" . . . a giant leap for mankind . . . ?

Forty years ago this past day (July 16), I actually started my day on the evening before. I don't remember whether or not I slept at all that night.

The early part of the day on the 16th, I was in the UPI Radio studio trailer at the Press site on Merritt Island, FL -- a huge government reservation then known as The Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Our "soundproofed" studio was in the back part of the trailer with the UPI Wire Service writers in the front. We sat immediately south of the towering VAB - The Saturn Vehicle Assembly Building and about 3.5 miles west of the launch pad. That was considered to be a "safe distance" in case the Saturn V rocket exploded on or slightly above the launch pad.

With microphones in front of me, at my side were my "sidekick", Les Roberson, who would describe the liftoff of Apollo 11 from outside the studio where he could get an unobstructed view. Later in our coverage, Les would be our "color commentator". On the other side was our producer / director, Scott Peters. Les was local to Brevard County, Florida. Scott was the Radio News Director for UPI Radio and UPI Audio Services. During the earlier Project Gemini, in Houston, at the Manned Spaceflight Center was Col. John "Shorty" Powers, our "technical expert". However, for the moon flights, I handled both anchorman and "expert" responsibilities.

We began our coverage for this historic flight for the first manned landing on the moon from the studio at the KSC Press Site. As soon as the Apollo spacecraft had left earth orbit and was "safely" on its way toward the moon, Scott jumped on a flight for Houston and I stayed in Florida. A couple of days later, history would be made . . . by the NASA team and three brave space explorers, and by the UPI team.

Leading up to this flight, UPI had sent a photographer to meet me, and we had travelled all over the area, taking publicity photos of me, looking up at the sky, standing in front of the Saturn V rocket on its launch pad, seated in the studio at our microphones . . . all kinds of locales. The pictures were then used by the UPI Sales Department to "sell" our coverage of the American Space Program to radio stations all over the world. By the time we opened our mics for the first words of this broadcast, we were speaking via the largest radio network ever put together for any event in history.

Radio stations from all over the States and several "foreign" countries had been contacting me for weeks to record "promos" for them, promoting our space coverage on their local stations. It was a wonderful and rewarding chore. I got to speak with news reporters and production managers all over the world. What an experience!

I knew our coverage would be making history, but at launch time, I hadn't even the faintest notion that I would be a part of that history, not just a reporting observer.



As soon as Scott Peters arrived in our studio at the Manned Spaceflight Center in Houston and could take over our broadcasts, with our engineer, we left our studio near the Apollo launch pad and moved to our regular studio at Cocoa Beach. This studio had some advantages for us, not the least of which were several UPI newswire teletype machines.

With these machines, clacking away in the next room from the broadcast studio, we could keep track of anything else that just might be going on in the world at the same time as Apollo 11's landmark flight. And some things WERE going on.

Most of the day after launch was relatively quiet, with our making an "updater" broadcast twice each hour and a full report at the top of the hour for all of our affiliates around the world. Even though this trip was unique for what it signified, if one could ever say that flights to the moon had become routine, this part of the Apollo mission had been done before. Several flights had already been made to the vicinity of the moon. Though this was to become the first "lander", the transition from earth to moon had been practiced enough that the entire team (and the news corps) had become relatively familiar with the trip and what to expect.

Little did we realize at the time, that events were unfolding elsewhere in the country that would take much of the attention away from this historic event and carve out another niche in history, for an unexpected tragedy.

On Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, five young men were partying with several "boiler-room girls" who had been working on Bobby Kennedy's Presidential campaign. Who could have known that the next day, young Edward (Ted) Kennedy would take one of those girls in his Oldsmobile 88, and make a wrong turn off the Chappaquiddick bridge, right into eight feet of cold, dark water, and history.

For the rest of this historic flight, the Apollo 11 astronauts would share headlines with the story of Kennedy and the tragic drowning of Mary Jo Kopechne.



10:15 p.m., Monday July 20, 2009


Over the years since President Kennedy's announcement that we would land Americans on the moon before the end of the decade of the 60s, anticipation had been building. More excitement built with each flight. The "race" with the Soviet Union was in the minds of all who followed each new advancement by our space program and our astronauts.

As exciting as the first trip for a moon landing was, during the approximately 72 hour transit time from earth orbit to lunar orbit and landing, for most of the three days there were some deadly dull moments.

All that dullness faded quickly as Neil Armstrong and "Buzz" Aldrin separated their moon landing craft -- Eagle -- from the main capsule. Mike Collins stayed with the ship that would bring them home, and did not get to leave his footprints in the lunar dust on this first mission.


Everyone who was near a TV was glued to the "smeary" black-and-white pictures being beamed back from the moon.

I was in our darkened little studio, watching a NASA monitor, listening to the "air-to-ground" at this same time that evening, and doing my very best to describe the awesomely technical things which were happening so they could be understood by "the milkman in Milwaukee" who could not see them. Our audio engineer Bill Wilson was in the other half of the studio and found it hard to keep his eyes on the network audio controls, because he, too, was watching the monitor.

As the Eagle descended, I kept one eye on the Apollo 11 flight plan, and listened as they read out the "numbers" describing the historic descent, altitude, speed, fuel remaining.

"Fuel remaining" began to be more and more critical as they blasted the rockets engines, bearing them down gently toward the dusty surface. Flight controllers in Houston at the Manned Spaceflight Center were even more on the edge of their seats than I. When the spacecraft finally did touch and the engines were shut down, there were 10 seconds of fuel left. With the "coolness" of an experienced test pilot, Neil Armstrong had used all his fuel efficiently, moving laterally as he descended, searching for a smooth place to land. He did not want to land with one of the Eagle's legs in a crater. A tipped over spacecraft would have meant that it would become their tomb instead of their lifeboat which would return them triumphantly to earth. No one knew how deeply the lander's feet would sink into the lunar dust either. There were estimates, of course, but no one yet knew how deep the dust went, nor whether it would even support a man, not to mention their much heavier spacecraft.

We all breathed again when Neil Armstrong said, "Houston, the Eagle has landed!"

And now 40 years ago tonight, the two of them would be leaving the relative safety of Eagle to step onto the surface, fulfilling an age-old dream of mankind.

What he said, as he took the last big step off the end of the ladder was, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." The voice-activated communications gear turned off their transmitters when there was no sound being made, then turned it on again when an astronaut started to speak. It took sometimes a full syllable for the transmitter to become completely activated. Armstrong had paused just long enough after "step for . . ." for the transmitter to turn off. When he said, "a man"...the "a" was lost from the transmission while the mic "keyed up" again.

Because of that fluke, the first words forever remembered as coming from the moon's surface were "That's one small step for . . . man . . . one giant leap for mankind."

Regardless, there is little doubt that the speech he had rehearsed was true. One of the largest of technological "giant steps" mankind has ever taken.

So many myths have grown up around that moon landing . . . I'd like to address them all, but probably have not yet even HEARD them all.


One of my friends and colleagues during those years covering the space program was Jay Barbree, NBC Radio News correspondent for more than 50 years now. I suggest you read his column from today on MSNBC's website. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31965108/ns/technology_and_science-space/ Jay deals with all of the myths I've heard, and much better than I.


My own personal little piece of history?

I heard today that a record 40 million viewers were watching the event unfold on television, spread across all the networks. Those who could not watch were listening to radios wherever they could find them.

I mentioned earlier that UPI Radio had put together the largest radio network in history for this signal event. Not only was it the largest around the world, but across the United States as well. At the time, Mutual Radio Network had the largest number of station affiliates of the major networks, followed by ABC Radio Network.
For this event, UPI Radio surpassed even Mutual by about 100 station affiliates.

The next day following the first moon walk, our producer Scott Peters told me that a Nielson survey indicated that 30 million people had been listening to our broadcast in the United States alone.

Thirty million!!

I almost wet my pants!

Thirty million was a new record for listening to one radio broadcast up to that time. I don't know whether, 40 years later, that record still stands. But, it was my own personal little piece of history. I've been blessed to have been a part of it.



Of course, the astronauts returned safely with several pieces of the most valuable real estate ever discovered. They brought back about 60 pounds of moon rocks and dust to be studied by scientists ever since. The space program and brief lunar explorations are still paying dividends 40 years later.


That about wraps it up from here for now. This is Art Thompson, UPI Radio, at the Kennedy Space Center.

Talk, Talk, Talk!!

Wow!

Finally have my blog going at voiceover-casting.com.

FYI, it's called "Vox Populi" - the people's voice.

Well, at least, that's the blog's name for now. I'm not quite "the people's voice" . . . yet. Still have a way to go, but at least, we're working on it. Hope to have some samples up before too many moons. Still on an agent-quest. Looking for a hardy agent willing to take on this genuine geezer!

So, if you know one, or even if you know someone who might know an agent who handles or specializes in voice talents . . . please let me know right away!

Remember the "Six Degrees of Separation" theory? Chances are, you know someone who knows someone who knows . . . .

You get the idea!

Thanks.

Plowshares Into Bullets

Gang,



When a friend emailed this to me, I felt compelled to post it here. It's from the blog: The Shootist. The material is copyrighted, of course. I've placed complete attribution at the end of this informative (and frightening!) piece. Do not ever doubt the power of people, banding together to change things! And never doubt the psychological power of the thought of an armed citizenry.

~ agentlemanfarmer

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Plowshares Beaten Back into Bullets


SHOCK and AWE...The tentacles of the internet reached out and pulled the Brotherhood of the Gun together, launching a massive strike.An electronic impulse that may have mirrored a sunspot hit Washington, DC as gun people everywhere called and e-mailed their congressional delegations.

Larry Haynie is owner of Georgia Arms (http://www.georgia-arms.com/) and one of the largest manufacturers of centerfire pistol and rifle ammunition in the country, producing 1.2 million rounds of reloaded .223 ammunition a month, mainly from expended military cases.

"We're right up there behind Hornady," he told me. Haynie first alerted us to the move by the Department of Defense to stop selling whole fired brass cases to the remanufacturing market, requiring instead that all expended brass be "mutilated" ("Shredded..." as Haynie put it) before it was sold as brass scrap.

On Sunday, March 15, he was interviewed by Tom Gresham on his nationally syndicated show "Gun Talk" (http://www.guntalk.com/) where he informed us he had two months worth of whole cases left, and then he would have to lay off half of his 60-person work force. We discussed it on this blog, and alerted other gun bloggers who joined in warning the firearms community that here was a serious threat against their sport--one that could push the cost of ammunition well beyond the means of the average shooter.

The shooters responded--in droves. E-mails were sent. Letters were written that will probably continue arriving for days, and outrage was expressed. Not only did the gun folks contact their congressmen, they contacted DOD too...even to verify the action had been taken, and Government Liquidators, LLC, the corporation that auctions government surplus, had been told to cease the auctions of whole expended brass.

Something worked.

On Tuesday, March 17, Georgia Arms posted this message on their website:

"Dear Loyal Customers,

Thanks to your voice, DOD has rescinded the order to mutilate all spent cases as of 4:30 pm on 3/17/09. We appreciate the time and effort that you expended, together we all made a difference. We will be posting the email we received from DOD as well as any additional information within the next 12-16 hours. Thanks so much and lets get to work!!!
Georgia Arms."


Perhaps the most poignant message received of the many dozens that were posted here was from the wife of a long time employee of Georgia Arms:

"My husband has worked for Ga Arms for about 20 years...We have two kids in college..My husband is 50 years old, I am sitting here trying to come up with ways to reduce our spending and thinking about who would hire a 50 year old man! Please pray for our family! I guess we could sell off all his guns!!"

Thanks to you out there, this lady and many other long-time employees of Georgia Arms and all the other remanufacturers of expended military brass will now continue to be gainfully employed--a part of a productive American work force rather than forced onto the government dole.

There are too many people to thank for helping this occur--everyone pulled together.

But of special note are Larry Haynie, and Tom Gresham, who sent a link to his radio program: http://www.guntalk.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=443576

Caleb of Call Me Ahab alerted us to corroboration by www.AR15.com which has been on this since the beginning, and special thanks to the Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (http://www.jpfo.org/), who also broke the news early on with a letter from Gary Marbut,the president of the Montana Shooting Sports Association. He described what was going down, and asked everyone to write Senators Max Baucus and John Tester to demand the DOD rescind this outrageous action against the shooting community--which they did.

David Codrea of The War On Guns leaped into the fray early on with his highly read Gun Rights Examiner columns http://www.examiner.com/x-1417-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m3d18-Military-ammunition-policy-rescinded

But mainly, it was YOU--the Brotherhood of the Gun--who responded so quickly with cogent, lucid complaints to your political representatives--putting them on notice we would not take such attacks against our sport, avocation, and livelihoods lying down.

It was a quick, massive response. The comments on this blog alone were outraged and rancorous, but never vile--and they worked.You are the Minutemen of today.

I am proud of you all.

- - - - - - - - -

Methinks we'll add a link from here, just so you'll know how to find The Shootist in the future. Right ON, Gordon!!!



This was taken from the blog: The Shootist.

The author's profile follows: GORDON
Author: "THE GREAT NEW ORLEANS GUN GRAB" (with Todd Masson), an expose' of the anarchy and outrageous behavior of civil authorities who confiscated thousands of guns from law-abiding citizens in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Also the author of "THE QUEST AND THE QUARRY"--a southern novel of the hunt.

Firearms columnist for LOUISIANA, NORTH & SOUTH CAROLINA, and MISSISSIPPI SPORTSMAN magazines.

Founding Member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.

Training Officer and Spokesperson for the Lunatic Fringe.

Unapologetic Gun Nut (with apologies to David E. Petzal.) gordonhutchinson.com

A Bit of History, A Bit of Peace

On the morning of September 19, 1863, Confederate soldiers encamped near Crawfish Springs, drank and took on a supply of water for themselves, and watered their horses - all from the main spring.

The following day, September 20th, following the bloodiest battle of the War Between The States, soldiers of the Union army took over the springs, and there watered themselves and their horses.

"Earlier, during the War of 1812, five hundred Cherokee soldiers from the area fought with General Andrew Jackson at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend against the Creek Indians, who were aligned with England. Their valor helped assure victory for the Americans. The Cherokee nation was divided into districts and courts with Crawfish Springs the county seat of one of the districts. " (from Wikipedia)

Two nights ago, my wife and I sat in the living room of some dear friends, Ted and Myra, on the north bank of Crawfish Springs, overlooking a vastly different scene. No horses. No soldiers. No battlefield campfires. No sounds of musket nor cannon. No moans of dying nor wounded men or their animals. No blood running in the water. Instead, the quiet serenity was punctured only by the bubbling, splashing sounds of waters gushing up from somewhere deep underground.

We had spent the evening in prayer, bible study, and meditation with our friends, who now live in a building, constructed beside the springs only a few more than 40 years following the terrible carnage.

As we sat in the quiet of the evening, my mind went back over the history of this spot, made sacred by the blood of men fighting and dying for their causes. Here, we sat, not in conflict but in peace, surrounded not by the sounds of battle and dying men, but instead, bathed in the love of our Lord.

What a contrast.

Men die. Peace is purchased by their blood. We get to enjoy the benefits and beauty of their sacrifices.

Same is true of our spiritual lives. Jesus died. A violent and cruel death. Our peace was purchased by his blood. We get to enjoy the benefits, blessings, and beauty of his sacrifice for us.

-0-

Picture respectfully "borrowed" from: http://beejw.blogspot.com/2007/04/photo-of-crawfish-springs-chickamauga.html

FaceBook Welcomes "A Gentleman Farmer"

WoW!

If you're "Friend" on FaceBook, you can now link your favorite correspondent (the farmer, of course!) to your profile page.

You can also become a "follower". We'd kinda like that. Perhaps you'd like it, too.

We renew our promise to offer "a potpourri of thoughts, experiences, meanderings, musings, and occasionally brilliant ideas of a true, trusted, and certifiably genuine geezer".

Perhaps something usefull, perhaps occasionally, something you'll want to share with others.

If you haven't joined FaceBook yet, it's probably just a matter of time, anyway, so why not visit?

www.FaceBook.com

Get PAID for talking . . . I should be rich instead of so good looking!!

In one of my former lives . . . I actually got PAID to talk!

Can you imagine?

I know some people, who, if paid by the word spoken would be among the World's Wealthiest! Right up there with Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Carlos Slim Helú, and other members of their exclusive fraternity.

For a number of years, I was a news reporter, most of that time, stationed at Cape Canaveral, then the Kennedy Space Center, covering the US Manned Space Program. I didn't get paid by the word, of course, but reporting was never like a "real" job. It was like getting paid for my favorite hobby.

For several years, I got away from working with my voice, and worked more with my sparkling personality, marketing telecommunications for the Bell System to major businesses in southeast Florida.

Now semi-retired, the current financial situation causes me to reach again back into the bottom of our bag of tricks and begin searching for an intrepid and brave agent, willing to represent me and my limited voice "talents".

My search has just begun.  I'll try to keep you posted on any results -- good or bad.

In the meantime, do you have any audio books, tv narration, internet training, presentations, anything at all requiring a professional voicing?  I may actually be "Your Guy"!

In the next day or three, I'll try to post a link to a new website, where you can also hear samples of our "voice wares".

Stay tuned!