[Where Have All the Heroes Gone? By Mark Larson] "Let’s talk heroes. :5020: America is full of them, sung and unsung.
There are notables as well as everyday heroes we haven’t heard about. Heroes can be Moms, Dads, siblings and mentors. They may be first responders or simply hard working Americans with seemingly unimportant jobs, and yet all with the capacity for tremendous impact in their circles of influence. Everyone has potential to make a difference like a hero in some way, every day.
I stood in the midst of heroes the other night at San Diego Air & "Space Museum’s 45th Anniversary Celebration for the Apollo 13 crew. There was a big hit Ron Howard movie about the mission that made astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert even bigger stars, not that they needed any help. But the film brought to life an era in our country where we seemed to crank out bigger than life heroes all the time. Sadly so much of those pioneering NASA years in our history are mostly ignored in our schools today.
As I served as moderator for several panel discussions at the event, I was struck by the humility of these men. From surviving Apollo XIII crew members Lovell and Haise, to the NASA flight directors and other astronauts (including the last man on the moon, Gene Cernan) who worked feverishly at Mission Control during the ill-fated 1970 flight, everyone shared stories of how they kept the mission from becoming a deadly disaster.
Still there were occasional “feeling guilty” comments about their friends, who the astronauts said really laid it on the line, serving in the war in Vietnam while they were off having fun riding rockets, as if getting one top of a 36 story Saturn V behemoth filled with liquid fuel, built by the lowest bidder wasn’t risky and brave enough.
I was impressed by the cool, “just do it” business like nature of what they all did, in the crucible of crisis, clocking in and out of their jobs and working together as one smooth and high tech symphony of genius.
It all worked, thank God, and the astronauts of Apollo XIII returned safely to earth. And in the early days of the Apollo lunar flights, there were more than 400,000 other American heroes working on the ground, developing systems and building parts and spacecraft, making the whole mission successful… from the first landing in July 1969 to the last in December 1972.
Ironically, we beat the Russians to the moon, then budget cuts and lack of political will led us to the point where now, awaiting the next advances in space, we rent seats on Putin’s Soyuz rockets for more than $70 million each to get to the International Space Station.
These men are all in their later years now, most past 80. But may we never forget what they did for exploration, technological advances and most importantly our Nation. And may they live long and prosper.
Their accomplishments inspire us to think bigger and to do more in the future.
It’s all about heroic, courageous, and audacious American Exceptionalism at its finest." Where Have All the Heroes Gone? Jn 15:10 more
"The famous are rarely significant, and the significant are rarely famous." ~ Dennis Prager
I stood in the midst of heroes the other night at San Diego Air & "Space Museum’s 45th Anniversary Celebration for the Apollo 13 crew. There was a big hit Ron Howard movie about the mission that made astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert even bigger stars, not that they needed any help. But the film brought to life an era in our country where we seemed to crank out bigger than life heroes all the time. Sadly so much of those pioneering NASA years in our history are mostly ignored in our schools today.
As I served as moderator for several panel discussions at the event, I was struck by the humility of these men. From surviving Apollo XIII crew members Lovell and Haise, to the NASA flight directors and other astronauts (including the last man on the moon, Gene Cernan) who worked feverishly at Mission Control during the ill-fated 1970 flight, everyone shared stories of how they kept the mission from becoming a deadly disaster.
Still there were occasional “feeling guilty” comments about their friends, who the astronauts said really laid it on the line, serving in the war in Vietnam while they were off having fun riding rockets, as if getting one top of a 36 story Saturn V behemoth filled with liquid fuel, built by the lowest bidder wasn’t risky and brave enough.
I was impressed by the cool, “just do it” business like nature of what they all did, in the crucible of crisis, clocking in and out of their jobs and working together as one smooth and high tech symphony of genius.
It all worked, thank God, and the astronauts of Apollo XIII returned safely to earth. And in the early days of the Apollo lunar flights, there were more than 400,000 other American heroes working on the ground, developing systems and building parts and spacecraft, making the whole mission successful… from the first landing in July 1969 to the last in December 1972.
Ironically, we beat the Russians to the moon, then budget cuts and lack of political will led us to the point where now, awaiting the next advances in space, we rent seats on Putin’s Soyuz rockets for more than $70 million each to get to the International Space Station.
These men are all in their later years now, most past 80. But may we never forget what they did for exploration, technological advances and most importantly our Nation. And may they live long and prosper.
Their accomplishments inspire us to think bigger and to do more in the future.
It’s all about heroic, courageous, and audacious American Exceptionalism at its finest." Where Have All the Heroes Gone? Jn 15:10 more
"The famous are rarely significant, and the significant are rarely famous." ~ Dennis Prager
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