Amazing Moon-Walkers With California Ties

By C. MacDonald

The recent death of Astronaut Eugene Cernan made me think about the 12 men who walked on the Moon:

Buzz Aldrin | Neil Armstrong | Alan Bean | Eugene Cernan | Pete Conrad | Charles Duke | James Irwin | Edgar Mitchell |
Harrison Schmitt | David Scott | Alan Shepard | John Young

I've been lucky enough to interview two of the moon-walkers, Buzz Aldrin and James Irwin. I got to thinking how Cernan, Aldrin and Irwin had ties to California, as did many of the others such as Pete Conrad, who lived less than a mile from me and sadly died from injuries in motorcycle accident.

Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon in 1972, earned an MS degree from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey and he served as a Naval Aviator at Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego County.

In 1969, Aldrin became the second man to walk on the moon. He had worked for the Air Force in Los Angeles and at Edwards Air Force Base. Buzz also lived in several Golden State cities, including LA and Huntington Beach.

In 1979, Irwin became the eighth person to walk on the moon during his Apollo 15 Mission. He worked at Edwards Air Force Base and later lectured in Southern California about his moon trip experiences.

My favorite question to ask space pioneers, was, "What is it like when you take the garbage out at night and look up at the moon?"

Aldrin, whose mother's name was Marion Moon, told me, "When I gaze up at the moon, it's like being in a time machine, standing at the beautiful Sea of Tranquility. I remember looking back at our shining, blue planet earth. It was four times the size of a full moon seen from earth!"

He told me in an interview in Santa Ana that he considers himself blessed, getting to walk on the moon: "I have been blessed to have been in the right place at the right time."

An elder in a Presbyterian Church in Texas, Aldrin revealed after the flight that he had actually taken Communion on the Moon."

James Irwin said blasting off in his rocket ship gave him a special view of the earth. "It reminded me of a Christmas Tree ornament, hanging in the blackness of space. As we got further away, it diminished, looking like a marble."

I interviewed Irwin after a speech in Garden Grove, just weeks before he was the first of the 12 moon-walking astronauts to pass away. He said looking up at the moon from earth made him think of what it felt like standing on that far off planet. "I felt the power of God as I'd never felt it before." It moved him so much, when he returned to earth he would found the religious High Flight Foundation.

All three of these astronauts agree with Aldrin's statement that, "We must think of ourselves as pioneers to understand the importance of space."

Cernan once said, "We desperately need to do something to recapture the pioneering spirit which allowed the U.S. to go to the moon. We must find a way to instill in our children the desire to launch expeditions into the unknown."