Found out a few minutes ago that one of my childhood heros passed away today. Very sad indeed. He will still always be my hero. So long Neil and God speed to your new journey.
No photos to accompany this but I had the distinct pleasure to meet him and spend a few hours with him shortly after his moon flight. He was a guest speaker at a convention hosted by the association I worked for and, when he arrived at the site, he was a bit early. I was asked to show him around the exhibit area. My first thought was that he would be mobbed by people. No one approached him. After an hour or so, I told him I wanted to apologize for no one recognizing him. He told me that he preferred it that way. He said he looked like "the guy next door" and that was fine with him.
He also said he didn't feel like a hero; just one very lucky person doing his job. What a thrill to meet him and shake his hand.
Thanks Joe. I so envy you Richard. He was the epitimy of hero doing his best not to take any glory from his huge achievement. Just wish we would have continued space exploration, but the times were just too unstable. Only recently did they find He3 in the moondust and that could be more then a reaons to return to the moon to mine it (He3 would make it much easier for Fusion reactors to be viable; Hydrogen produces too many radicals from making it practical; I still believe fusion is the future for our energy needs and even the cost of flying to the moon and back is worth the effort for He3 believe it or not since a canister of the stuff has the potential to power the who nation's needs for a year).
