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when i was a little boy we started to

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land men on the moon

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and i think back then every kid wanted

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you know uh in my family i was not the

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space puff it was actually my older

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brother he made all the models he had a

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gemini model on his desk and he had made

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the apollo lunar lander and so his desk

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was covered with all these models i

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remember one time my brother and i

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stayed up late for one of the apollo

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missions and it perhaps would have would

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have been that time that uh i spent

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staying up with my brother thinking

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about hey this is really cool i mean how

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is it that we are putting men on the

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moon and and to know that uh that our

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nation had put people there it was uh

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even for a six-year-old i think that

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i was overwhelmed

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i went to west point in 1981 i was a

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plebe meaning i was in my first year

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there

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and we had three former apollo

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astronauts who came and spoke to the

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corps of cadets for the first time i

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realized that

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that it was possible you know even a

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young 18 year old can aspire to these

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things because here are some role models

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that were there had gone to the same

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school i went to

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and were able to achieve that dream so

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that was the first time that it became

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real to me

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i think all of us that have been

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involved in a space program when you're

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on a mission

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even though you're really busy and

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you're working very hard and very

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focused on the mission

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we all feel this deep sense of gratitude

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there's a lot of luck involved in

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becoming an astronaut there's a lot of

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responsibility as well and we all

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recognize that but i would say that