The First Footprint

By G. E. Shuman

I believe that Friday, August 31st was just a usual day in America, other than for two either very coincidental or, perhaps, ordained events which took place that day. One of those events was a rare but reoccurring one of our natural world. The other event was a very human one.  You see, on that Friday evening there was a blue moon, which is a rare thing, indeed.  August 31st was also the date of the private memorial service held for my childhood and adulthood hero, Mr. Neil Armstrong, who had passed away the weekend before.  Mr. Armstrong was a rare person, indeed.
I was, as a child, one of those boys who wanted with all his heart, to be an astronaut when he grew up.  I followed the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs throughout my youth, building scale models of rockets and space capsules, which would adorn my bedroom for years.  I was barely fifteen years old on that night of July 20th 1969, when the lunar module Eagle was skillfully piloted by Mr. Armstrong, to its landing place and resting place in the Sea of Tranquility.  I watched it all on television, and would say that I remember it as if it happened yesterday.  In fact, I probably remember it far better than I remember yesterday.
It is sad that some of you younger people may not really know or care who Neil Armstrong was.  That is an almost unbelievable thing to me.  I would have given much just to have met that man.  It is also sad that, even though many people today may remember Mr. Armstrong as the first man to walk on the moon, some think that he was the only one, or at least that his flight there, Apollo 11, was the only one.  A few people I know actually still doubt that man has gone to the moon at all.  To me that is ignorance of gigantic proportions.  I recently posed the question of how many men had walked on the moon to one of my high school classes.  The answers from those bright and mostly college-bound students ranged from one man, to three or four.  In further discussion I got proud and smiling answers like: “Neil Armstrong?  He was THE man who walked on the moon.” None of them knew that twelve American men have walked there… none of them.
Mr. Armstrong was a true American hero.  He was a quiet, unassuming gentleman, who put country first, and, throughout his entire life, refused to accept acclaim or personal gain from his greatest feat.  He is my hero for that fact, as much as for his courageous landing and walk upon the moon.  In some ways, my keen interest in space has never left me, partially because of the man who was Neil Armstrong.  I just finished my third reading this year, of his authorized biography.  It is entitled First Man, and was written by another great and unassuming individual, Professor James R. Hansen.  It is an extraordinary book that you really should read.
On the evening of that last day of August, as I looked up at that beautiful blue moon, I thought about Mr. Armstrong, but also about those first footprints on the moon.  My earthly hero is gone, but the evidence of his skill and courage never will be.  In the undisturbed, atmosphere-free lunar environment, those fragile footprints on the moon’s dusty surface, along with Eagle’s spindly-legged descent stage, and the American flag and other things that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left behind, are nearly immortal.  They have changed very little since July 20th 1969 and will be artifacts of far greater endurance than the Pyramids of Giza, the Great Wall of China, or any other earth-bound monument of mankind.  I take some comfort in that fact, as I remember Mr. Armstrong.
I am grateful to Professor Hansen for helping me get to know Neil Armstrong a bit, through his wonderful book.  I hope you will buy a copy of First Man and preserve the memory of a true American hero.  Share his story with people who may be among America’s future heroes, your own children.