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thedrifter
07-22-09, 07:56 AM
Eyewitness to Apollo 11 splashdown
by Stephanie Esters | Kalamazoo Gazette
Wednesday July 22, 2009, 7:45 AM

Anticipation was high that July day 40 years ago aboard the USS Hornet aircraft carrier, stationed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Hawaii.

One of those on board was 20-year-old Jack Driver, who had joined the U.S. Marines the year before.

Then came the announcement the crew had been waiting all day to hear: The Apollo space capsule was coming into view.

The aircraft carrier was still a ways away from the capsule, Driver said, but the crew could hear the sonic boom and then saw three parachutes mushrooming in the sky.

"When they said, 'Apollo 11,' that's when everybody got excited, because it was history, and you got to sit there and witness it," said Driver, now 60 and living in Portage. "When it came into view, all we seen was the parachutes," helping to slow the capsule's descent to the ocean.

Driver is one of many area residents who watched history unfold 40 years ago after the United States launched a rocket ship into space with men who would walk on the moon on July 20, 1969. But Driver had a front seat for the splashdown four days later, along with about 1,500 other U.S. service personnel.

The astronauts on board the Apollo 11 spacecraft were ship commander Neil A. Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the moon; lunar module pilot Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon; and Michael Collins, who stayed in the spacecraft but did not walk on the moon.

When the capsule hit the water after their return to Earth, it was met by a life raft that took the astronauts to a hovering helicopter that flew them to the USS Hornet.

"They got out, and they waved -- let everybody know they were all right," Driver said.
Later, the empty space capsule was pulled from the Pacific Ocean and hoisted aboard the USS Hornet, which had been designated as the Prime Recovery Ship for the mission. The carrier also retrieved the Apollo 12 capsule in November 1969.

Once aboard the carrier, the astronauts went into a mobile decontamination unit, where Driver said they were kept quarantined from the carrier's staff during their time aboard the ship. According to space fan Mike Sinclair, of Kalamazoo, the three astronauts spent about two weeks in the quarantine unit to guard against the spread of any organisms they might have picked up on the moon.

After about three days aboard the USS Hornet, the quarantine unit -- with the three men inside -- was taken from the aircraft carrier to Ellington Air Force Base near Houston.

President Richard M. Nixon visited the carrier to welcome the astronauts back to Earth, and Driver remembers actress Ann-Margret also being there for the occasion.

Sometime after the capsule was placed aboard the aircraft carrier, Driver and others managed to peel off small pieces of the coating of the space capsule, he said. His piece is taped to a picture of the USS Hornet that he keeps in a photo album at his home.

Although Driver took lots of pictures of the historic occasion, the film was damaged in the camera he used, he said.

On Saturday, Driver left for California to participate in "Splashdown 2009" activities for Apollo 11's 40th anniversary celebration, which starts today and continues through Sunday.

These celebrations will be held aboard the USS Hornet -- now the USS Hornet Museum moored at Alameda Point on San Francisco Bay. The aircraft carrier was decommissioned June 26, 1970.

Aldrin is scheduled to address the gathering on Saturday.

"We had so much fun, you can't describe, and then you sit there and you say, 'This is history,'" Driver said. "But back then, we didn't realize how much history it was 'cause we were so young."

Contact Stephanie Esters at se@kalamazoogazette.com or 388-8554.

ON THE WEB

To see footage of the first moon walk, visit www.nasa.gov and click on "Apollo 11: One Giant Leap for Mankind."

To find out more about the "Splashdown 2009" celebration, visit www.uss-hornet.org.

Ellie