SJ-O residents relive the Apollo 11 moon landing

By FRED KRONER
fred@mahometnews.com

For centuries, the Man on the Moon was nothing but a fictional fantasy.

It was a faceless, nameless individual who existed only in the minds of adults who would regale their youngsters with far-fetched stories from the far outer regions known simply as space.

Many of these children wanted to believe that if there were not already Martians present, then perhaps someday there would be people on the Moon.

The fairy tale became reality on July 20, 1969, when two crew members from Apollo 11 stepped on the lunar surface as a captivated television audience in the United States – as well as around the world – marveled at the achievement.

One newspaper was so taken by the accomplishment that it changed its masthead for the Monday, July 21, 1969 editions.

The Vancouver Sun, in British Columbia, was published with the words, “The Moon!” printed where the words, “The Sun,” were usually shown at the top of the front page.

The moon landing coincided with the year that St. Joseph-Ogden High School social science teacher Marshall Schacht was born. It has been almost a half-century since commander Neil Armstrong, a Purdue University graduate, followed by fellow astronaut Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin exited their space vehicle, descended on a ladder, one after the other, and explored a portion of the moon.

Armstrong’s first words from the surface have been immortalized: “One small step for man, one giant step for mankind,” he said.

Because Schacht was born in 1969, he said, “I have always felt a connection with the event.  I can’t imagine the sense of excitement and adventure that would have accompanied the media coverage.”

He doesn’t have the memory of sitting in front of a black-and-white television set, squinting to see fuzzy images of the two men planting an American flag, exploring an area never-before seen in person by human eyes and retrieving rocks to be returned to Earth.

“My impression of the Apollo 11 mission has been shaped largely by the movies that have documented advances in the space program,” Schacht said. “Movies such as “The Right Stuff,” “Apollo 13” and “First Man” captured the experiences of these heroes in space, but I enjoyed the stories of the heroes behind the scenes. “October Sky” and “Hidden Figures” celebrate the contributions of scientists and mathematicians that made space flight possible.

“Those are in some ways easier to connect with and spark a sense of fascination and purpose to learning how to push the envelope. “The Martian” is a fantastic book and movie that takes this concept into the future and makes inter-planetary flight appear possible and a worthy investment.”

As a history teacher, Schacht has studied more about the men aboard Apollo 11 – as well as those on the ground who made possible their four-day flight to the Moon – than many people.

When he teaches the subject, Schacht said, “I set the moon landing in the context of the Cold War. The students gain an appreciation of the changes that Sputnik’s flight brought to the field of science and industry.

“The challenge posed by JFK still holds true today regarding the difficulties and potential of space.”

It was President John F. Kennedy who addressed Congress in May, 1961 and said, among other things, “I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”

Kennedy’s speech came approximately six weeks after the Soviet Union had launched the first successful manned space flight.

It served to promote an undertaking that became pivotal in what was known as the Space Race, the drive to see which country could first send a man to the moon.

“The race for the moon brought out the best our country had to offer and led to the technology boom in global communications that we enjoy today,” Schacht said. “Students appreciate what we have without due respect for those that worked to overcome obstacles along the way.”

There is no way to calculate how many minds were opened to the unlimited possibilities – which led to future discoveries — just by knowing that the barrier of space travel was not a part of science fiction lore that existed in a dream world, but was a prominent part of the real world.

Major hurdles and barriers still exist, Schacht emphasized, though not strictly focused on space travel.

The current school-age generation, he said, “will need to meet the challenges of climate change and cyber-warfare as their peers from other nations do the same. The balance between competition and cooperation with others is a key component in the advancement of mankind.”

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Homer’s Kent Dunn can speak about Apollo 11 from experience. He was 27 years old when Apollo 11 landed on the moon at 2:17 p.m. CST on Sunday, July 20, 1969.

He was the YMCA director in Marion, Ind., at the time.

“We had a community program and a day camp going,” Dunn said. “We had a TV, 36 inches, which was one of the biggest at the time, and the room was packed.

“It was a crazy day. Businesses didn’t do business that day.”

Dunn had a personal connection as well, though not much insight.

“An uncle on my dad’s side (Eugene Smith) was an engineer working with NASA,” Dunn said. “It was exciting to know that someone in our family was thinking about things beyond the farm.”

The work done by the engineers wasn’t publicly discussed and – much like work on the Manhattan Project a generation earlier – even those employed on the project typically weren’t informed about the overall details.

“They were working on things they didn’t know would be used in other programs,” Dunn said. “They were pretty secretive.

“They didn’t know how it would all be put together.”

The astronauts on the Apollo 11 mission – Armstrong, Aldrin and Michael Collins (who stayed in orbit around the moon while his colleagues explored the surface) – each carried a small bag of personal items.

In Armstrong’s possession was a piece of wood from the left propeller of the first airplane flight – which had taken place 66 years earlier (in 1903) at Kitty Hawk, N.C. – when Orville Wright piloted a plane for 120 feet while in the air for 12 seconds.

It was an example of the past connecting with the present and providing memories that would be preserved for the future.

A native of Kokomo, Ind., Dunn marveled at the advancement of the space program.

“It was a thrilling time,” he said. “I was born and raised with the feel of the ground.

“I’m still fascinated when they shoot a rocket off.”

The Dunns moved to St. Joseph in 1991. A year later, he helped organize a youth soccer program in the community, “in my side yard,” Dunn said.

In 2005, he was selected as Citizen of the Year.

For Dunn, however, the true heroes were those who risked their lives to go into uncharted territory in the early years of space exploration.

“They were courageous,” he said.

Fifty years after the first moon walk, many scholars rank the event as one of the all-time top 10 in American history.