ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

First Man on the Moon (the author describes the life of, and a meeting with, Neil Armstrong)

Updated on January 7, 2016

First Man on the Moon

Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon, passed away on August 25, 2012.

During the early Cold War, Arthur C. Clarke wrote the first man who would walk on the Moon was probably already alive, perhaps in elementary school in the United States or Russia. Those born after 1950 cannot recall a time when “going to the Moon” was absolute fantasy for the great majority of the Earth’s population and a dream for – well, for dreamers. Most were scientists and science fiction writers. Clarke was both. He went on to posit that the dominant language on Earth by the close of the twentieth century, English or Russian, might be determined by the location of that elementary school.

Clarke was right about some things but not the age of the first man on the moon. Neil was born in 1930 and started Purdue at seventeen. He accepted a Department of Defense scholarship and was called to active duty by the Navy in 1949. Neil had flown 79 combat missions over Korea before Clarke published his elementary school student conjecture.

A fiction writer could not have described a more All-American background than Neil Armstrong’s: Midwesterner, flight certificate at age fifteen, Eagle Scout, turned down a scholarship to MIT to enroll at Purdue, test pilot for some of the most significant aircraft of the twentieth century. Oh, yeah, he was an Astronaut.

I learned of the first Gemini mission while in Marine Corps basic training in 1965. Neil saved Gemini 8 from a potentially catastrophic system failure.

On July 20th, 1969 Neil Armstrong did it. Rejected one landing spot and moved to a better, almost running out of fuel in the process. “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” Put on the suit, opened the hatch, climbed down the steps. Credited “ . . for mankind” as his feet touched – and made footprints which, eroded only by charged particles of the solar wind and micrometeorites, will last for millennia.

On July 20th, 1969 John Tilford, back from Vietnam and saving money to return to Indiana University, was watching Neil and Buzz (and Walter Cronkite) on a black-and-white television in Willard Tilford’s farmhouse. Polly Ann Bruce, one of Willard’s Sunday school students, visited; ostensibly to swim in dad’s lake. She looked pretty good.

Langholm, Scotland – ancestral home of the Armstrong’s – proclaimed Neil “first freeman” in 1972. The Tilford’s hail from Langholm.

I telephoned the University of Cincinnati in the fall of 1974. Made the appointment. (I had never forgiven myself for not meeting Truman before his death in 1972.) Polly, one year old Aaron, and I met Professor Neil Armstrong in his office. He graciously came from behind his desk to greet us. After the hello’s I suddenly realized I had nothing meaningful to say. “Congratulations on being the first man on the Moon!” seemed too trite. Aaron started to squirm. Neil signed a page in Polly’s notebook. We said our goodbyes and left.

Millions of WWII baby-boomers were the right age to appreciate Neil. I grew up reading science fiction, Arthur C. Clarke in particular. I entered college at seventeen then came back from war to finish as he did. He was younger than our fathers but older than we were. Like us, he dreamed, fought, studied, and worked. But he accomplished so much more.

John Glenn observed “He [Neil] didn’t feel that he should be out huckstering himself.” Neil Armstrong, exemplifying dignity to the end, never cashed in on his singular fame. Look at the moon. See the Sea of Tranquility? His footprints remain.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)