On the 30th anniversary of the landing on the moon and the walks of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, MSNBC solicited personal stories from readers/listeners. This is Dr. Goose's submission.
On July 20, 1969 I was a 19 year old Sailor in training at the U.S. Naval Training Center in San Diego California. The Navy had given us the day off to "witness history in the making", which was a memorable event in itself. I'm sure that some of the guys went to town to party but the 4 of us in our barracks room went out and got a couple buckets of Kentucky Fried Rodent and hunkered down for the "show".
We weren't to be disappointed.
The retro rockets on the LEM had fired. Neil and Buzz were on their way to the surface of the Moon.
Man!! The surface of the moon.
That silver orb we view in our evening skies was now to be in the domain of humans. We had beat the Russians, but that didn't seem important at the time. It was a human endevour which represented ALL humans. In those ugly days when wearing a military uniform off base was not recommended, it sure made you proud to be an American again.
Even in those days of human strife -- Race problems, Political problems, Vietnam problems, of which I was soon to become a part, were forgotten in the aura of that one moment.
A moment in time that I will never forget and is remembered each and every time I look up at the moon. I'd go in a heartbeat. Just show me to my seat.
A real tragedy is that we humans have never been back. A sad testament to misplaced economic priorities, and there are still those that will argue the money was wasted, but if you look at what the human race has developed either directly or indirectly from the space effort the list is nearly endless. To put it in perspective, american women spend more in one year on cosmetics than it cost NASA to put a man on the moon in 9 years. If we can dream it, then it can be done, but narrow minded politics, as usual, gets in the way of progress. Have we allowed the dream to wither from lack of nourishment? I hope not.
The emotion that wells up each time I think of the event is sometimes overwhelming, but when I look up and see that Silver piece of green cheese, I know that in July 1969 all the world was looking skyward and was of one thought. One common mass of humanity sending prayers to Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins.
Those prayers were answered.
Goose Gosswiller
Paso Robles, Ca.
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Updated 27 Jul., 1999