driver had a Japanese language newspaper with a picture of Neil stepping on the moon. He kept shouting, “We walk on moon. We walk on moon.” The Okinawans were, understandably, a little schizophrenic about their national identity. :D
Pat
That was something I saw Buzz Aldrin say in a recent interview. All of the people they met on their world tour kept saying "We" did it.
Maybe he should have handed out a bill for their share of the cost every time they said it.
My Mom worked indirectly with Neil Armstrong after he left NASA. He is a bit of a recluse and had some sort of bureaucratic job in DC in his follow-on career.
Small club that is. 24 humans have been to the moon, 12 have set foot on it. All Americans. All paid for with American tax dollars. Well done, Gents.
TR
CPTAUSRET
07-20-2008, 12:07
Flying Cobras out of Can Tho, 3rd tour.
Belly Down in my grandfather's living room with my palms under my chin staring at the B/W TV - as was my brother, 2 sisters and 2 cousins along with my parents, grandparents and misc. other family members.
My Dad was on his 30 day leave from the AF while stationed at Sawyer AFB and we were with the Cresco, IA side of the family for 2 weeks.
Ambush Master
07-20-2008, 13:58
Watched it in the "Day Room" while I was in Basic at Ft Bliss!! The guys didn't believe that I really knew all of them until I got my first letter from the Borman's!!!:D
ZonieDiver
07-20-2008, 15:59
Tending bar at a small hotel in the northern Bahamas during the summer between my sophomore and junior years in college at U of Miami, FL. Didn't actually "see" it until August when I got home. No TV, only one radio station, only one phone - direct to Key Biscayne White House. (Missed "Woodstock" while there, too! No loss!) Great days...
That was something I saw Buzz Aldrin say in a recent interview. All of the people they met on their world tour kept saying "We" did it.
Maybe he should have handed out a bill for their share of the cost every time they said it.
My Mom worked indirectly with Neil Armstrong after he left NASA. He is a bit of a recluse and had some sort of bureaucratic job in DC in his follow-on career.
Small club that is. 24 humans have been to the moon, 12 have set foot on it. All Americans. All paid for with American tax dollars. Well done, Gents.
TR
My father-in-law worked at the Hughes Research Lab and invented the paint that was used on the Surveyor missions. Apollo 12 landed near the S3 lander and retrieved several parts for examination. One of the parts was the camera registration card. The HRL guys gave my FIL the mock-up registration card and a huge photo (below) of Alan Bean next to the S3.
He had many chances to meet the lunar astronauts over the years and tried to get their autographs on the photo. Armstrong was the first to sign it. Of the ones he asked, only Aldrin refused.
At the lab, my FIL worked with Ron McNair who was killed on Challenger.
Pat
Watched it in the "Day Room" while I was in Basic at Ft Bliss!! The guys didn't believe that I really knew all of them until I got my first letter from the Borman's!!!:D
You got to watch TV in basic? :eek:
Pat
My grandmother had taken my brother and I on a little vacation up to Michigan, we watched it up there...I can remember trying to look for the man in the moon that night.
Ft. Bragg NC....years later I meet Buzz Aldrin at Lot 61 a Very Hot in Crowd club in NYC. He was sitting by himself. I went over and excused myself for imposing, but wanted to tell him that as a young man just entering the Army I watch him land on the moon and I knew if we could do that, put men on the moon, while our country was being ripped apart by the war, race, and the other social issues of the time that I would be OK and that our nation would too. He invited me to sit down and we spent about a half hour together until his group arrived. No one else in the Club knew who he was....
Ambush Master
07-20-2008, 19:35
You got to watch TV in basic? :eek:
Pat
LOOK, it was a weekend, and it was A MAN ON THE FLIPPING MOON!!!!:D
Besides, I knew them!!!
A side-story........... When I got to RVN and got on the "Team", I attempted to explain to the "Yards" about the Lunar Landings. I was given an Omega, Speedmaster Professional, for Graduation (High School), and I wore that watch on every mission. Attempting to explain to the Yards that the men that were on the Moon, wore the same watch was trying at best!!! Until I showed them pictures of myself with the men that were "In The News", they really didn't get it, (along with most of the guys in Recon)!!!
Later
Martin
Jack Moroney (RIP)
07-20-2008, 19:41
Fort Devens with the family watching the event unfold.
Sweetbriar
07-20-2008, 19:41
We went to my Dad's command for some reason - maybe they had a color TV? I could barely breathe I was so wound up. I thought surely I would be vacationing on Mars by now.
LOOK, it was a weekend, and it was A MAN ON THE FLIPPING MOON!!!!:D
Besides, I knew them!!!
Later
Martin
They didn't even allow us to dream at Ft. Polk! :D
Pat
dr. mabuse
07-20-2008, 20:13
8th grade I think at a friend's house.
IIRC, their on-board computer crapped out and they had to run landing calculations on an old HP 69 handheld RPN calculator and you loaded stuff into it with magnetic data strips.
I've still got mine in the garage. Heck, I've still got my slide rulers, some Hollerith cards and Fortran 77 books somewhere....:rolleyes:
I remember my dad and I talking with James Lovell about it at NASA about 8 months before his ride on Apollo 13. Whew!
Ambush Master
07-20-2008, 20:13
This is a very little known aspect of the A-8 Mission.
I was home on leave from West Point and was assigned the duty of keeping Col Borman's sons away from the "media". We jumped fences and hid vehicles blocks away from their house. I know that those of you that know me, will find this hard to believe, but I was the "Senior Acholite" in attendance at the X-Mas Eve ceremony. Location = St Christopher's Episcopal Church, League City Texas.
Fredrick, Edwin, and the rest of us participated in the Christmas-Eve, Midnight Service, while their Dad was in Lunar Orbit. The Bishop, from Houston, Officiated, and we did our thing, BUT.......... when Col Borman.........read the scripture.......... as a "Planned Part of the Ceremony", I had no idea what a huge part of History I was participating in!!!!
Just a bit of a side-note. Those were wonderful times,......then I ran RECON!!!
Take care.
Martin
I was in Basic training at Fort Campbell, KY. The DS's set a TV in the window of one of the barracks facing the company street. The entire company sat in the street and watched. The cooks made sugar cookies and we each received one along with a cup of Kool-Aid (without sugar). We were even allowed to sleep in the next morning until 0530. I have always been thankful for being able to watch the landing.
To young to remember, but still think it never happened... Movie magic...
I was bowling in a league at Falcaro's Lanes in Inwood, NY....everyone stopped bowling and went into the bar to watch it on the TV.
In early September, I got to see Aldrin, Collins, and Armstrong when they were on their way from JFK airport into Manhattan for a ticker tape parade.
bkleonards
07-28-2008, 09:04
5th Army RECONDO School (Camp Red Devil), Ft. Carson, Co.
Unfortunately, did not get a chance to see it.
Ha!.. one of those things in life that you never forget.
I was the DRO (that's Dining Room Orderly for you youngsters who'll never have the opportunity to pull KP) in my basic training company (C/10-2) at FCKY.
I was one of the lucky few in basic to actually see the landing on TV, since the rest of the company didn't have access to a tube.
Thanks for the memories!
AngelsSix
07-31-2008, 19:28
Wasn't born yet. I didn't come squalling into the world until 1972. But I wish I had been there to witness something like that.
BUMP
With this being the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11, I found a cool interactive site with rarely seen pics and videos, along with audio.
http://www.wechoosethemoon.org/
Relive the moments or see them for the 1st time.
BUMP
With this being the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11, I found a cool interactive site with rarely seen pics and videos, along with audio.
http://www.wechoosethemoon.org/
Relive the moments or see them for the 1st time.
SD!! Great site, thanks for sharing that! I could get wrapped up in that for hours...easily.
I had just turned 3 yrs old when this all was going on and was living in Germany while my dad was in 'Nam. Unfortunately, I don't remember any of it.
Wayneo79
07-16-2009, 10:21
Irving Ave, Glendale, CA; my dad called me in the house from my little dirt-pit playing area and I sat cross-legged on the living room floor to watch it on the B&W Quasar.
mojaveman
07-16-2009, 11:14
I was 6 years old that summer and watched the entire episode on black and white television with my parents. Shortly afterward my father and I built a model of the Saturn V Rocket.
Utah Bob
07-16-2009, 11:53
I was at Devens with the 10th. Watched the ghostly images on our 15" tv in our off post apartment. My wife fell asleep before the big moment.
Wait, that didn't sound right.
I mean she fell asleep before Neil stepped off the lander.:D
BigJimCalhoun
07-16-2009, 12:37
I wasn't that far from Devens myself, if you mean Fort Devens, in MA, but I was only 3 days old and still in the hostpital.
ZonieDiver
07-16-2009, 14:00
I was in the Bahamas on a remote northern island with no tv and limited radio - and only one telephone connecting to the comm staff at the "Key Biscayne White House." (And yes, the phone was red - with no dial.)
I thought they were doing the moon landing to celebrate my 20th birthday the following day - an early birthday present. (I missed "Woodstock" while there, too. NO big lose, except for the change in America's youth that I noticed upon my return to college in late August - a change NOT for the better.)
In KY with the family watching it on TV.....
DinDinA-2
07-16-2009, 16:41
July 20, 1969 was my 3rd day of active duty at Ft Benning...IOBC, the adventure begins.
alright4u
07-16-2009, 16:46
On 22 July 69 I was released from Womack Hospital with T3 profile and assigned to 6th Group. I walked for the first time on my right leg since 26 April 69, and went straight to the Smoke Bomb Hill O Club to kill pain. The first familiar face I saw was the man in charge of the Gamma teams he brought to Duc Co for us to insert. He was a Major. I had never known his rank or name. We did some catching us. I never saw the event on TV.
Utah Bob
07-16-2009, 17:46
I wasn't that far from Devens myself, if you mean Fort Devens, in MA, but I was only 3 days old and still in the hostpital.
Was that you cryin?
Thought it was a cat.:D
Working at a Standard Station in San Juan Capistrano, CA. Washing a windshield and heard it on the guys radio. There was a full moon.
Dozer523
07-16-2009, 21:27
Heidelberg Germany.
Dad was assigned to 7th Army HQ. We lived in the three story apartment buildings off Roemer Stras. It was the summer between 7th and 8th Grade. All us kids lived at the huge German outdoor swimming pool at Lieman (sp?). We took the trolley. Not that day! We were all watching it early in the morning on German TV (Time difference).
Never knew it was going on. Hoi (KCS) and I were working our way back to our A/O from Mutter's Ridge, we stopped at a Motor T base. They had Stars and Stripes news papers. The front page had the news about the landing. Hoi did not speak or read English, so I explained what happened. I am not sure if he believed me or just thought the whole event was unbelievable. I guess wasn't to sure what to think either.
incarcerated
07-16-2009, 23:39
12 years old, watching on a Zenith B&W with my parents in the family room my dad had built.
Fort Bragg, 12B4S training, in Myrtle beach South Carolina, having a wild time with classmates.
I watched it with a couple of nurses at the officers club at Biggs Army Airfield (Ft Bliss) while I was attending DLISC to learn Vietnamese!