Heroes, some anniversaries, and The Right Stuff
A lot was made earlier this week about Tom Brady—at 43—becoming the oldest quarterback to win a Super Bowl.
Now, he’s setting records in a team sport that will last for decades. But a hero can be admired for more than personal achievements. A hero can have noble qualities, maybe serve his country. At the least, you know, in modern times, he could wear a friggin mask in a pandemic. Yes, my standards have lowered, you might say.
Maybe my idea of a hero is impossible to reach these days. On February 9, 1971—a half-century ago this week—I was nine years old and Apollo 14 touched down. Of all the landmark milestones that happened on the date February 9, Apollo 14 got the short end of the publicity stick. I read about the 50-year anniversary of the Sylmar earthquake in Los Angeles (more on that in a bit); the 78-year old anniversary of the official end of the Battle of Quadalcanal; also in 1964 on that date the Beatles were on The Ed Sullivan Show (it didn’t mean anything to me as a toddler, but it greatly influenced a young Bruce Springsteen in Jersey; and a young Billy Joel in Long Island). And in the world of sports, on February 9, 1992; Magic Johnson played in the NBA All-Star Game in Orlando, just three months after retiring due to contracting HIV. I was courtside, trust me, it was a very big deal. Some of the other stars in the game (Karl Malone most noteworthy) expressed concern over Magic being a health risk to others).
Come to think of it, Magic was a real hero that day himself, the 25 points notwithstanding.
Now, about Sylmar—the day the walls started shakin’ and the earth was quakin’…wish I could write that my mind was achin’ that morning, but my 9-year old self was sleeping just after 6 am on that day in Hacienda Heights CA, no more than an hour from the epicenter of the quake. My parents remember—quite accurately as it turned out—the big details. My dad remembers everyone sweating out if the San Fernando Valley dam would hold. He remembers the chandelier swaying wildly in the living room; the driveway suddenly cracking (that they never got fixed). My mom remembers the hospital being crushed; and the phone lines jammed and her not being able to call her parents back east.
A quick rabbit-hole trip down youtube allowed me to watch NBC Nightly News from February 9, 1971; and the splashdown of Apollo 14 was moved down after big coverage of the earthquake. I mean, the first 9:21 the entire first block, was devoted to earthquake coverage. And at 9:40 check out the Alpo dog commercial (seriously, a married couple scrutinizing the meat by-products in the dogfood like it’s a life-saving medicine?). I can’t take my mind off that couple and that dog.
But I don’t want to write about why your dog does/doesn’t deserve Alpo, I want to talk about the 47-year hero/astronaut Alan Shepard, who returned to earth a half-century ago. As well as Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell.
“Not only was his last space flight 10 years ago, but at 47, Alan Shepard is America’s oldest active astronaut.”
That’s how CBS’s Walter Cronkite began coverage of the pre-launch of Apollo 14, a week and a half earlier than the safe return. Shepard was not only 47, his legacy was secure (he was the first American in space, a decade earlier, aboard Mercury 3). He was rich. And, he had been grounded for most of the 1960s with an inner ear problem. He had Meniere’s disease, an inner-ear ailment that caused episodes of extreme dizziness and nausea. That kept him grounded for close to seven years. That would keep me from driving a car to the grocery store, let alone what Shepard did.
After an experimental surgery, he was supposed to be the head of Apollo 13 the previous April, but they swapped assignments to give Shepard more recovery time.
And then, of course, there was the near tragedy that fell upon Apollo 13, which made the next group among the bravest of the brave. (And near-tragedy is a relative term. I’d call oxygen tanks blowing up a tragedy. The command module's normal supply of electricity, light and water was lost, and they were about 200,000 miles from Earth. Houston, we have a problem; said mission commander Jim Lovell. Somehow, astronauts Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert returned to earth safely, against all odds. Lovell, Haise, and Swigert were forced to conserve water, rationed down to six ounces a day. Sleep was almost impossible because of the cold. When the electrical systems were turned off, the spacecraft lost an important source of heat. The temperature dropped to 38 degrees Fahrenheit and condensation formed on all the walls. And GPS? Sorry, didn’t exist. Near tragedy?
Knowing what happened on Apollo 13, how would you like to step in and command Apollo 14, like Shepard did?
At nine years old, I was into the space program, and studied the astronauts like I studied baseball rosters. (A few years ago, I did a Trivia segment with Chris Russo on High Heat and asked him to name as many of the 12 men to walk on the moon. To his everlasting credit—no one in the world could name more than a small handful—Chris got most of them. Shephard, of course, was the fifth man to walk on the moon after the two from Apollo 11 and two more from Apollo 12. He remains the only man to hit a golf ball from the moon.
Now, in one more aside, Shephard said his second shot went “miles and miles and miles”. That was enough for me, then and now. I didn’t need precise “exit velocity” or “launch angle”
The night before liftoff; CBS News devoted a lot of time to Apollo 14. You can see why Walter Cronkite was the nation’s most trusted voice. But take a look at the one-on-one interview David Shumacher did with Shepard. Shumacher didn’t let Shepard off the hook with questions on how he dealt with the long layoff.
And in retrospect, there was a lot not to like about NASA in those days. There was a bit of propoganda (the Apollo 14 crew had to film positive statements to build confidence in fellow-NASA employees, dealing with recent layoffs and burnout and other issues). It would have been nice to see a little diversity in the astronaut ranks (Sally Ride was a generation later). And these brave men—as later books and movies would reveal—were only too human. And that’s not even getting into the “team sport” competition that was USA vs. the Soviet Union. I mean, really, we share the same planet as the Soviets. A successful mission benefits the entire planet, right? (And of course, in truth, Shephard was the second man in space as Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin beat everyone to the punch, when he orbited the Earth on April 12, 1961).
One of Robert Klein’s greatest bits is his riffing on the incredible restraint Neil Armstrong had, resisting the urge to make the first ever step on Moon and proclaiming, “Coca-Cola.” or some other advertisement. No doubt, the next planted flag in the Moon (or another planet) will have a logo of our flag—presented by Alpo—alongside it).
The astronauts showed incredible bravery and courage and yes, patriotism. They brought back rocks, which today, I hear, are pretty valuable.
From the Christies’ website:
Unsurprisingly, Moon rock is one of the rarest substances found on Earth. In addition to the approximately 400 kg of Moon rock returned by Apollo astronauts in the 1960s and ’70s, there is only an additional 650 kg of known lunar meteorites. ‘They would all fit comfortably inside a very small car,’ claims Hyslop.
Nice to know these men risked their lives for beautiful pendants that can be bought on ebay.
Okay, here it is: the list of 12 people to walk on the moon