sign in sign up
<<
Home , Bill Kaysing, Bruce McCandless II, Christopher Loria, David Leestma, Edward Givens, Kenneth Ham

VigilanteVigilante RVAH NAVY NewsletterNewsletterRVAH August, 2019 "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

SPECIAL EDITION! This issue of the RecceNet Newsletter goes out early to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of and the First Men on the ! The US Navy and NASA This issue of the RecceNet Newsletter goes Space… The final frontier…. out early to celebrate the 50th Anniversary These are the voyages of the US Navy… it’s lifelong of Apollo 11! mission – To seek out new life, new civilizations… And to celebrate and honor our own US To Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before! (Just so you know… the word “” is derived Navy and the part it played (and still plays!) from the Greek words “Star” and “Sailor”. So it seems in the Space Program. only right that the Navy is on the front lines…) The USS Hornet was on hand 40 years ago to pick up the Apollo 11 after their Columbia Command Module splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969. Today, the aircraft carrier is preserved as a museum in Alameda, .

You can tell that this astronaut is a Navy man…. He has a beer in his hand!! A Historic Moment in World History USS Hornet (CVS-12) was selected by the Navy as the Prime Recovery Ship (PRS) for Apollo 11, America’s first lunar landing mission. On July 24, 1969, President Richard Nixon, ADM John S. McCain (CINCPAC) and several other dignitaries were present while Hornet recovered astronauts , , and Michael Collins and their spacecraft Columbia. Armstrong and Aldrin were the first two humans to walk on the Moon. The Navy units embarked on USS Hornet that participated in the Apollo 11 recovery were: Helicopter Anti-submarine Warfare Squadron Four (HS-4) flying the Sikorsky SeaKing SH-3D helicopter; Underwater Demolition Teams Eleven and Twelve (UDT-11 and UDT-12); Airborne Early Warning Squadron VAW-111 flying the Grumman E-1B Tracer, and Fleet Logistics Support Squadron VR-30 flying the Grumman C-1A Trader. The eight-day Apollo 11 mission marks the first time in mankind’s history that humans walked on the surface of another planetary body. On July 20, 1969, two astronauts, Aldrin descended the ladder several minutes later. Both Mission Commander Neil Armstrong and LM pilot Edwin astronauts unveiled a plaque on the LM descent stage “Buzz” Aldrin Jr, landed on the Moon in the Lunar Module with the inscription: “Here Men From Planet First (LM) Eagle. During a historic 2 ½ hour lunar surface Set Foot Upon the Moon, July 1969 A.D, We Came In excursion, the astronauts set up scientific experiments, Peace For All Mankind.” The astronauts deployed the took photographs, and collected rock and soil samples. scientific instruments, took photographs, and collected 22 After the Eagle rendezvoused with the Command Service kilograms of lunar rock and soil samples. The astronauts Module (CSM) Columbia, the astronauts returned to Earth, traversed a total distance of about 250 meters. The EVA landing in the Pacific Ocean on July 24. Apollo 11 fulfilled ended after 2 hours, 31 minutes when the astronauts President John F. Kennedy’s challenge for America to land returned to the LM and closed the hatch. a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth before After spending over 21 hours on the lunar surface, the the 1960’s decade had ended. Eagle blasted off. Once the LM had docked with Columbia, Apollo 11 was launched on a on July 16, 1969 the two astronauts transferred to the CM, and the LM was from in . After 1 ½ Earth jettisoned into lunar orbit (the crash site of the Eagle on orbits, the S-IVB stage was re-ignited, putting the the Moon is still unknown). spacecraft on course for the Moon. The S-IVB was fired Three days later, just before Columbia was positioned for again once the CSM reached the Moon to insert the reentry into Earth’s atmosphere, it was separated from spacecraft into orbit around it. On July 20, Neil Armstrong the Service Module. Apollo 11 splashed down in the and Buzz Aldrin entered the Lunar Module (LM) Eagle and Pacific Ocean on July 24 at 5:50 AM local time, after descended to the lunar surface. The LM landed in the Sea traveling over 950,000 miles in a little more than 8 days. of Tranquility with Armstrong reporting, “, The splashdown point was 920 miles southwest of Tranquility Base here – the Eagle has landed.” Armstrong Honolulu and 13 miles from USS Hornet. stepped onto the lunar surface several hours later stating, Four months later, USS Hornet (CVS-12) repeated this “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for flawless performance as PRS for the recovery of Apollo 12, mankind.” America’s second lunar landing mission. On November 24, 1969, the spacecraft Yankee Clipper, with its all-Navy astronaut crew of , and Dick Gordon, splashed down a little over 2 miles from the aircraft carrier. It’s difficult to discuss the Navy mission in space without recognizing Star Trek for predicting that the Navy would play a major role in the final frontier. With due respect to Mr. Roddenberry, the Navy does not go it alone; rather, we are a part of the Defense Department’s space operations team. I think there may be some people who would be surprised to learn that the Navy has a mission in space – they might also be surprised to know that the U.S. Naval Academy has produced more astronauts than any other undergraduate institution.

Chronology of Space Missions Involving the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1961-1981 5 May 1961. Launch of Freedom 7 (Mercury 3). 20 February 1962. Launch of Friendship 7 (Mercury 6). 24 May 1962. Launch of Aurora 7 (Mercury 7). 3 October 1962. Launch of Sigma 7 (Mercury 8). 23 March 1965. Launch of Gemini 3. 21 August 1965. Launch of Gemini 5. 15 December 1965 Launch of Gemini 6. 4 December 1965. Launch of Gemini 7. 16 March 1966. Launch of Gemini 8. “The utilization of space truly has been a national effort; 3 June 1966. Launch of Gemini 9. the talents of the military services have been invaluable 18 July 1966. Launch of Gemini 10. through these years. The has played a 12 September 1966. Launch of Gemini 11. particularly important part in the development and final 11 November 1966. Launch of Gemini 12. realization of that enterprise.” 27 January 1967. Fire in Command Module at Cape Alan B. Shepard Jr., USN Kennedy during simulation countdown. Lunar Module NASA Astronaut Pilot LCDR Roger B. Chaffee and two other crewmembers died. Even before NASA was established in 1958, the U.S. Navy 11 October 1968. Launch of . had been involved in atmospheric and high-altitude 21 December 1968. Launch of Apollo 8. research through the Naval Research Laboratory and 18 May 1969. Launch of . Office of Naval Research. U.S. Navy contributions to space 20 July 1969. Apollo 11 completes mission to moon. exploration continued with NASA’s manned space flight 19 November 1969. Launch of Apollo 12. programs, starting in the early 1960s. Navy personnel 11 April 1970. Launch of Apollo 13. served as astronauts in space missions, and Navy ships 5 February 1971. Launch of . supported recovery of astronauts at sea until the 21 April 1972. Launch of Apollo 16. development of the . The first American in 12 December 1972. Launch of Apollo 17. space, , was a Navy officer. A Marine 25 May 1973. Launch of 2. helicopter, HUS1 helicopter of HMR(L)-262, and the 28 July 1973. Launch of . antisubmarine warfare support aircraft carrier USS Lake 16 November 1973. Launch of . Champlain (CVS-39) were involved in recovery of Shepard 17 July 1975. Docking in space of the U.S. Apollo and and his space capsule in 1961. Neil Armstrong, the first Soviet Soyuz spacecraft. man to set foot on the moon, was a naval aviator who 1 October 1979. President Jimmy Carter awarded the served in the Korean War. From pilots to Underwater Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the following Demolition Team (UDT) Frogmen to researchers and astronauts: former naval aviator Neil Armstrong, Captain , Navy personnel have been involved in many Charles Conrad, Jr., USN (Ret.), Colonel , USMC facets of the space program. (Ret.), and Rear Admiral Alan Shepard Jr., USN (Ret.). 12 April 1981. List of Astronauts Educated at the United States Naval Academy Over 50 United States astronauts have graduated from the United States Naval Academy (USNA), more than from any other undergraduate institution. The Naval Academy is an undergraduate college in Annapolis, with the mission of educating and commissioning officers for the United States Navy and Marine Corps. The Academy is often referred to as Annapolis. Sports media refer to the Academy as "Navy" and the students as "Midshipmen"; this usage is officially endorsed. During the latter half of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th, the United States Naval Academy was the primary source of U.S. Navy and Marine Corps officers, with the Class of 1881 being the first to provide officers to the Marine Corps. Graduates of the Academy are also given the option of entering the United States Army or ; known as cross-commissioning. Most Midshipmen are admitted through the congressional appointment system.[The curriculum emphasizes various fields of engineering. Annapolis graduates who enter aviation and space-related fields have the opportunity to be selected for astronaut training by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This list is drawn from graduates of the Naval Academy who became astronauts. The Academy was founded in 1845 and graduated its first class in 1846. The first alumnus to fly as an astronaut was Alan Shepard, class of 1945. As of June 2017, the most recent alumni to complete astronaut training was Nicole Mann, class of 1999. Kayla Barron, class of 2010 was selected as an astronaut candidate in June 2017, but has not yet completed her training. Two alumni were part of , three part of , seven part of the , three have walked on the moon, one was part of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, and forty-two were part of the .

Alan Shepard 1945 1978 1946 Daniel W. Bursch 1979 1951 Michael Foreman 1979 Donn F. Eisele 1952 Dominic L. Pudwill Gorie 1979 1952 Joe F. Edwards, Jr. 1980 1952 Michael Lopez-Alegria 1980 Thomas Patten Stafford 1952 Kathryn P. Hire 1981 Theodore Freeman 1953 Brent W. Jett, Jr. 1981 1955 Wendy B. Lawrence 1981 1957 1983 Bruce McCandless II 1958 William Cameron McCool 1983 S. David Griggs 1962 Robert Curbeam 1984 Robert C. Springer 1964 Charles O. Hobaugh 1984 John Oliver Creighton 1966 George D. Zamka 1984 David Walker 1966 1985 James Buchli 1967 1986 Michael J. Smith 1967 Stephen G. Bowen 1986 Charles F. Bolden, Jr. 1968 1987 1968 Kenneth Ham 1987 Bryan D. O'Connor 1968 1993 John M. Lounge 1969 Nicole Mann 1999 Robert D. Cabana 1971 Kayla Barron 2010 Frank L. Culbertson, Jr. 1971 1971 1971 John L. Phillips 1972 Stephen S. Oswald 1973 Kenneth S. Reightler, Jr. 1973 William F. Readdy 1974 Stephen Thorne 1975 Jerry M. Linenger 1977 Pierre J. Thuot 1977 Where Were You When… There are moments in all of our lives that could be considered “watershed” moments… Those historical occurrences that stick in our minds so that we not only remember the incident but can remember where we were and what we were doing when it occurred. JFK in Dallas, the Oklahoma City bombing or 9/11…

In July, 1969, we (RVAH-7) were getting ready to deploy to Westpac aboard the Connie in August. I was an E-3 and was living in a small two bedroom furnished apartment just off base with my wife and baby daughter. Money was really tight then (if I remember correctly, it was around $150/month then plus BAQ and COMRATS) and we struggled but like so many other sailors, we managed to get by. Money was so tight that when I got paid, we would go to the commissary and buy enough baby formula to get us through to the next payday, and with whatever we had left over, we bought ground beef, bread and milk to get the adults through to next payday. Fortunately for us, we lived across the street from a huge cornfield and we were able to sneak over and pull a few ears of corn off every couple of days and that would be supper… But this was a momentous occasion! The newspapers On July 20, 1969, my wife, my self, and several equally were full of stories about the upcoming launch of Apollo poor neighbors all huddled around our 12” black and 11, and like most Americans, we really wanted to watch white TV and watched history unfold. We were actually the TV broadcast of this historic event. watching a human being… an AMERICAN… walking on But there was a problem. the surface of the moon! We didn’t own a TV!! The Soviets had pretty much set the bar for the Space We needed to get a TV!! And the best place to get one was Race and we were running way behind. But then on at…. September 12, 1962, a warm and sunny day, President The WT Grant store in downtown Albany. Kennedy delivered his speech before a crowd of about Why? Simple… 40,000 people in the Rice University football stadium. WT Grant would let sailors open a revolving Charge He said, “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade Account on a signature (pending approval of course!) and do the other things, not because they are easy, but We applied, and 4 days before the launch, we picked up because they are hard; because that goal will serve to our brand new, 12” black and white TV! It was pretty organize and measure the best of our energies and pricey… $78 but the payments were $7 a month and we skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing could manage that… to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one We got the TV back to our apartment and hooked it up we intend to win…” which in those days meant plugging it in and adjusting the Without mentioning the Soviet Union by name, “rabbit ears” to be able to pick up all 3… yep… 3 local Kennedy -- spooked by that nation's stunning space stations… advances -- made it plain that it was his intention to beat the Kremlin at its own game, to be first militarily and technologically. Sadly, JFK did not live to see this challenge met. On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin fulfilled Kennedy's vision by landing on the moon and, four days later, returning safely to Earth. One giant ... lie? Why so many people still think the moon landings were faked

It all started with a man called Bill Kaysing and his pamphlet about ‘America’s $30bn swindle’. t took 400,000 Nasa employees and contractors to put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon in 1969 – but only one man to spread the idea that it was all a hoax. His name was Bill Kaysing. It began as “a hunch, an intuition”, before turning into “a true conviction” – that the US lacked the technical prowess to make it to the moon (or, at least, to the moon and back). Kaysing had actually contributed to the US space program, albeit tenuously: between 1956 and 1963, he was an employee of , a company that helped to design the Saturn V rocket engines. In 1976, he self-published a pamphlet called “We Never Went to the Moon: America’s Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle”, which sought evidence for his conviction by means of grainy photocopies and ludicrous theories. Yet somehow he established a few perennials that are kept alive to this day in Hollywood movies and Fox News documentaries, Reddit forums and YouTube channels. Despite the extraordinary volume of evidence (including 382kg of moon rock collected across six missions; corroboration from Russia, Japan and China; and images from the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter showing the tracks made by the astronauts in the moondust), belief in the moon-hoax conspiracy has blossomed since 1969. The Picture Page

Apollo 11 space-flown silver Robbins Medallion from the first to land on the Moon. Presented to Wally Schirra by Neil Armstrong.

Map of Moon showing prospective sites for Apollo 11. Site 2 was chosen

A “Hornet Plus Three” button given to the Navy seamen involved in the Apollo 11 Recovery on the U.S.S. Hornet.

The crew splashed down in the North Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969, some 900 miles southwest of Hawaii, and were met by Lieutenant Clancy Hatleberg of the US Navy's Underwater Demolition Team-11 at the floating capsule. Hatleberg carried biological isolation garments for himself and the crew members, in case they had been infected with extraterrestrial microorganisms. The astronauts put on the suits before getting on the life raft, and Hatleberg then sprayed down the capsule, the astronauts and himself with disinfectant before they were plucked from the water and brought aboard the USS Hornet recovery ship. The crew wore the suits from the moment the hatch was opened until they were sealed inside a quarantine unit on board the USS Hornet. When the ship docked in Hawaii, the sealed unit was loaded onto a US Air Force transport plane and flown to Ellington Air Force Base outside Houston, , where the three astronauts waited out the full quarantine period of 21 days.

Apollo 11 crewmembers, from left, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, sit inside a quarantine van in Houston USS Hornet recovering on July 27, 1969. APOLLO 11 - July 24, 1969 These Men Had LARGE Cojones! A few facts that let you know the Apollo 11 Astronauts were certified bad-asses!

Autographs as life insurance Unexpected alarms Apollo 11 was a high-risk mission, so astronauts Neil Just as Apollo 11 was preparing to land on the moon, Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins didn't know the astronauts aboard — Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" whether they would return to Earth alive, if at all. Aldrin and Michael Collins — saw their navigational But instead of taking out life insurance - which we imagine computer flash a 1202 alarm, which meant would have been ridiculously expensive - they came up something was wrong. with an ingenious plan involving their signatures. The Luckily, mission control had gone through every crew, who by this point were already famous, signed conceivable code during simulations on Earth. This hundreds of envelopes before their journey to the Moon, particular alarm signaled a computer overload, but which were postmarked on important dates. as long as the alarm cleared, the astronauts were These postmarked envelopes, known as 'covers', were good to go, mission control said. Similar alarms went then distributed to their families by a close pal to act as off later, but the mission proceeded. [Interstellar 'life insurance' in the event the astronauts died. Space Travel: 7 Futuristic Spacecraft to Explore the "If they did not return from the Moon, their families could Cosmos] sell them — to not just fund their day-to-day lives, but "What was happening was that too many commands also fund their kids' college education and other life were being loaded into the computer and it was needs," space historian Robert Pearlman tells NPR. running out of memory," Pearlman told Live Science. Fortunately for the astronauts and their loved ones, the "It was warning that it did not have the ability to autographs weren't needed. calculate everything that was needed to be The Apollo computer was less powerful than a calculated. But that was OK, because the computer calculator was designed to drop processes as needed, and it The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) played a key role in had rankings as to what was most critical." the success of the Moon landing, providing interfaces for Exploding on Blast Off ? guidance, navigation and spacecraft control. The massive Saturn V rocket used for the moon Back in the late 1960s, it was a state-of-the-art device. But missions almost shook itself apart during the Apollo despite weighing more than 30kg (65 lbs), the computer 6 test flight in 1968, so NASA knew that a launch pad was actually less powerful than a calculator. Two popular explosion was a real possibility. In 1965, two calculators, used by maths and science students in their engineers at the agency’s Manned Spacecraft Center exams, were found to be 140 and 350 times faster than in Houston (now ) calculated the AGC in terms of processing speed. that the explosion of a fuel-laden Saturn V could But despite the AGC's simplicity, it didn't malfunction create a fireball 1,400 feet wide, with temperatures once during the mission. up to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. Bits of shrapnel My computer has frozen up twice while working on this from the explosion might travel as far as three miles. Newsletter!! Just in case, NASA seated Vice President Spiro They could have been abandoned on the Moon Agnew, former President Lyndon Johnson and other There were plans to abandon the astronauts on the Moon VIP guests three and a half miles away from the pad if things didn't go as planned. during the Apollo 11 liftoff. A speech, titled "In the Event of Moon Disaster", was No Escape Route! prepared for then-US President Richard Nixon to read on Think about it… First you have to believe that the TV in case Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins became stranded. rocket is not going to explode on the pad… then If this had happened, Mission Control would have stopped once you’re in space, if anything drastic goes wrong, communicating with the trio and Nixon would have rang you’re basically screwed. There is NO WAY for a each of their partners to break the news, Sky reports. rescue mission to happen, no help is coming and you He would have then made his speech, including the will either suffocate when the air runs out or you words: "These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin will starve when the food runs out… and yet… Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. These men WILLINGLY got in that tin can and took "But they also know that there is hope for mankind in the leap…. their sacrifice." The speech, which was reportedly penned by White House Big Balls… You Betcha!! speechwriter Bill Safire on July 18, 1969, never had to be read out after the mission succeeded. Happy Birthday, August Birthdays Ok… someone said there would be cake… Ya Swabs! I like cake… where is it?

John Purdy 16-August Norbert (Moe) Moeller 1-August Adrian Freeman 17-August Gary Webb 1-August Francis Shaw 17-August Bruce A. Walker 1-August Keith H. Rhea 17-August Larry Lassise 1-August Larry Hunter 18-August Virgil Reece 2-August Steven Sotir 18-August Pete Evangel 2-August Jack Taylor 18-August William C. Wilbur 2-August Alvin Gurney Hutto 19-August Patricia Harre 3-August Boom Powell 19-August Doug Coleman 3-August Joseph "JoJo" Maifeld 19-August Douglas C. Coleman 3-August David Biel 20-August Ross F. Buenzle 4-August H. Sid Meltzer 21-August Charles E. Frailing 4-August Earl A Bruders 21-August Bob Donatsch 5-August Donald Estes 21-August John Silvio 5-August Earl Bruders 21-August Edwin L Grey 5-August Edward L. Bauer 21-August Albert A Plunkett 5-August Robert Gabel 21-August Doug Parrish 5-August Sam Goucher 23-August Randolph Hodges 6-August Paul Artlip Jr 23-August Ed Bertness 6-August Dana Fayette 23-August Wayne Hawkins 6-August Rickey W Baird 23-August B Thomas Lee 6-August Steve Ewing 24-August Larry W Hollis 7-August Dale A. Butler 24-August Steven B. Garcia 7-August James J. Montalbano 24-August Rich Hoguet 7-August Joseph M. LaFon 24-August John Peria 7-August Joseph M. LaFon 24-August Mike Wooldridge 8-August Aaron Smith 24-August Richard E Hayes 8-August Josh Weber 25-August Batur Avgan 8-August Robert "Ed" McNabb 25-August Joe Brandl 9-August William Gehrkens 25-August William Sinkler 9-August Robert "ED" McNabb 25-August Richard Barker 9-August Joseph T. McFarlane Sr 25-August Robert (Andy) Andrus 10-August Gunder Creager 25-August Raymond "David" Yarvi 10-August CAPT Neil C. Davis 26-August Michael P. Diacin 10-August Charles L. Warren 26-August Michael Dungey 10-August Paul W. Franchina 26-August David Osentoski 10-August Stanley J. Gudmundson 26-August Steve Rehmann 10-August Jimmy T. Brown 27-August Charles Champion 11-August Gary Naquin 28-August Richard Affeld 11-August Richard A Loper 28-August Alfred Petralia 11-August Frank Baker Melson 29-August Alfred H. Agnew 11-August Larry O Sparks 30-August Lloyd Kiihn 13-August Edwin D Cummings 30-August Matthew Butti 14-August Antonio (Tony) Soto 30-August Paul Heinrich 14-August David C Keim 30-August David M. Hill 14-August Dennis M Lowe 30-August Arthur J. Rehberg 14-August Dave Traill 30-August Hugo Lee 15-August Larry Poe 31-August John W. Watson 15-August Larry B Wing 31-August Dennis Boyle 16-August Norman Hammock 31-August Michael E. Hensley 16-August Rocky R. Holland 31-August Terry K. Reed 16-August Francis D'Aversa 31-August Samuel E. McCray 16-August Stuart Law 31-August