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bill anders will always mention that he

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was the first one to get to the moon

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because he was in a position whereby he

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was a few centimeters ahead of us as he

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mark spitz you know i mean first is

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first you know

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the reason is we were flying backwards

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and he had a bigger butt that's like

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whatever it takes

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but when we finally came

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into the er or sunshine actually we came

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out i think we were best expressed as uh

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you know three school kids looking

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through a candy store window you know

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the flight plan was forgotten for a few

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moments our noses were pressed to the

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glass and we're all looking at those

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ancient old craters on the far side of

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the moon which of course as you all know

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we don't see from the earth and uh and

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to see what what they were and how they

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were we were just 60 miles above the uh

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the moon at that time and uh i think

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that's one of the uh great impressions

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i've had in the the first instances of

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actually becoming a satellite of of the

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moon jim was busy photographing along

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the flight path through the navigation

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system and i was shooting right left and

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uh

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we one thing that you i don't think we

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had a light meter the nasa had

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calculated

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what the uh the reflected light would be

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depending on our longitude which depend

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on our time and so i just checked the

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clock and i'd turn it f this or f that

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and uh and so we got a lot of good

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pictures of uh

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the lunar surface as bill said he was

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doing all this with photography and i

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wanted him to be studying the systems

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doing this so i said anders forget about

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those pictures don't worry about it but

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we'll we'll be able and he was doing all

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this on the sly in the sauna

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without anybody knowing about it but

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actually i think that was made probably

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the most important evidence that we

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brought back was it was the photography

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and jim and level jim and uh build it at

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all we were coming around on this third

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revolution and i was taking pictures

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over here and jim was asleep i'm not

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even sure what he was doing

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and i think frank yelled out look or

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something and uh

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here was this gorgeous

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thing coming up over the

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lunar horizon the back side of the moon

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much rougher than the front side of the

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moon and so boy there was a mad scramble

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for cameras

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uh each guy had one started firing off i

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was lucky

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because i had one with a long lens and

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color film

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and

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f-stop

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and each other each of the guys took the

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same view but different size lenses and

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it just so happened that nasa

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picked the one i took as the iconic

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earthrise picture but frankly even

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though they both claimed they took it

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they know who did but i consider it kind

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of a crew

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picture

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we've talked about being in orbit now

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and one of the more exciting parts of

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the of the mission from my standpoint

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was lighting the rocket to get us home

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otherwise we'd still be there

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on the 10th revolution on behind the

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moon we lit the the rocket plot for

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about four or five minutes

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it worked perfectly and we started home

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and go ahead james well i have to get

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into detail here because of the we're in

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the far side of the moon and we have to

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light this engine otherwise we'll be

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captured permanently as the satellite of

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the moon and so my job was to actually

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do the work through the computer and we

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had a a

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a signal or

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actually numbers on the computer that

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got down to five seconds before it

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should be lit and

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it said something like do you really

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want to make this maneuver

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this gave you a little bit of a chance

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to say hey i don't want to do this you

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know to think about it and so i

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hesitated with my finger and bourbon

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anyway my recollection is we're coming

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back 35 000 feet a second

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way over any world speed record that had

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been set before

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uh seven miles a second basically

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and um i i remarked

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to uh to frank or jim and said gee it

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looks like uh you know where are we

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getting sunrise or no they were getting

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entry and they said oh no this is

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sunrise

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going right into the sun and this it

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just got brighter and brighter and

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brighter

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and pretty soon i felt like like a bug

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that was somehow gotten inside a

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blowtorch flame

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watching this torch go and as the g's

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build up

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every noun that looked like a big chunk

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would come flying off the heat shield

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well when you see the meteors coming in

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you know they light up very bright but

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really they're just tiny little pebbles

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and they ionize and make a big flash i

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didn't think about that at the time and

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i could just feel the heat

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coming through

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the spacecraft

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and then we got down lower uh we came in

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at night first night re-entry

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uh then the it got dark and at what at

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fifty thousand feet or so the uh

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the drogues fired uh and we could feel a

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jerk that was very reassuring and then

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at what 18 000 or something the main

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shoots came out

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12 000 and uh

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but we couldn't see them and and i think

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we needed two to make it you know

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and so it all seemed like one jerk and

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i'm thinking wait a minute three shoots

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and one pull that's not too good

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but uh our jim and frank checked our

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vertical velocities seemed to be in

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orbit

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but when we hit it was the biggest belly

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buster i've ever been on

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and one of frank's jobs was to flick a

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switch that would blow off the

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parachutes

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but you know we hit so hard it just

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ripped his hand from the switch

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and by the time he could recover

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the chutes had pulled down wind and this

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thing was

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floating upside down so i thought here

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we were

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conquering heroes from the moon hanging

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from our straps and all the trash that

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was in the spacecraft that had collected

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on the floor when we were coming and now

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it's raining down on our face

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so it was uh that's one of my big

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recollections well we came in uh

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because we actually why we hit so hard

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the spacecraft was hanging from the

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parachutes at an angle and the idea was

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that the the edge of the spacecraft

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would slice into the water and sort of

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not make it a little bit easier for the

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landing well it so happened that we were

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swinging on the shrouds of the

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of the parachutes and also the wave

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action was such that they both matched

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so that we hit both things flat

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and that's what caused the uh

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uh that caused the the the sudden uh you

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know hitting the water and of course the

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the parachutes then pull us over to what

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is known as a stable two which meant

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that we are hanging upside down just on

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our straps which is sort of an unusual

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way and so frank had to throw another

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switch

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uh that

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inflated about three balloons that

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slowly made us

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rotate up and all this motion of course

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with frank was another little

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disconcerting thing and he couldn't wait

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to get out of that spacecraft to get

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back on that ship i think that that the

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three of us were very very fortunate

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americans four hundred thousand people

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put that thing together four hundred

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thousand americans

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uh

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very blessed to be with jim and bill

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because there was there was a wonder

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wonderful

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camaraderie there it's hard to tell yeah

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i know

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i'm still i'm still mad about you doing

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that in the sauna but nevertheless

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it was a

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feeling and i i can remember

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as i we stepped out on the carrier

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with that fresh

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ocean breeze and the flag flying there

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and the sailors all standing around

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it was a feeling to me of overwhelming

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sense of gratitude

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for what we had been part of as soon as

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we got down

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at least in my

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feelings uh i didn't realize exactly

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what we had accomplished i knew that we

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accomplished a successful first flight

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to the moon

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but i didn't know the significance of it

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uh

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for the united states and for the world

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of what what had happened it takes time

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for these things to sink in it takes a

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little bit of history and aging to say

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hey really what happened how does this

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affect

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you know

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our view uh of the country especially as

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martin had mentioned 1968 was a very

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poor year in this country and then we

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suddenly

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ended that year on a positive note doing

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something

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you know positive for the country that

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everybody could take pride in

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and in a sense uh

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great feelings about the accomplishment

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but i frankly felt a little guilty

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because all of us had uh comrades and

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colleagues doing uh things that i

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thought were a lot more dangerous

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fighting in vietnam a lot of colleagues

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shot down put in prison el dorado canyon

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raid on libya

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frankly i think apollo 8 was probably a

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lot safer

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and uh we were lucky to be part of it as

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frank said

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i agree with you you stopped thinking

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look at

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john glenn

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what 69 missions in world war ii and

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there's so many missions in in korea and

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uh you know if i hadn't been in if i

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hadn't been in apollo i'd

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wanted been in vietnam

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but we weren't

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and and we sort of got

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all the adulation and all the success

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and all the planets and there were so

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many people that were trying to serve

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this country under much more difficult