PAT RICE: Help tell the story of the Apollo 11 moon landing

I have a favor to ask of News-Journal readers — a favor many of you are in a unique position to grant.

First, the back story.

Ending what was a decade of political and cultural division, 1969 had more than its share of friction.

To begin with, there was the Vietnam War. President Richard M. Nixon had just been elected partly on the the promise of bringing an "honorable" end to the war. But 11,780 Americans would be killed in action in Vietnam during 1969 — more in one year than the total soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan combined since 2001.

The Vietnam War led to continual unrest on many college campuses. Anti-war and other protests turned into riots. At the University of Wisconsin at Madison — where one day I would attend graduate school — the unrest never seemed to end. In May 1969, a block party turned into a clash with police, and 80 people were injured.

The cultural divide between young people of the time and their elders also widened in 1969. The Woodstock music festival occurred that August, and the photos and film of long-haired men and women openly using drugs and dancing — sometimes naked — in muddy fields to distorted rock music were shocking, or thrilling, depending on one's point of view.

Other disturbing things happened that year. U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy drove off a wooden bridge at Chappaquiddick, and a young woman in his car named Mary Jo Kopechne drowned. Later in the summer, Charles Manson and his so-called "family" went on a two-night murder spree and killed eight people.

It was that kind of year.

But 1969 was also the year of one of America's greatest triumphs. That was the year we put men on the moon. 

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The Apollo 11 mission took off on July 16, 1969 — which happened to be my 12th birthday.

I was more interested in baseball than space travel at that point in my life. (Older baseball fans recall that 1969 was the year New York's "Miracle Mets" ended up winning the World Series.)

But even a kid knew the Apollo 11 mission was historic. Less than a decade after President John F. Kennedy challenged America to put a man on the moon, here we were about to do it. It was truly miraculous.

On July 20, 1969, the lunar landing module descended to the moon surface from Apollo 11 with astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin inside. Another astronaut, Michael Collins, circled the moon in the main spacecraft.

At about 10:17 p.m. Eastern Time, with more than 600 million people across the world watching on television, Armstrong descended down a ladder to the lunar surface, and spoke one of the greatest one-liners ever: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

This summer marks the 50th anniversary of the incredible Apollo 11 mission to the moon. I hope readers can help us commemorate the great achievement by sharing your stories and photos.

In Volusia County, thousands of people gathered on the beaches, on bridges, and in front and back yards to watch the Apollo 11 rocket take off from Cape Canaveral.

Many people here did more than watch. Some of you worked in the space program at the time. Whether you were an engineer, a rocket scientist or a construction worker, you helped put men on the moon.

Please, send me an email sharing your recollections of the Apollo 11 mission. If you saw the rocket take off and then watched Armstrong and Aldrin walk on the moon, we're interested in your story. And if you worked in the space program at that time, we would love to hear about what you did to contribute to the space program. Write as much as you want. My email is at the end of this column.

Be sure to include your name and a phone number so a reporter and get back to you. And let us know if you have photos of the Apollo 11 launch.

And thank you for your help.

Rice is The News-Journal's editor. His email is Pat.Rice@news-jrnl.com.