launch photo that earned him a Pulitzer
Prize nomination. Kirby showed us the
front page of his hometown Illinois news-
paper that featured his story. Ed wore his
faded Apollo 11 press badge, and Bill had
a facsimile of his own badge. Me? I wore
my 1969 baseball cap emblazoned with an
Apollo 11 “bird-watcher” mission patch
(the “bird” being a Saturn V rocket).
Much has vanished in 50 years. The old
visitors’ information centre is now an empty
lot. The large press grandstand where I
stood in 1969 is long gone too, torn down
in 2004 following damage from Hurricane
Frances. I had to make do with standing
close to where I was during the countdown,
a short distance from NASA building
K7-1205A—the concrete-block Press Site
Communications Control Building that
stubbornly remains.
As 9:32 a.m. approached, we gazed
through our binoculars and telephoto lenses
at the empty Launch Pad 39A, trying to
summon memories of the event we wit-
nessed 50 years ago. I replayed the final
60 seconds of the countdown on my iPad
(a piece of technology unimaginable back
in the Apollo heyday). Jack King, whose
voice had boomed over loudspeakers acrossthe press site that summer morning, now
crackled from my iPad’s tiny speaker. “... 3... 2... 1... zero... all engine running...
liftoff! We have a liftoff, 32 minutes past
the hour. Liftoff on Apollo 11!”
Someone asked, “Do you remember
people shouting, Go! Go! Go!?”
I replied, “Yes, I was one of them.”
A few seconds later, Parks remarked,
“This was when you could feel the shock
wave from the Saturn V engines.”
In 1969, we were exuberant and cheer-
ing. In 2019, we were quiet and reflective.
As before, the moments passed quickly.
Finally, I phoned José de la Herrán, my
93-year-old Apollo 11 coadventurer, and
we wished each other happy anniversary,
as we do every year on July 16. ✦
Don Cameron, a member of the RASC To -
ronto Centre, authored “My Great Apollo 11
Adventure” for the July/August 2019 issue.NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019 •SKYNEWS 37SPOTLIGHT ON THE RASC
PRETEND ASTRONAUTSOn the very walkway the Apollo 11 astronauts used before boarding
the transfer van that took them to the launchpad are, from left to right, the author, Kirby Kahler,
John Slack, Bill Whitten and Parks Masterson, performing their best Neil Armstrong wave.
PHOTO COURTESY RACHAEL JOY, FLORIDA TODAY