Comments on: Godspeed, Neil Armstrong

By: Doug Praska

Doug Praska — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 21:31:10 +0000

Not surprisingly William Jorns comments describe almost exactly the way I felt as a boy growing up in North Dakota watching America reach for the moon from the beginning of the Mercury Program to the end of the Apollo Program. I too stayed up all night watching Neil and Buzz approach, land, walk, and explore the Moon’s surface while Michael orbited overhead. I too was filled with great pride with these three national heros, and the heros that followed in their footsteps on Apollos 12 through 17. I too had wanted to meet and shake Neil’s hand. Back in 1994 during the 25th Lunar Landing Anniversary, as a USAF officer assigned at W-PAFB OH, my toddler son and I ventured to Neil’s home town of Waphakeneta OH hoping to meet him and shake his hand. We toured his boyhood home and the Space Museum built and named in his honor. Unfortunately our paths did not cross as Neil, Buzz, and Michael we had learned that afternoon were at a 25th Anniversary Moon Landing Dinner and Reception at KSC if my memory serves me correctly. Neil and all of the astronauts inspired me to graduate with a BSEE degree from UND, and while serving in the USAF as an engineer I earned my commercial IFR multi-engine pilot and instructor flight certificates. In the early days of the Space Shuttle Program the USAF assigned me to work on the Space Shuttle Program at Vandenberg AFB and get launch and landing team on-the-job training at KSC. It was Neil and the rest of the astronauts that gave me those boyhood dreams, and to apply twice for astronaut selection and training. It was the good Lord that gave me the inspiration and opportunity to experience those fond memories and experiences working with the wonderful NASA manned space flight teams. Thank you Neil, you will be missed and I hope that someday we can shake hands in Heaven.

By: Danny Thompson

Danny Thompson — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 00:13:35 +0000

I watched Apollo 11 liftoff while standing in my family’s backyard in Cocoa Beach, went to Cocoa Beach Elementary!……and all of the other Apollo’s, Mercury, Gemini missions, and tons of satellite birds……I’m surprised the old house still stands!……Dad was a Grumman engineer on the LEM during that series, Mom was an exec secretary for the Astronauts……we heard all kinds of neat things that happened at the Cape….I still have the photo of all of the LEM crew in the VAB posing all over the spacecraft, and the ‘gold threaded’ Apollo 11 mission patch and large mission certificate he was given. Neil Armstrong is indeed a hero…..as well as ALL of the other crewmembers, mission support and entire community that built, maintained and launched all of those spacecraft with such dedication and daily heroic effort! Godspeed Neil Armstrong……I bet you’re at the bottom of the ladder right now !!!

By: Frank Szachta

Frank Szachta — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 19:07:02 +0000

Dear Armstrong family: As a USAF pilot for 20 years during the “Cold War” (1951-1971) I flew the B-47 Nuclear Bomber and other aircraft after that in support of the free worlds nuclear detonation surveillance unit for five years. I am 2 years Mr. Armstrongs senior and like him, I did a solo flight at 16 and am still a current flight instructor for our small flying club. The Air Force allowed me to get a college degree in electrical engineering, and I helped design and install an Air Defense system in Saudi Arabia called Peace Shield. Our buildings helped the Coallition President Bush (elder) sent into Iraq in 1990 Desert Storm war. My wife Nedra of 60 years was in Riyadh with me, when Saddam invaded Kuwait, and was evacuated quickly for her safety.

I, like professor Armstrong love flying, and will miss and honor him, with a wink at the full moon tonight as you all requested. I rewatched his centennial talk at Air Venture yesterday, with neighbors here at our Florida home, in honor and rememberance of his love for everything aviation.

We pray for peace for his soul
Sincerely Frank & Nedra Szachta Major USAF (ret)

By: Harper Poling

Harper Poling — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 15:56:42 +0000

Neil was a pilot in our USNR Squadron VF 724 at Glenview from 1952-55 and Said in a recent letter that he remembered “VF-724 with great affection as they were the kind of people he would want to be with in a shooting war” He remembered the skipper, LCDr Kozlowski, and fellow pilots Neidhold, Graf, Sommer, Soberski, and Tallman.
What a great guy and pilot.

By: William Jorns

William Jorns — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 02:35:58 +0000

I was deeply saddened to learn today of the death of Neil Armstrong.
He, and the other Apollo astronauts, were my boyhood heroes. On Sunday, July 20, 1969, I followed the progress of the Apollo 11 mission as Neil and Buzz descended to the moon’s surface in their lunar module Eagle. I watched that night as they took those first steps on another world. That moonwalk, and the others that followed on subsequent missions, seemed to me like the greatest adventure a person could ever have. Those space flights sparked my imagination and filled me with wonder like nothing else I’ve ever encountered.
Each year on July 20, not only do I go to the Crown Space Center at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry to commemorate that historic mission, but I also dig out my DVD of that first moonwalk and play it start to finish.
I know he was getting up in years, but I was hoping to get to meet Mr. Armstrong before he passed away, to thank him for inspiring me with his courage and daring in undertaking such a perilous mission. Now, sadly, I’ve lost that opportunity.

Rest in peace, Prof. Armstrong – and thank you.
1930 – 2012