Long Island

LI Life

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It was the evening of Oct. 4, 1957, and millions of Americans were tuning in their television sets to watch the premiere of "Leave It to Beaver." 
Unknown to them, the country's archenemy in the Cold War, the <a href="/topics/Soviet_Union">Soviet Union</a>, was carrying out a project that would shock the world and alter the course of history - the launch of the first man-made satellite to orbit Earth. 
Sputnik, or "fellow world traveler" in Russian, marked the beginning of not just the Space Age, but the Space Race, an ideological contest of technological one-upmanship that would only end in 1969 when the Americans landed on the moon. 
Sputnik stunned Americans and "shook our self-confidence because we had convinced ourselves and the world that our technology, our science and inventions were far superior to the Russians'," said Michael Galgano, a professor of American history at <a href="/topics/Hofstra_University">Hofstra University</a>. 
The bad news continued. Just a month after Sputnik's launch, the Soviets sent another satellite into space - this one with a dog aboard. 
The Americans finally responded on Dec. 6, 1957, when they tried to launch a Navy Vanguard satellite. With news cameras filming, it rose four feet into the air, then collapsed into a ball of flames. Newspapers dubbed it "Flopnik," "Oopsnik" and "Kaputnik." 
The <a href="/topics/United_States">United States</a> finally successfully launched a satellite on Jan. 31, 1958: the Explorer I. An animal was sent up three years later, when the world's first "chimponaut" - a chimpanzee named Ham - took a 16-minute flight into space aboard a Project Mercury capsule. 
The Soviets' initial advantage in the Space Race led many Americans to believe a "missile gap" had developed between the two nations. At a time when they were developing missiles capable of striking each other, the Soviets' successes conjured images of nuclear weapons rocketing into the heart of America. 
Outgoing <a href="/topics/U.S._Republican_Party">Republican</a> President Dwight Eisenhower downplayed the fears, but <a href="/topics/U.S._Democratic_Party">Democrats</a> capitalized on them. It helped elect John F. Kennedy president in November 1960. 
The Soviets' advantage also caused many Americans to doubt the quality of their public schools. Politicians pumped money into math and science programs. By May 1961, Kennedy declared his grand vision of landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade. 
But the United States was still playing catch-up with the Soviets. <a href="/topics/Yuri_Gagarin">Yuri Gagarin</a> became the first human in space and the first to orbit the Earth, in April 1961. He was followed a month later by Mercury 7 astronaut <a href="/topics/Alan_Shepard">Alan Shepard</a>, although he failed to orbit the Earth. 
That was achieved by <a href="/topics/John_Glenn">John Glenn</a> on Feb. 20, 1962, as he circled the Earth three times in a Friendship 7 Mercury spacecraft and became an instant American hero. A year later, the Gemini missions began, involving longer space flights. From 1965 to 1966, Project Gemini achieved 10 manned space flights, giving the United States the lead in the Space Race. 
The competition culminated with the <a href="/topics/Apollo">Apollo</a> missions starting in 1968, and <a href="/topics/Neil_Armstrong">Neil Armstrong</a>'s historic walk on the moon on July 20, 1969. That Apollo 11 mission essentially ended the race. 
It was also a moment of great pride that "almost unified the world," Galgano said, all the more powerful because it took place amid difficult events that had strained America's self-confidence: the <a href="/topics/Vietnam">Vietnam</a> War, assassinations, race riots. 
By 1972, 12 Americans had walked on the moon. No one has been back since. 
Three years later, the Space Race gave way to a new era of cooperation when an Apollo spacecraft linked up with a Soviet Soyuz space capsule in Earth's orbit. The crews from both nations shook hands on live television.

News

Nation/World

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Sputnik and the dawn of the Space Race

Grumman Corp's success in building the spidery-looking vehicle that landed astronauts on the moon brought it worldwide acclaim, but to generations of Long <a href="/topics/New_York_Islanders">Islanders</a>, the company was as familiar as a next-door neighbor. 
For decades it was a reliable employer to fathers, sons and daughters. Its blue trucks rumbled through suburban streets carrying parts, or sometimes even wings and engines, and usually before dawn. It has often been said that if <a href="/topics/Long_Island">Long Island</a> was a company town, Grumman was the company. 
Grumman paid for hospitals, Little League teams, hunt clubs, and sponsored drives to raise money to help the sick and injured. "Anything that had to do with the community, Grumman was first in line," said Dick Dunne of <a href="/topics/West_Islip">West Islip</a>, a retired company public relations executive. 
From the 1940s to the 1970s, Grumman was known for giving free turkeys to its thousands of employees at <a href="/topics/Thanksgiving">Thanksgiving</a>. 
Pearl Kamer, a regional economist for the Long Island Association, remembers her family getting some of those turkeys. 
"Both my husband and my brother worked on the [lunar lander]," Kamer said. "They were both Grumman engineers. They told me about working in the 'clean room' and all of the excitement that went on." 
What was then known as the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp. opened for business at the beginning of the Depression, Jan. 2, 1930, in a cinderblock building in Baldwin. 
The company was headed by a quiet engineer named LeRoy Grumman and some partners - Leon A. (Jake) Swirbul, Ed Poor and Clint Towl. The company had a drill press, a woodworking machine, some power drills, a few desks and chairs and a drafting table. 
They started with a small Navy contract to repair floats for amphibian airplanes. But by 1931 the company had built the XFF-1 fighter, a biplane that delighted the U.S. Navy and gave Grumman an edge in the young field of naval aviation. 
Eventually, Grumman became the nation's largest provider of naval aircraft. During World War II, some 40,000 people worked for the company, turning out Hellcat and Wildcat fighters to help win the war in the Pacific. 
After a postwar lull, Grumman resurged in the 1950s, manufacturing Navy Cougar and Panther fighter jets. By the 1960s the company had about 30,000 employees, making it Long Island's largest employer. Its payroll would remain at about 30,000 for more than two decades, until the late 1980s, when the military buildup began to wind down. 
Even so, most of the '80s proved to be stellar for Grumman. The company was building the Navy's premier fighter jet, the F-14 Tomcat, which starred in the <a href="/topics/Tom_Cruise">Tom Cruise</a> movie "Top Gun," and four other types of naval aircraft. The F-14s were built at Bethpage; final assembly and test flights were at Calverton. "That [the F-14] worked out pretty well, because it was in service" almost 30 years, said Joseph Gavin, who retired as Grumman president in 1985 and now lives in <a href="/topics/Amherst">Amherst</a>, Mass. 
But in 1994, weakened by declining Pentagon contracts with the end of the Cold War and having already shed thousands of employees, Grumman sold itself to a competitor, Northrop Corp. of <a href="/topics/Los_Angeles">Los Angeles</a>. 
The company, now <a href="/topics/Northrop_Grumman_Corp">Northrop Grumman</a>, is the nation's second-largest aerospace and defense company, headquartered in Los Angeles. At Bethpage, the company's work primarily consists of designing radar equipment for Navy aircraft. 
With 2,000 people on the payroll here now, Northrop Grumman is small compared to the old days, but it remains Long Island's largest defense contractor in terms of employees.

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Grumman's reign on LI: humble start, lunar high point

In the spring of 1961, President John F. Kennedy pledged to <a href="/topics/U.S._Congress">Congress</a> that America would work toward "landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth" by the end of the decade. In many ways, Kennedy said, space travel "may hold the key to our future on Earth." 
Although Kennedy would never live to see it, <a href="/topics/NASA">NASA</a> fulfilled that pledge on July 20, 1969, with just five months to spare before the new decade dawned. 
Apollo 11's landing on the moon reversed a 12-year-old inferiority complex that started with the <a href="/topics/Soviet_Union">Soviet Union</a> launching the first man-made object to orbit Earth in 1957. 
The Apollo 11 team of Neil Alden Armstrong, command module pilot Michael Collins and lunar module pilot Edwin Eugene "Buzz" Aldrin Jr., began its eight-day journey to the moon and back on July 16. Armstrong was first to set foot on the lunar surface, followed by Aldrin, while Collins flew the command module above. 
Joyce Kinney of Port Washington was so enthralled by the summer's space race that in June she named her newborn son Glenn, after the astronaut <a href="/topics/John_Glenn">John Glenn</a>. On July 20, she was nursing Glenn and watching her black-and-white television when <a href="/topics/Neil_Armstrong">Neil Armstrong</a> stepped onto the moon and pronounced, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." 
The accomplishment was a special point of pride for <a href="/topics/Long_Island">Long Island</a>ers because the Eagle, the lunar module that landed on the moon, was designed and assembled by the Grumman Aerospace Corp. of Beth-page, then Long Island's largest corporate employer. 
Louis Gregoire of Northport, who was 18, attended a "moon party" with a bunch of other teenagers, including several whose fathers worked for Grumman. Watching the grainy images of Armstrong landing on a black-and-white TV, the Grumman kids beamed. "And all of us cheered. A man on the moon! We couldn't believe that." 
While munching on pretzels, Gregoire met a pretty girl named Eva. This summer, they will celebrate 40 years together. 
YOUR VOICES 
&gt;&gt; Craig J. Bruno &gt;&gt; Alan Contessa &gt;&gt; Mel Jackson &gt;&gt; Mary Ellen Moore

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A surge of national pride while watching fuzzy images on TV

The first words from the anchorman that Friday morning were calm and measured. He didn't seem intent on recording history but, one might have imagined, citing the next stop on a commuter train. 
"Good morning," said <a href="/topics/Walter_Cronkite">Walter Cronkite</a>. "Man is about to launch himself on a trip to the moon with the expectation of landing there." 
The expectation seemed reasonable but hardly a certainty. Cronkite would admit years later that he spent much of those next few days in a state of exhilaration and fear. 
Continuous TV coverage of the moon landing was not to begin in full and unbroken detail until 11 a.m. on July 20. <a href="/topics/CBS">CBS</a> News - the most exhaustive of the three major networks - would not go off the air until 32 hours later, or 7 p.m. on July 21, making the historic event the longest continuous news program ever to that point, according to CBS, which said that around the world, 600 million people watched the coverage. 
Most of the viewers in the <a href="/topics/United_States">United States</a> watched Cronkite; that's just the way it was, and usually was. He dominated network news as no one had before and no one has since. He had prepared for this moment for more than a decade. The Apollo moon landing was the most important story in his career, he would later aver. To him, it was probably the most important news story since the building of the Pyramids. 
Despite CBS' dominance over those days, American viewers often saw exactly the same thing on all three networks, because they broadcast the same coverage from <a href="/topics/NASA">NASA</a>. 
"You didn't have the visuals that you have today, [and] that was a good thing and a bad thing," says Mark Gray, president of <a href="/topics/Columbus">Columbus</a>, <a href="/topics/Ohio">Ohio</a>-based Spacecraft Films and an expert on NASA footage. When the lunar module landed, he said, there was - of course - no coverage, and to illustrate the historic moment, the networks displayed a "cheesy" module settling down. The CBS director then switched back to Cronkite: "He wipes his forehead and goes 'phew,' and that just captured the emotion of the moment." 
There had been considerable debate inside NASA, Gray says, over whether to bring a TV camera to the moon; Christopher Kraft Jr., chief of Mission Control operations, finally overruled the naysayers. The camera would go. 
<a href="/topics/Neil_Armstrong">Neil Armstrong</a> stepped onto the lunar surface at 10:56 p.m. EDT. Moments earlier, viewers did not actually see him emerge from the craft; he had to pause on the second step, then reach down and pull a cord to open a compartment holding the TV camera that would record history. 
When the camera was on, Armstrong descended further. Only one problem - the camera was upside down, and millions on Earth had to bend their heads to see the moon right-side up. He flipped another switch. The camera righted itself. The photos were not very clear, owing to the lighting conditions, the technology available at the time and the fact that the signal was transmitted 240,000 miles. 
"Neil Armstrong is on the moon," Cronkite said calmly. A "38-year-old American, standing on the surface of the moon." 
When the astronauts returned safely to Earth, Cronkite had prepared comments: 
"Through all time, the moon has endured out there, pale and distant, determining the tides and the tugging of the heart. A symbol, a beacon, a goal. Now, man has prevailed. 
"The least of us," he concluded, "is improved by the things done by the best of us."

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To the moon: Historic TV coverage, global audience

Buzz Aldrin, 79, born in <a href="/topics/Montclair">Montclair</a>, N.J. served as lunar module pilot for Apollo 11 for the first manned moon landing. He just published a memoir, "Magnificent Desolation." 
Some people thought: ''Space, it's so big a place up there, maybe we ought to send a poet or maybe a philosopher.'' And president Eisenhower said, ''No, we want success. We're going to send test pilots up there,'' because we want them coming back alive. 
We put our monkeys up, but they (the Soviets) beat us to the orbital flight with <a href="/topics/Yuri_Gagarin">Yuri Gagarin</a>. . . . That's when the president (Kennedy) said that we're going to send a man to the moon and bring him back safely. Pretty good idea, that bringing him back safely. 
The decision was made to have a special landing craft that would not be exposed to (the heat of) the launch. . . . The competition was won by the Grumman company on <a href="/topics/Long_Island">Long Island</a>. And they set about with their expertise to convert from building airplanes to building a spacecraft, and they did it extremely well. It was very lightweight, very serviceable, very specialized. Those were the major reasons that we were able to get to the moon on time when we did. 
If you're in orbit, you see the horizon, you see the moon and then you see the Earth coming up. It's a very moving sight. . . . All of that begins to increase the awareness of the grandeur of the universe, and the tremendous distances that are involved, even in our puny little Earth-moon system.

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Lunar landing: Buzz Aldrin

Catherine Barlick,59, of West Islip, data entry operator. In 1969 she was a keypunch operator in Syosset. 
 I remember feeling so nervous. Here were three astronauts risking their lives to do something so brave. I was 19 years old then, and I still remember how proud my parents and I felt as we watched the TV screen. I was filled with amazement that the Apollo 11 space capsule could complete such a long journey to the moon, land safely and return home. . . . I prayed for them to get home safe. 
At that time, my dad worked for Grumman (as a maintenance worker) in Bethpage. All the employees were given a poster commemorating this lunar landing. . . . All the employees signed it. (A negative of the signatures) was carried to the moon on Apollo 11. . . . My dad was so proud that he handmade an oak wooden frame for it and displayed it on our wall. 
I am a deaf woman who enjoys the benefits of recent technology, like close-captioned television. However, back in 1969, this technology did not exist. I had to depend on my parents to tell me what was being said on the television. The visual images of the landing were unbelievable, even though the words were missing.

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Lunar landing: Catherine Barlick

Michael Barnett, 62, <a href="/topics/Long_Beach">Long Beach</a>, in 1969, he was a petty officer third class in the Navy serving aboard the USS Arlington, a major communications relay ship. He is a retired computer technician. 
I was an electronics technician and radioman. 
All of a sudden we were taken off station. We were leaving the Sea of <a href="/topics/Japan">Japan</a> [off the coast of <a href="/topics/Cambodia">Cambodia</a>]. . . . We were supposed to stop at the <a href="/topics/Philippines">Philippines</a>, which all sailors love. But we were in such a hurry to get where we were going - nobody knew where that was - we just didn't go to the Philippines. And then rumors started flying around that we were going to <a href="/topics/Hawaii">Hawaii</a>, which was pretty exciting to all of us. We spent a few days in Hawaii and then we steamed out. At that point, we found out that we were going to supply communications for the moon shot. 
And we got out on station, right next to the USS Hornet, the primary recovery ship. 
Most of the communications that occurred was [through] computer. They called it RAT. The Teletype machine was constantly going . . . taking in this data from the flight itself. But there were voice lines. . . . The way we were able to communicate with the Apollo 11 crew was whenever we had a mid-watch, a night watch [when the officers weren't around] . . . that's when we were able to communicate, under the radar, and actually speak with them. . . . There was a seven-minute delay with your talking . . . We just talked about everyday things. They were asking about how the Yanks were doing, nothing classified. 
I was very excited about it. I felt this is momentous. This is putting a man on the moon. . . . The buzz around the ship was very upbeat. . . . Everybody seemed to have done their job better during that period of time. I felt I was part of something historic. 
I think [the moon landing] was an immense accomplishment and I think it really was a tremendous boost of morale, especially with the fact we were at war and it was a really divided public about that war. So I think it was a pride thing. . . . It was an exciting time. I cherish it.

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Lunar landing: Michael Barnett

Arthur Brown, 69, of <a href="/topics/Freeport">Freeport</a> was a Grumman quality control inspector who worked on the lunar module. 
 I went to work for Grumman in August 1967. I worked in the LM hangar. . . . The mechanics would put it together, make installations, and I would inspect it to make sure they did it properly. . . . 
It looked like somebody had a nightmare when they designed it. My perception of aircraft was wing and throttle and things like that. You had to get it into your head that it was not an air vehicle, it was a space vehicle. My first impression was: How are they going to make this thing fly? It was basically a big ball sitting on top of four square cans. . . . 
It was quite a program. . . . The testing and the repeat testing, it went 24 hours. . . . They had <a href="/topics/NASA">NASA</a> people that came in. So usually when they came around everybody was always on their toes. . . . 
I was watching it [the moon landing] at work. . . . It gave you a feeling of pride, knowing you were a part of it.

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Lunar landing: Arthur Brown

Craig J. Bruno, 52, is an attorney in Islip 
My father took me on a vacation to <a href="/topics/California">California</a> in July 1969, just before I turned 12, and we decided to spend a couple days across the border in <a href="/topics/Tijuana">Tijuana</a>, <a href="/topics/Mexico">Mexico</a>. It was so different - so crowded, with children begging for money and selling gum. 
We stayed at a rundown hotel with a bar attached. My father told me that if anything happened to him, I should know that he hid money in the bottom of his shoes. 
On the night of July 20, we went to the bar. 
It was crowded and loud, the air filled with smoke. I was the only kid there . . . The picture was very poor quality. Then the bar got quiet. 
Once Apollo 11 touched down, the peoplein the bar were yelling and congratulating me and my dad. It was as if we were the ones who landed on the moon. We were Americans, and they loved us for it. That's a bit different than being an American abroad now.-

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Lunar landing: Craig J. Bruno

Mary Louise Cleave, 62, a former astronaut, was born in <a href="/topics/Southampton">Southampton</a> and graduated from Great Neck High School. Cleave earned degrees in biology, ecology and engineering before she joined <a href="/topics/NASA">NASA</a> in 1980. She flew on two space shuttle flights in 1989 as a mission specialist and later became associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. She retired from NASA in 2007 and lives in <a href="/topics/Maryland">Maryland</a>. 
"I was at summer camp up in <a href="/topics/Lake_Champlain">Lake Champlain</a> . . . . I was a counselor, working on the waterfront, teaching water skiing, sailing, guiding mountain trips. We had all the kids in to watch it on this teeny TV. It was up over the dining hall. 
We all felt it was huge. . . . You could take the kids out and look at the moon at night. Everyone was just sort of blown away by this." 
Still, she never thought she would one day end up in space herself. "Absolutely not. . . . I knew I didn't want to drive a desk, but I was two inches too short to be a stewardess. It never occurred to me that I could be a commercial pilot, even though I started flying lessons at age 14. 
I was working on my PhD down at the <a href="/topics/Utah">Utah</a> water research lab. . . . One of the researchers I working with said they were advertising for engineers to work in space. He said, "You're probably the only one crazy enough to want to do it." 
I went down to the post office, found out about it and that you had to fly T-38s to be part of the program -- a high performance jet. That's what drove me. . . . I got hired in 1980, that was the second class of shuttle astronauts."

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Lunar landing: Mary Louise Cleave

Alan Contessa, 62, former Grumman worker, St. James 
I worked at Grumman on the lunar modules, making and installing the thermal insulation - gold and silver foil. 
I worked there for three years, 1966 to 1969. We went from testing to final assembly and then to flight. Turns out it was the most important job I ever had. 
It was a crazy time. Don't forget, this was all about Cold War politics, the space race. It wasn't for scientific reasons, it was the race for the moon. 
I would say, "Can you believe they're letting us young kids near this thing?" But we took it very seriously. 
The big mission was obviously July 16. About a month before, they decided they wanted to insulate the lower portion of the landing gear. This work had to be done on top of the <a href="/topics/Saturn">Saturn</a> 5 rocket, which was already on the launchpad. 
We went down to <a href="/topics/Cocoa_Beach">Cocoa Beach</a>, to Cape Kennedy. We had to be on call. They would call us up at 3 in the morning . . . Other times we spent 24 hours in a trailer waiting to go up. I was supposed to stay down there for the launch, but I opened my big yap and wanted to go home. 
I feel lucky to have been a part of it. We did get paid - it wasn't great money, but it wasn't bad. I was 20 years old, I bought a brand new 1967 Corvette and I borrowed the money from Grumman. 
Right after Apollo 11 they laid off people. I went to work for the telephone company . . . wound up a Teamster, worked in construction for about 20 years and then retired. 
Now I work on the LM-13 [a lunar module built for a canceled 1973 mission that is now being restored for exhibit use] over at the Cradle of Aviation Museum. I knew my skills would be useful over there, plus the idea appealed to me. You don't always get a chance to do something again in life.

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Lunar landing: Alan Contessa

Dick Dunne,71, of <a href="/topics/West_Islip">West Islip</a>, was Grumman's head of public affairs for the lunar module project. He's now retired. 
For Grumman to be selected was certainly an honor. Grumman made its reputation during the Second World War, but Grumman was not one of the people in the space business. 
Designing a vehicle to land on the moon had never been done before, and it was being done by airplane designers. . . . It is the first true spacecraft because it only operated in space. 
Grumman, in all its naivetÃÂ©, decided that this [the moon landing] may be a news event and how are they [the media] going to be able to absorb all this information? I pulled together the press reference book for the LM, had everything described in laymen's terms, and I gave courses to <a href="/topics/Walter_Cronkite">Walter Cronkite</a> and Jules Bergman to educate them on how the LM worked. 
We had a disaster plan, a statement that we would issue [if things went wrong]. . . . Two astronauts stranded on the moon. You knew that was a possibility. I don't care who you talk to, there was always that gnawing doubt that it wouldn't work. 
I was 32 years old, and it was the best time of my life - I didn't realize it at the time. . . . We covered every launch from launch to splashdown.

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Lunar landing: Dick Dunne

Joe Gavin, 88, now retired, was director of the lunar module program from 1962 to 1972 and president of Grumman Corp. from 1976 to 1985. 
In the beginning, we didn't really know what we were getting into. We didn't know what the surface of the moon was like. . . . The thing that really worried us was the fact that there was no way we could flight-test these flying machines before they went on the mission. To somebody who had grown up in the aircraft business, this was a pretty big hurdle. 
I never saw a launch because I was always a guest in the room where the <a href="/topics/NASA">NASA</a> people were monitoring electronically the health of the LM. That was at the Cape. After everybody was safely in orbit, we'd get in an airplane and fly to <a href="/topics/Houston">Houston</a>. . . . They had an open line back to <a href="/topics/Bethpage">Bethpage</a>, where another crew could provide a third level of support. 
Frankly, (Armstrong and Aldrin) getting out on the surface was an anticlimax. Once they were down, what they did on the surface seemed to be pretty straightforward. In my view, the takeoff [from the moon] was the most critical part. 
Even when you think you have done an absolutely perfect job, there is always a lingering concern that something escaped your attention. . . . It's impossible to make an absolute guarantee of success. You work hard, you have good talent involved, you do the best you can, and you hope it's close enough to perfect to succeed.

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Lunar landing: Joe Gavin

Hal Gilbert, 50, of Glen Head, was a 10-year-old boy living in <a href="/topics/Jericho2">Jericho</a>. He is now a financial services executive. 
I was 10 going on 11. It [the moon landing] was certainly a big deal. I don't think I was unique in that regard, as far as kids my age. It had been anticipated for so long. It had been talked about in science class. I had books, rockets, models, lunar landers, all the things surrounding the landing on the moon. 
I believe the actual first step on the moon took place in the evening. I just remember literally watching TV that whole day. . . . I remember at some point earlier in that day somebody said something about how you can take a picture with a Polaroid of the TV. . . . I think it involved the lights in the room being off, that type of thing. . . . That's how I set up the shot. . . . The TV picture itself at the time wasn't very clear. . . . I have a scan of the picture. It's sort of like a sonogram now. You can sort of make out the steps coming down from the lunar module. Looking at the picture now I can't honestly say I can see <a href="/topics/Neil_Armstrong">Neil Armstrong</a>'s image. There is a little message that came on the screen that says 'First step on the moon.' So I know I got it at the right moment. 
It was really one of those moments where people were in awe. . . . It was known that we were in a race with the <a href="/topics/Soviet_Union">Soviet Union</a>. The idea of beating them was a source of national pride. . . . The scientific aspect of this was huge, and what it might reveal and what we might learn about the universe and space.

Nassau

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Lunar landing: Hal Gilbert

Brewster Gottsch,64, of Islip, is a retired Sachem High School North biology teacher who works as an adjunct biology professor at Suffolk County Community College. In July 1969, he was a sergeant in the U.S. Army's 9th Infantry Division and had been in <a href="/topics/Vietnam">Vietnam</a> for six months. 
We were called the Mobile Riverine Force. We patrolled the Mekong River. [At the time of the moon landing] we were in a small village outside of Can Tho, and that's along the Mekong. There was about 45 of us [U.S. soldiers. A TV] was mounted at the end of a very small town square. I mean small. And we were surprised. And we walked into the village - the people were generally very friendly towards us - and they were sitting there watching the moon landing. And we sat down and watched it with them. . . . It was really strange. 
It was about 110 degrees and very moist. . . . I remember seeing him [<a href="/topics/Neil_Armstrong">Neil Armstrong</a>] walk out . . . and putting his foot on the ground. This could've been delayed. It might not have been live. It's what we saw, and it was really surreal. . . . 
We're all looking at each other [he and his fellow soldiers], and all we want is to get home safe. The first thing I think a bunch of us said to each other: "If they can land on the moon, why the hell can't they get us out of here and send us home?" 
Obviously I was amazed [by the moon landing] once I got home and could realize it . . . the fact that we could actually do it. . . . As I said before, [during the moon landing] we were talking to each other, saying, "Why can't they get us out of here?" Well, within three weeks, I got orders to go home early. So it was almost like somebody had heard me.

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Lunar landing: Brewster Gottsch

Diane Green, 60, was a sophomore at Hofstra then. She is a fifth-grade teacher at Franklin Elementary School in <a href="/topics/Hempstead">Hempstead</a>. 
I had just migrated from <a href="/topics/Alabama">Alabama</a> to <a href="/topics/Maryland">Maryland</a> and from Maryland to Hofstra. I was a new student. I was busy trying to get oriented in <a href="/topics/New_York">New York</a> and <a href="/topics/Long_Island">Long Island</a>. I opened up a <a href="/topics/Malcolm_X">Malcolm X</a> Center on Union Avenue in Hempstead. We had children come in, had tutoring for them, took them on trips, mentored them. 
I especially remember downtown Hempstead Village then. It was bustling. Everything was happening. You had Sears. You had, I think, three movie theaters. There was Winstons. There was a bus terminal. There was Lerners. There was a hat shop. It was amazing to me. Hofstra was like a city within itself, and then outside you had all this stuff going on. It's changed so much now. 
I remember talking to the kids about the moon landing. I remember the kids talking about it. I asked them, what it would be like on the moon. So we did a lesson on that. I think that made them feel like it was possible and then they started wanting to go into space. We were talking about gravity and the distance it would be from here to the moon. I think we also did a play on space. The children had come up with these space outfits.

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Lunar landing: Diane Green

Mel Jackson, 76, of <a href="/topics/Hempstead">Hempstead</a>, president, chief executive and founder of the Leadership Training Institute in Hempstead. 
I worked at a place called <a href="/topics/Fairchild">Fairchild</a> Camera and Space Defense Systems. I was a principal engineer. Sherman Fairchild had a passion for aerial photography. We made the lunar mapper, it was a camera that mapped the moon. All those moon pictures you see came from that camera. 
That was great stuff and great fun. We sat in the parking lot reviewing designs, coming up with new ideas. A bunch of grown kids who finished engineering school, physics majors and all that. 
The day would be over, had been over a long time ago. But when you have a passion for something you have ideas as you're shutting down and leaving the lab. We'd be discussing positions that you had on various things that you're doing and bouncing them off one another, either confirming or shooting down ideas that people had about one thing or another. 
You didn't know if it was going to work because you're in a hostile environment. You didn't know if the other parts of the system are going to work. What was the moon's surface really like? When you touch down is everything going to be jarred loose? Would it even survive getting close to the moon? 
And of course the big thing was what kind of raw imagery are you going to get? It wasn't like you could troubleshoot and do a test photo. 
It worked unbelievably. We watched the man walking on the moon, everybody saw that. You saw it a thousand times. Over and over and over again and also at work. Couldn't watch enough of it. 
It was very satisfying, very rewarding, because we had gear on it. It was a big deal for us. I had a small part. I was not the designer. But I did work on the project and there was a sense of accomplishment because of that.

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Lunar landing: Mel Jackson

Joan Kelly, 78, of Cutchogue. Widow of Thomas J. Kelly, the Grumman Corp. engineer and propulsion expert known as father of the moon lander. They raised six children together during the development of the lunar module. 
We all loved the (space) program. We thought it was the best thing that was happening. It gave the kids a lot of energy and they knew a lot about it. . . . The first time we were down in <a href="/topics/Florida">Florida</a> [for an Apollo launch] people would be talking about it and the boys would go over and set them straight on the details. 
 Tom's idea was the moon and beyond. . . . He felt we could not possibly be alone . He wanted to help us learn and take steps to understand the sky. Everyone who worked on this really wanted it to go, wanted to see the moon and have these guys up there. . . . It was literally a sea-to-shining- sea kind of thing. There were people working literally all over the country, from <a href="/topics/Long_Island">Long Island</a> to <a href="/topics/Colorado">Colorado</a>, all of these places were putting things together, just as we were. 
Getting the LM ready, those were very hard years. . . . Tom worked these long hours and he had a cot in his office where he sometimes slept. . . . It was a lot of hard work for a lot of people - hard work for the men and women who worked on it, and hard work for those of us at home. 
People would say to me, it (the moon lander) looks like a spider. . . . You know, everybody says something about ''that dinky little thing'' . . . but we absolutely thought it was one of the most beautiful things on this Earth. Because it did its job every time, flawlessly.

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Lunar landing: Joan Kelly

Mary Ellen Moore, 50, of <a href="/topics/Floral_Park">Floral Park</a>, a math teacher and freshman dean at St. John's Prep in Astoria, <a href="/topics/Queens">Queens</a> 
I was 10. I was living in Astoria. My memory of that summer was distinct in that I was away at Girl Scout camp the night that they landed on the moon. My sister and I were together at camp . . . I believe it was upstate <a href="/topics/New_York">New York</a>. So for a city kid to go away to camp was awesome. 
The night they landed on the moon we were listening to it on transistor radios. I remember it was dark and spooky. We were out in a woody area, looking up. It was crystal clear light, you could see the moon. And being 10 years old and giggly, we thought we could actually see some activity up there. We did believe it. When you're 10 years old - to think that someone was actually out there, that far, landing on the moon, and that we could watch it happening was kind of the magic of being away at camp, which was a new experience for us. 
I grew up in a five-story walk-up, so everything was concrete to me. Swimming in the lake was a new experience. So I guess we were kind of bright-eyed when we saw this happening - it was another extremely unusual thing occurring. And we believed it 100 percent. We believed we could see it. When you're 10 it's magic. 
My sister and I still celebrate that day . . . She and I kind of remember how special that time was. Every year we talk about how cool that experience was. As we get older we spend more and more time talking about it. 
It's like a celebration of being a kid.

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Lunar landing: Mary Ellen Moore

Don Shields, 53, of Huntington Station, is an attorney. In 1969 he was a 13-year-old eighth-grader at St. Brigid's School in Westbury. His father, Gerry Shields, now deceased, was a methods engineer at Grumman. 
I followed the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. I knew every astronaut's name. It was a great hobby of mine. So the fact that my father was working on that lunar module - yeah, I was very proud of that . . . 
[On the night of the moon landing] we were in the living room. We had an old black and white TV. I was with my mother and my father and my brother, Joe, and my sister, Anne Marie. We watched when <a href="/topics/Neil_Armstrong">Neil Armstrong</a> descended the ladder. . . . I remember my mother started crying. It was that historical and significant to her. . . . She was just so happy that our country had achieved this landmark, getting a man to the moon. She knew the interest I myself had in it. . . . It was a real event. It's something I'll always remember. . . . 
I just remember following it very closely, from the day the rocket went up. . . . I pretty much parked myself in front of the TV for the duration because I just thought it was the greatest thing, to be growing up and have this happen. . . . 
I think it was a matter of national pride because of the significance of President Kennedy saying that [ the <a href="/topics/United_States">United States</a> would put a man on the moon], then living through the assassination, then Martin Luther King's assassination and Bobby Kennedy's assassination. We had the '68 riots in several of our cities. I think it [the moon landing] was very much a healing thing for the country. . . . Finally, there was something positive, something good to root for.

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Lunar landing: Don Shields

Bill Stevens,70, a former <a href="/topics/Massapequa">Massapequa</a> resident now living in <a href="/topics/Beverly_Hills">Beverly Hills</a>, Fla., was an electronic technician with Grumman's lunar module program. 
I was 27 years old when I started, just out of the service. When I found it was the moon landing I was very proud. It was part of history. 
We were sent down on work orders to install electronic equipment on the vehicle. It took quite a while to do that. Then we went into testing mode. . . . I worked on the displays and controls, all the electronics and the guillotine to slice the wires so the ascent stage could blast up back to the command module. 
I worked seven days a week, 12 hours a day. Everything had to be perfect. . . . The astronauts sat in on the vehicles for testing, they were testing right with us. 
It was very tense. . . . We were doing the 
same thing that they were doing out in space, but we were doing it in Plant 5. 
In Plant 5, in the big hangar, we were listening to the whole landing and watching it on closed-circuit TV. It was suspenseful. 
I talk to people down here. I say, you look at that moon up there. I've got my name on that moon. . . . There is a plaque up there with my name on it.

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Lunar landing: Bill Stevens

Jeanne Watson, 50, of Nesconset, was a girl growing up in Bethpage, then the headquarters of Grumman. She's now a medical administrator. 
We used to call them Grummanites. A lot of people worked there. . . . My father [Hans Ringwald, who was a Nassau County police officer] always continued to do side work [as a machinist]. And Grumman subcontracted to local machine shops, and there was one in town called Howe Machine and they subcontracted to my dad. So he made various little parts, ball bearings, bushings. I don't know the terms, but they were made out of metal and Teflon and aluminum, special metals they were using because they were going in space . . . some of the parts he made went into the landing gear of the LEM [lunar excursion module]. 
I remember very well all that scratchy black-and-white imagery [of the moon landing]. . . . It had a huge impact on me and all of us kids [her four siblings]. I think all of us have remained tremendously interested in space exploration. . . . We very much identified with it because we were the home of the LEM. 
I get choked up when I watch a special about <a href="/topics/NASA">NASA</a>. . . . It was a national pride issue and, of course, all the technology that came from it. . . . People were fired up, motivated as a country. We're going to beat the rest of the world. We're going to be the first. It wasn't just local pride. It was the whole country. But to be right there [in Bethpage], we knew we were making a piece of history, even as little kids, we knew that.

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Lunar landing:  Jeanne Watson

Christine Zuk,53, of Bellmore, is a registered nurse. She was 13 in 1969, living with her family in <a href="/topics/Wantagh">Wantagh</a>. Her father, Walter Karl Ziegler, of <a href="/topics/Vienna">Vienna</a>, Austria, was a rocket scientist, aerospace and civil engineer who worked on the lunar module project. He died in 2001. 
 We didn't come to <a href="/topics/Long_Island">Long Island</a> until 1965, when [my dad] came to Grumman because Grumman called for him [recruiting him from <a href="/topics/Boeing">Boeing</a>]. 
Well, that day [of the moon landing], it was me, my dad, my mother [Therese] and my younger sister. We were watching TV like the whole day, the whole day. Late at night, I remember [<a href="/topics/Neil_Armstrong">Neil Armstrong</a>] stepping out and coming out on the ground to the moon. I remember the flag being placed. And my dad and my mom, they had a glass of Champagne. I'll never forget that. They toasted, and my dad, he was like almost in tears. He just says, "Wow, it made it." I remember him saying that. He actually said, with his German accent, "Yah, Therese, it made it." 
I was proud. I remember I was in the eighth grade when this whole moon landing happened. Everybody knew - of course I had to let them know - my dad was involved in this, heavily involved. It was just a big thing in school. It was summertime when it happened, but we were talking about it before school ended. [My parents] were hugging each other. . . . I was happy for them. I was real happy for my dad. I know how much this meant to him. He was just real proud of his work. . . . My mom always stood behind my dad. She always supported what he did. I will not forget them toasting those glasses of Champagne. . . . I can still feel the emotions.

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Lunar landing: Christine Zuk

July 20, 1969. The first lunar landing. 
I remember it well - I think. 
It was dark when the big moment occurred; my room, the picture on the black-and-white TV, outside, all dark. 
(Or was it? The Grumman-built Lunar Excursion Module touched down on the surface of the moon at 4:17 p.m. Eastern Time. But <a href="/topics/Neil_Armstrong">Neil Armstrong</a> didn't get out of the capsule until 61/2 hours later.) 
I watched the Yankees on TV, switching back and forth between <a href="/topics/Walter_Cronkite">Walter Cronkite</a> and <a href="/topics/Phil_Rizzuto">Phil Rizzuto</a>. They were the mediocre Yankees then, but that night they beat the powerhouse <a href="/topics/Baltimore_Orioles">Baltimore Orioles</a> in an exciting game; the backup catcher, Jake Gibbs, got the winning hit. 
(Nope: The record shows that while the Yankees did win, it was a day game against the equally mediocre Washington Senators. They halted the play when the moon landing was announced, the crowd sang "America the Beautiful." Play resumed, and the contest was decided in the 11th inning, although it was outfielder <a href="/topics/Roy_White">Roy White</a> who got the winning hit.) 
At one point, I went down to the refrigerator of my parents' home in Malverne, took out a Good Humor toasted almond bar and ate it as I watched the landing. 
(While there is no way to check this, I am beginning to think that given my faulty recollections of other details that day, it might not have been toasted almond; perhaps not Good Humor; and maybe it was a slice of cheesecake instead.) 
Memory is a funny thing. But this much I know: July 20, 1969, was one of the greatest days in human history. "We have seen a wonder," wrote C.P. Snow in Look magazine. "We ought to count our blessings." I certainly did, and still do, for having been old enough to appreciate the day <a href="/topics/Neil_Armstrong">Neil Armstrong</a> took "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," followed shortly by Col. Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin. 
So when I heard that Aldrin was going to be in Huntington last month, talking about his new book, "Magnificent Desolation," published to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, I wanted to go, and to bring my son with me. 
Andrew is 13, and going into ninth grade -- about the same age I was then. But, unlike him and his buddies, who seem more excited by new cell phone features than the humdrum succession of Shuttle flights that define space exploration today, I grew up when it was all a bold, new adventure. 
I was in first grade when <a href="/topics/Alan_Shepard">Alan Shepard</a> became the first American in space during his 15-minute ride on Freedom 7. From that moment on, I was a space buff. I read and watched everything I could about the astronauts. 
I followed every flight, knew the names of every crew. I collected space stamps, built space models, even wrote a letter to <a href="/topics/NASA">NASA</a> asking for as many autographed astronaut photos as they could round up, and (amazingly) got two in the mail: Gemini III co-pilots <a href="/topics/John_Young">John Young</a>, who would walk on the moon in 1972 and go on to pilot the first Space Shuttle, and Gus Grissom. 
Grissom, one of the original "Right Stuff" <a href="/topics/Mercury">Mercury</a> astronauts, would have been the first man on the moon, had it not been for the fire that swept through the capsule of Apollo 1 during a mission simulation at Cape Kennedy (as it was known, then), incinerating him, and his two crewmates, Ed White and Roger Chaffee. 
That happened on Jan. 27, 1967 -- my 12th birthday. 
To think that just 2½ years later, <a href="/topics/NASA">NASA</a> had picked itself up and met the goal of President John F. Kennedy to get a man on the moon by the end of the decade -- well, I was as proud as if I had something to do with it personally. 
As I watched the events unfold that night, I realized I was seeing something truly epic -- even more amazing than the time my friend Ricky let me sneak a glimpse of a purloined copy of Playboy behind his garage. 
Still, what did those long-ago events mean to my son in 2009? I knew the moon landing could never have the same power for someone his age as it did for anyone who witnessed it live on television. But I wanted him to have an opportunity to see and hear one of the men who did something probably none of us in my generation will be able to do in our lifetime. 
I was mildly surprised to find out he even knew who Aldrin was. "He's the guy they named Buzz Lightyear after," Andrew said. (Aldrin himself likes to joke about his "Toy Story" namesake, claiming that he "taught Buzz Lightyear everything he knows.") 
I told Andrew that Aldrin was one of only 12 American men who had walked on the moon; of those, nine are still alive. To see the second man to do it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. 
Apparently, I wasn't the only one who felt that way. When Aldrin arrived at the Book Revue in Huntington last month, an audience of about 800 cheered him like a rock star. They remembered July 20, 1969, too, and had, brought their kids and grandkids along, as well. 
We listened, as Aldrin, 79, a fighter pilot in the Korean War and a PhD from the <a href="/topics/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a>, talk about his life, what it was like to go to and return from the moon (post moonwalk was harder - he said he suffered from depression and <a href="/topics/Alcoholism">alcoholism</a>) and about his hopes that we'll go back again. 
Handsome, trim and charismatic -- moonbeams almost seem to radiate from him - Aldrin was a big hit. "Awesome!" Andrew said, afterward. "He was really cool." 
Andrew has his own moon memory now. Hopefully, 40 years from now, he'll remember who was sitting next to him.

BZCOV18

Imparting the thrill of the '69 moon walk

The assignment Vincent Scancarello got in 1968 while working as a foreman at Edo Corp. in College Point was hush-hush. 
Scancarello remembered that no one ever told him what was to become of the nearly 5-foot-long sections of aluminum piping, about the diameter of a vacuum cleaner tubing, that he was told to fit with electrical switches. 
Once the tubing left his work station in the detail section and went to a company electrician, Scancarello wasn't told what happened to the product. 
But a few weeks after Apollo 11 made it to the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969, Scancarello recalled that his bosses called him into the executive offices where he came face-to-face with a smiling <a href="/topics/Gordon_Cooper">Gordon Cooper</a>, one of the original Mercury astronauts. 
It turned out that the tubing components became the lunar surface sensing probes, the very first parts of the lunar module to hit the surface of the moon and signal that a touchdown had occurred, Scancarello was told. The sensors were attached to the module's legs. 
"He [Cooper] said, 'Thank you for doing a good job; they worked fine,' " recalled Scancarello, 89, in a telephone interview from his home in Flushing. 
With all of the commemorative reporting about Apollo 11 and those who worked on the lunar landing vehicle, Scancarello, who retired in 1985, said he would like to be recognized for what he did with the sensors. 
An official at Edo, now part of ITT Corp., confirmed that Scancarello worked at the company from 1941 to 1985. Documents from <a href="/topics/NASA">NASA</a>'s archives, as well as news reports, detailed Edo Corp.'s work on the sensors. 
After more than 44 years with Edo, Scancarello said he retired to get away from the rush to computerization. 
"The only reason I left is that they were going to put everything on computers and I don't like computers, so I quit," said Scancarello. 
A widower whose wife, Eda, died five years ago, Scancarello said he doesn't get around much these days. He still drives, but only on local roads, and doesn't use computers. 
"I am still using my head," he said.

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Memories of hush-hush work on lunar lander

Summer of 69: Moon landing

Newsday

Buzz Aldrin lands on the moon

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