I became involved in proofreading the Journal because reading the transcripts brought back so many memories - of following the Apollo program as a grade schooler - that I could almost hear them again. A short while later, armed with copies of the NASA Public Affairs Office cassettes, I did hear them again and began to add audio samples to the Journal.
As a teenager, I was fortunate to live at West Point, alma mater to several Apollo astronauts
and often a site of post-mission publicity visits by the Apollo crews. The astronauts would
show and narrate NASA footage of their recently completed flights. In the early
seventies, I briefly met and collected autographs from astronauts Armstrong, Borman, Shepard, Scott and Worden.
My parents caught the bug, wrote to NASA, and the family attended the launches of Apollos 15 and 17.
At a seminar in 1996, I met James Lovell and explained the unoffical motto of the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal (created by Marv). Lovell graciously inscribed "Ex Luna Insomnia!" and his signature in a copy of his book Apollo 13.
In my current life, I am director of software engineering for a gaming machine company in Las Vegas and a collector of autographed Alan Bean prints. The one shown in this picture is signed by Conrad and Bean. The inscription references the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal. I also added the "Missouri" videos to my collection of memorabilia.
Like fellow ALSJ contributor Frank O'Brien, I am a licensed pilot. When I can, I take my 3 young sons flying and talk about Apollo in hope that one day they will someday be drawn to visit six tourist attractions in the mare and mountains of the moon.