I have an interesting story to tell that is based on my experience Thursday night at work. There is a group of Airforce pilots that meet at Riverside Country Club ever so often. Last night they had an important guest speaker, Frank Borman, who was Commander and Chief on the Apollo 8 crew. I realized, while I was listening to Frank's speech, that soon his personal story about the first trip to the moon will be lost with age. It just so happened that I was in the right place at the right time to hear the story from a man who experienced our world's first successful trip around the moon. Because this was such a memorable time in our countries history I tried to remember Frank's speech as best I could. The memorable moment for me started when the Apollo 8 spacecraft lost its radio signal. Frank was saying that the crew had been warned of a certain time when they would reach the dark side of the moon and they would lose their ability to communicate with NASA. The crew was watching the time intently and Frank said right as they hit the millisecond that the NASA's scientists predicted, the signal was lost (as a side note, the average age of NASA's scientists at that time was 24). Losing radio signal at the right time was important because it meant that they were right on track. The words that came out of his mouth, Frank said, was "that's a relief." A man who was a bit of a Debby downer interrupted Frank's reassuring thoughts and said, "Ah, they probably turned the signal off from headquarters." After they lost communication from headquarters they were scheduled to circle the moon ten times and take data, ect. After awhile the task became pretty monotonous, "To tell you the truth, it was boring," Frank said. The next major event in the crew's adventure was circling back around the moon and seeing Earth for the first time. Frank expressed his astonishment by saying, "Everything in the universe is black and white and seeing the colors of the Earth are breath taking." Now, once in sight of the Earth they had radio communication again. Frank was suppose to make a speech and was told that the broadcast was sent to every radio station in America. Before Apollo 8 left Earth, Frank was told it would be the most listened to broadcast in American history. Frank had asked the head of NASA what he should say, his answer was perfect, "Something appropriate." Frank said that when he saw Earth for the first time all he could think about was the Freedom he had as an American. Instead of being told to quote Stalin or Lenin, (remember that the Americans were racing the Russians to the moon) he was told to say anything as long as it was appropriate. So Frank quoted the first 20 lines from the Bible.
Later in his life, Frank wondered why NASA was so successful in 1968 and he came up with 4 attributes that the entire NASA crew had at that time:
1. Risk
2. Integrity
3. Knowledge
4. A Clear Goal
When I heard these qualities I knew they could be used when trying to accomplish anything in life. Although, Frank's story has been told a number of times and probably written in a number of books, I know that hearing it from his perspective is much better than reading a book or watching it on the History channel. There are rare instances when greatness is heard from those who are great and I feel lucky that I was able to experience Frank Borman's story first hand.
