50 years ago I was a young man who had just turned 20. I had been married ten months. I was a young college student in the US Navy Reserve. My unit had been called up for Vietnam in January. I was destined for a motor patrol boat on the Mekong delta (A blood bath for the US Navy) I passed the test for officer candidate school by one point. This saved my life. I was reeling from the shock of the assassination of two great political leaders (Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King.) Over 16,000 young American men and women had died in Vietnam this year.
My new wife and I came to Ralph Wallace III's house to watch a momentous moment. An Apollo capsule with three American astronauts was going to circle the moon. As we watched the moonscape on television, Astronaut James Lovell gave the most stirring talk. It uplifted all of us. It touched us. It gave us hope. It was one of the most magical moments of my life.
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