Lunar landing: Brewster Gottsch

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 Vietnam 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 [Neil Armstrong] 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.