What were you doing 45 years ago today ?

[CoffmanStarter]

... While Apollo 11 was blasting off from Cape Canaveral taking Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins to the Moon ...

16th July 1969 ... a very long time ago ...

I still think that it was rather poignant that Neil Armstrong took in his Personal Preference Kit a piece of wood from the Wright brothers' 1903 airplane's left propeller and a piece of fabric from its wing.

For me ... Rushing home from school to watch everything the BBC was to broadcast ... where good old Dad had bought our first colour TV to mark the event ... Great shame most of the NASA live mission video was still B&W :(

[Lonewolf_50]

I was in elementary school, in science class, watching the lift off on a black and white TV.

It was a big deal to us then. :ok:

[26er]

Not today but the 21st, for the first moonwalk. The Yanks think it was 20th, but we zulu timers know better. Also it was my 38th birthday and goodbye to the RAF after 20 years.

[Lima Juliet]

Probably watching 'Mary, Mungo and Midge' at my age!

1960s British Television: "Mary Mungo and Midge" - Printing (1/2) - YouTube

[Navaleye]

Was at school. Mother got me up to watch it in glorious black and white with the words, "this is history so watch it"

[ICM]

I did Hong Kong to Changi that day on my No 5 Course westabout Belfast Global Trainer, and we'd seen all of the strange NASA KC-135 variants positioning as we'd crossed the Pacific during the days beforehand.

[Davef68]

I was 18 months old, so probably chewing a rusk!

[Onceapilot]

Watched every bit of the fantastic event on the excellent BBC coverage! Also, moved my cardboard spacecraft along the map of the trajectory as they went (was that a Sunday Express freebie?).

OAP

[Sam Dodger]

Flying as copilot for 5hrs and 40minutes in Vulcan XM607 out of RAF Waddington.

[Flap62]

Davef68,

You were probably doing exactly the same as the astronauts were doing - filling your nappy!

[stumblefingers]

I was Station Commander at STCRU RAF Holbeach - as a Pilot Officer! It was a holding posting between finishing the NBS course at Lindholme and starting the Vulcan OCU. I even attended a Station Commanders' Conference at HQ 1 Gp, RAF Bawtry.

[denachtenmai]

Watched the takeoff at Akrotiri, caught up with the flight in Luqa and watched the landing at Tik-Tok's pad when we finally arrived back at Wyton,
Regards, Den

[teeteringhead]

IF phase on the JP at Syerston! 1.00 Dual with .40 mins simulated in XR 648.

Fortunately my QFI (Fg Off "Mitch" Mitchell) was a living-in singlie, and as we'd both stayed up to watch it on the Mess TV (possibly with a can or 2 :confused:), he was aware in advance of the excuse for my worse than usual performance!

Must have recovered quickly (after a proper night's sleep) cos I passed my IRT (White Card!) on the 17th ......

[Shack37]

Stationed at Ballykelly observing Ben Twitch to check for rain.

[denachtenmai]

Stationed at Ballykelly observing Ben Twitch to check for rain.

Oh! how easy that was Shack:D:D
Regards, Den.

[Brewers Droop]

3 months old - At the peak of my budding astronaut career...

[NutLoose]

I was at primary school and used to watch it on the TV before going to school and then when I got home, we watched the landing and walk at school.

My primary school was in a little village outside Carlisle and looked out over the fells and you could just see the towers of the spadeadam rocket test site.. I used to see the smoke / steam rising, hear the rumble of the engines running and you could feel it.. So it was an immersive time for me space wise.

SF that is excellent..

[Rossian]

...grumbling about off the north coast of Northern Ireland in a Shackleton for 9 hours and 5 minutes on a torpedo evaluation sortie.

Where did it all go to?

The Ancient Mariner

[NutherA2]

Log book says:

Gnat TMk1 XP511 Self Broadhead Air Test 0:50

Shame on me, but I can't remember who Broadhead was.

[fireflybob]

Had recently started Commercial Pilot training at College of Air Training, Hamble - course 692B.

Just checked the logbook and did my first flight there a few days later on the 22nd July 1969.

A very memorable time!

[goudie]

Being seconded to the RMAF, I was watching the events unfold, sitting on my porch in Petaling Jaya with a can of Tiger beer.

[Wander00]

Organising the move of the Canberra squadrons from Watton to Cottesmore

[lsd]

Living in a tent near Dinkleberg ,North Germany on Exercise Whirlygig to keep the Russian hordes away and flying 6.20 hrs that day in the ever faithful Wessex; after a few beers that night and curled up in my sleeping bag believe I was not even aware of this momentous event . Bit sad really......

[Tashengurt]

At barely three weeks old...Not a lot.


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[1.3VStall]

At Uni on my RAF University Cadetship - a member of MUAS (before Salford was included to muddy the scene).

[newt]

Holding MPC Valley waiting to go to Chivenor! Getting into loads of trouble with the visiting Lightning Squadrons junior pilots! Happy days:ok:

[om15]

Watched it on a very modern black and white telly at RAF Halton, ( I think we were allowed to stay up), back to the mundane the following day, filing bits of metal and thinking that the moon was probably a more hospitable place than the 1 Wing Apprentice blocks.


om15

[Landroger]

On holiday with some mates on the Italian Med' coast - trying to get laid - watching the launch on the hotel telly. I'm not sure when we left, but I remember sharing the driving in a Renault 4L, flogging the thing along to get home for the landing.

Got back to London just in time to hear that they were opening the LEM door....... Wow! It really was history, wasn't it?

Roger

[Fitter2]

Clearing Coltishall on my last duty day of 9 years in the RAF. I still had 2 months to the nominal date, but accumulated terminal leave and release courses covered that.


Watched the moonwalk in the met office at Upavon where I went to spend the weekend gliding.

[melmothtw]

Gestating in my dad's scrotal sack.

[500N]

Can't remember today but I can the moon walk as was woken up by my parents and sat in front of the TV to watch it.
Not sure what time it would have been in the UK but it was night.

Buzz Aldrin came to my school and gave a great talk and got a signed photo from him which I still have.

[Boudreaux Bob]

Flying Combat Assaults along the Cambodian Border in Vietnam. No TV or Newspapers but heard about it over a Tactical Radio in response to someone listening to BBC on the HF Radio.

It was Years later before I got to see it on TV.

Amazing what Humans can do when they get stuck in on something.....talking about the Space flights.

Having had the great pleasure of meeting Jim Lovell and listening to his account of his Trip around the Moon was a chance of a Life Time.

[NutLoose]

Btw, in case you have never been, the National Space Centre at Cape Leicester is a good day out, especially if you have kids as they have a lot of activities for them to try.... Adults too.

National Space Centre - Homepage (http://www.spacecentre.co.uk/)

[Simplythebeast]

Watched the mission on the new Colour TV we had 'bought' from Rediffusion. Looking forward with some trepidation towards January and the start of my RAF Career at Halton. (217th Entry)

[Finningley Boy]

I can't remember the exact day, but I would have been looking forward to the School summer holidays and my very first trip abroad shortly thereafter and my very first aeroplane ride to boot.

We were going to Basle, ultimately Badgastein in Austria, from Heathrow and it was a B.K.S. Britannia.

On the day of the flight we arrived in the Wallace Arnold coach in time under a puter sky. Once in departures it was one delay after another, we eventually got airborne in darkness then we had to weather abort to Geneva, that suited me fine arrivning there about midnight. My parents and other adult passengers I don't believe were too impressed but my Brother and I were making the most of being up all night running around the spacious virtually empty terminal building.

When dawn came, we were able to sit outside the front doors looking across the pan and I recall a Swissair Friendship or Herald screaming away as it taxied in followed by a VC-10, not much long after we were away in a perfect sunrise over the Alps on our way to Basle!

And you try telling the young folk today that, and they won't believe you!:ok:

FB:)

[Barksdale Boy]

GSU ride with Bill Gibson out of Waddo in XM 600. It went OK despite the previous late night watching history unfold.

[smujsmith]

As a Craft Apprentice (214 Entry) at RAF Halton. I, like many of our entry enjoyed being given the "nod and wink" that we could break "lights out" and watch TV coverage of Apollo 11 in our TV room in Kestrel Flight, 2 Wing. On the night of the landing, I did my first "all nighter" and surprisingly, no beer, just a feeling that I was witnessing history, even through a TV set. Blimey Coff, was it really that long ago, how we have regressed since then, we can't even manage a supersonic airliner these days.

Smudge:ok:

[Rick777]

I was sailing in Hickam Harbor in Hawaii with a young lady. We got back to the dock just in time to watch the landing on the little TV in the office.

[diginagain]

Gestating in my dad's scrotal sack.My dad always said I should have been shot into space...

[cuefaye]

Watching it on my B&W in Durham Flat 3, downtown Bahrain.

[fireflybob]

Perhaps a good follow up question is where you expect to be in 5 years from now at the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11?

[Mystic Greg]

The moon landing was one of my very earliest memories: my parents ordered me, aged 3, to sit in front of the black-and-white television to watch "history in the making". I remember that quite clearly, but I am afraid I don't remember a thing about what we saw.....

[500N]

Mystic

It is probably the earlier clear memory I have as well.

[dragartist]

Hey Goudie, My Dad was also seconded to the RMAF. I watched it all in PJ Jalan 11/14. probably not old enough to be allowed a whole tin of Tiger. That one event did have quite an impact on my life. Coff will tell you how emotional I get about space travel. I told my own kids that one day I will take them there [pointing to the moon] which I regularly observe through the telescope or binoculars. Unfortunately I now feel I let them down.
Its great to see the artefacts at the Smithsonian. I was disappointed last week at our Science Museum that the Lander was not real but one of the capsules was. I must have dreamed about having touched a piece of rock from the moon as the bit at Kensington is in a glass case filled with some inert gas.

[CharlieJuliet]

16 July 69 1:25 with Douggie Barr doing I/F in Phantom XT 907 and then 1:35 in XV 416 carrying out a sim strike and night flying with Gay Horning on 6 Sqn.

[Brian 48nav]

Having a day off in Tachikawa on a North Pacific trainer - went downtown Tokyo on an underground train with the co-pilot, Ian Johnson RIP.

[ArthurR]

At RAF Valley, doing mountain rescue trail.....It worked.

[622]

Celebrating my first Birthday....nice of NASA to do that for me :)

[TwoTunnels]

Waiting to be born, then made my way into the world 4 days later, on the day they landed on the moon. Apparently was going to be named Neil after Neil Armstrong, but Mr & Mrs Tunnels decided on Two.

[Roadster280]

I'd have been about 9 months old. Probably wondering why all these grownups were walking about on 2 feet, and could I have a bit of that please?

I just about remember the later Saturn missions - Skylab, and particularly the Apollo-Soyuz mission, but nothing from 9 months!

[727gm]

I had started delivering papers (10 yrs old) and reading them (at least superficially) and was interested in this, so my parent got me up to watch launch and landing (live) as we were out in Hawaii (Z-10hrs)..... my 3 younger brothers expressed no interest at all....

[Birthday Boy]

I was on my Warrant Officer course at RAF Innsworth. Watched it live at O dark thirty and had to be on deck bright eyed and bushy tailed at 0800.

[Willi B]

On board one of Her Majesty's flat tops in the Indian Ocean on a no scheduled flying day listening to the BBC World Service coverage via the ship's tannoy.

[Robert Cooper]

I was at RAF Tangmere and watched the launch in the mess TV room. Those Saturn V rockets were certainly something to see and hear. Sadly, we seem to have gone backwards since those days.

Bob C

[N2erk]

Counting down the days- about 35, till I was due at OASC Biggin Hill, for my great adventure to start! Watched the landing coverage on the telly, then went out and looked at the moon- seemed a bit different.
As for 5 years from now- hope to be typing the same rubbish on Pprune, having forgotten I did it 5 years earlier.

[Mozella]

Working for the U.S. Navy flying one of my 153 combat missions in the Vought F-8 Crusader based on the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga CVA-14 maneuvering off the coast of North Vietnam and having the time of my life.

I've done a lot of exciting things since then, but my personal "fun meter" has never been nearly as high as it was back then. Of course I was a youngster and perhaps I didn't know any better.

[Firestreak]

One trip, Lightning F3 XP 736, 90-180 Unknowns out of Wattisham. (one peep is worth a thousand sweeps!)

[kenparry]

Also one trip, Hunter FGA9 XJ680, from Sharjah, firing 30mm and dropping 25 lb practice bombs on Rashid range. Unlike a previous reporter, I don't remember any TV in Bahrain at that time, nor any local radio station, though we could get about 3 channels of VHF FM, mostly music, from Aramco in Dhahran.

[airborne_artist]

On the 16th July 1969 I was getting excited about becoming ten years old the next day.

[Jackw106]

In a bar in Malta having come ashore from HMS Bulwark. We were on a 4 month deployment around the Med.

[cuefaye]

Probably B&W radio then (BBC WS?) - I was definitely tuned into summat.

[MPN11]

I don't remember seeing the event live. I was either on watch in ATC Approach at RAF Tengah, gazing at the AR-1 display but not picking up Apollo 11, or at home in our hiring in Bukit Timah where we didn't have a TV.

Was it 45 years ago? How time flies!

[scorpion63]

Sitting in the crew room on QRA 39 sqdn Malta

[HTB]

Preparing for this:

http://i867.photobucket.com/albums/ab239/MisterB2/scan0012_zpsc4860c1b.jpg

New Forest summer picnic, following this:

http://i867.photobucket.com/albums/ab239/MisterB2/scan0017_zps7765e916.jpg

Somewhere between graduation from BRNC Darmouth and starting the Seafield Park survival course (immediately after the IoW pop festival).

[Wander00]

Anyone else remember John Winton's books, "We Joined the Navy" and "We Saw the Sea", based on Dartmouth and subsequent sea training

[oxenos]

Ten hours ten minutes, most of it night, in a Shackleton over the South China Sea, on Exercise Julex. Now there's an imaginative name for an exercise in July.

[HTB]

Yes

And the others:

Down the Hatch
Never Go to Sea
All the Nice Girls then a couple of serious novels
HMS Leviathan
The Fighting "Téméraire"

(real name - John Pratt - his, not mine:ok:)

Mister B

[BBadanov]

Saw it on the B&W tv in the 1OCU crewroom at RAAF Amberley.

I remember walking in from a bombing trip at Evans Head range. Logbook says: "Canberra A84-225, bombing EVD, 2.30".

Long trip - must have had lots of bombs!! But then again, I needed the practice.

[jetfour]

Three hours in a Vanguard (BEA) LHR-PMI in the days when you flew through the Pyrennees, not over them!

[John Eacott]

Wings awarded 5 days previously and just turned 21.

NFI what I was doing, apart from being on leave before starting AFT (and doing a summer navex to Nuremburg in a Hiller 12E!) :cool:

[simmy]

In the back of a Canadian Armed Forces (they had stopped being RCAF ) Britannia (or whatever they called it, CC-106 Yukon maybe?) crossing the Atlantic on my way to Portage-la- Prairie near Winnipeg from LGW to do a quick familiarisation course on the CL41 Tutor, prior to joining a foreign air force on loan service to teach them to fly it! We night stopped in Toronto, I think it was, and I watched the actual landing on TV in the officers' mess there.

[Genstabler]

Had my last flight in a Hiller at Wallop before the Summer break and starting on the mighty Sioux!

[Bladdered]

On ATC camp at South Cerney with 29F Flight.

[Wander00]

HTB - better memory than mine, but read them all

[X767]

Flying a Hunter FR 10 on Exercise Whirligig

[dmanton300]

Gestating.

[brakedwell]

Flying from Lyneham to Akrotiri in Britannia XM 491 on the start of my first Changi Slip as a captain.

We arrived in Changi four hours before Apollo 11 landed on the moon and were enjoying a Tiger beer or two in the Changi Creek Transit Hotel crew bar, listening to a live radio report of the drama as it unfolded.

[Wyler]

Watching it on a black and white tele as an 11 year old wondering why just about everything gave me an erection.

[Dengue_Dude]

That's funny HTB, I was also at Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth as a cadet (Blake Division).

[mcdhu]

Driving to RAF St Athan for an RAF swimming and Water Polo competition!
mcdhu

[thing]

13 years old, space mad, probably the most excited I've ever been without a woman. Remember every second of it. Definitely knew I was watching history and remember punching the air at being lucky enough to be alive at the right time.

[Lou Scannon]

At night, standing on the balcony of my flat in Changi holding my four year old daughter in my arms explaining that there was a man standing up there on the moon for the very first time.

Then back to the Hercs on 48Sqn.

[NutLoose]

That's so cool Lou, does she remember it?

[smujsmith]

Just remembered I have a DVD copy of the movie The Dish, which also bears witness to the landing, although tongue in cheek. Best bit is the US national anthem, but I'm sure most have seen it.

Smudge:ok:

[Janda]

I had completed my O Levels just a couple of weeks before and had decided to leave Grammar School. I remember things were quite frosty with my parents who wanted me to stay for A Levels. But I knew my limitations. 2 years later joined the RAF.

[John Eacott]

http://i867.photobucket.com/albums/ab239/MisterB2/scan0017_zps7765e916.jpg



Cor: Grenville Division? :cool:

I think I can see Gordy plus my T&TCG cabin mate and a few others from 34HSP? :ok:

[BEagle]

Front row, second from the left - has that civvy wet himself, or what?

Jul '69? On leave from Towers waiting for EX. KING ROCK '69 and 2 weeks of happy holidaymaking in Brilon Wald, Sauerland..... When the RAF could still afford such things - such as the RAF scholarship PPL course I'd one a year earlier.

We had 2 trips to Germany when I was a Flt Cdt - a week with BAOR and EX.KING ROCK. 4 legs with Air Support Command - out on a Britannia, back in a Comet 4, out in a VC10, back in a Belslow. The RAF Air Transport fleet was pretty big in those days!

On the night of the moon landing I got home late, having just driven to Exmoor and back in an aged Ford 100E, to visit my old school CCF summer camp and was too knackered to stay up late, so listened to the NASA link on my radio instead....

[Aerials]

I watched the landing of the Lunar Module sitting in one of the 2 television rooms in the Crossed Keys Club at BKY. Whilst waiting for something to happen and listening intently to the commentaries from various experts, I quaffed a few pints. This led to me falling asleep and on waking, found that precisely nothing had happened and many of the audience had disappeared, so went to bed instead!

Later that morning I bought a Daily Mirror which had a colour picture of the event on the front page - still got it somewhere. This was a novelty because back home on the mainland, the newspaper pictures were still b&w and for a short time after.

I consider myself to be really lucky to have 'been around' when such momentous events took place. Wasn't it a fascinating time when the Human Race really progressed in many of the sciences and isn't it a shame that events have taken quite different turns to those we expected?

[500N]

Attending Woomera Area School

Sprint man

Interesting place to go to school.

Have been out to Lake Hart and the launchers.

[Tashengurt]

At night, standing on the balcony of my flat in Changi holding my four year old daughter in my arms explaining that there was a man standing up there on the moon for the very first time.

Then back to the Hercs on 48Sqn.

Yeah, that wins it for me.



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[tdracer]

Being on summer break, I spent a good portion of Apollo 11 glued to the TV. I was totally enthralled with the whole thing, having argued endlessly with classmates about who was really ahead on the race to the moon.


One part I distinctly recall is that, shortly after the Eagle landed, we had a major thunderstorm - knocking out power to a large part of the neighborhood (but not to our house).
I remember I could look out a window and easily see the 'dark' portion of the neighborhood - and thinking how those unfortunates wouldn't be able to watch the first footsteps on the moon if the power didn't come back soon :sad:

[500N]

Sprint,

Yes, when i passed through it was very quiet.

Not much left out at lake hart, it is now well shot up.
The left launch pad copped two 500lb bombs on it.

[longer ron]

At ATC summer camp - RAF Shawbury :) - we watched it !

Couple of months later - I was in 'the mob' myself LOL

[sandozer]

I was on a training course at RNAS Yeovilton, F-4K Phantom course and yes I got my rum tot and duty free cigarettes allowance even though I was in the RAF. Great local area and my first introduction to scrumpy :}

[John Eacott]

Not much left out at lake hart, it is now well shot up.
The left launch pad copped two 500lb bombs on it.

Are you sure? When I was working there it was told that they were used for demolition training by the SAS regiment and other interesting types. The damage was far more extensive than could have been done by a couple of bombs, unless it was additional to a practice drop.

[500N]

John

I didn't expand past what I put but I was one of the "other interesting types" and yes, the damage is far more extensive than two bombs. They were live bombs, not practice as we were still on the other target (launcher) when they were dropped (when we shouldn't have been !). It was an F-111 from Amberly.

When we got there, I think the building was called EC6 which I think was a control room, I was amazed at the damage. I think they use that building as a killing house. The launchers, it will take a bit to bring them down but they are obviously a target.

Frankly, I am now of the same view as Sprintman, the area should have been preserved but at the time, hell, what did I know, fly in, set up the exercise, conduct live fire exercise and ex fil at night from some remote strip.

[seafire6b]

Aboard a BEA Comet 4B night flight to Nicosia. The Captain announced on the PA that a man had walked on the moon and "bought drinks" so the passengers could drink a toast to him - Neil Armstrong that was, not the Captain - I think!

[Samuel]

At that time there was no satellite receiving station in New Zealand, so "Quick trip for Apollo film" a bit of RNZAF improvisation!Some 4½ hours after astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin set foot on the moon today, New Zealanders saw a film of the historic event in a nation-wide television hook-up. The 40-minute videotape was rushed to Wellington aboard an RNZAF Canberra bomber.

The videotape was recorded this afternoon at the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s Gore Hill studios north of Sydney. The Canberra carrying the tape left Kingsford Smith Airport, Sydney, at 4:15 p.m., and after a 2½-hour flight, touched down at Wellington just before 7 p.m., an NZBC spokesman said tonight. It was taken to Channel 1 in a car accompanied by a Ministry of Transport officer, in time to be shown in the NZBC’s 7:30 p.m. news.

[500N]

You learn something new every day. I didn't know that occurred.

[Coochycool]

I was floating weightless tethered to a chord.

In my mum's tum! :}

[wub]

Smuj: The Dish, "The US Ambassador is paying us a visit. He knows everything about Apollo 11"

"Does he know where it is?"

I was listening to the landing on radio in a caravan at Loch Sween in Scotland, not many hours after being buzzed by a FAA Buccaneer in my fishing boat. (I caught a record-breaking Mackerel on that trip).

[Alber Ratman]

3 years old and one of my earliest memories, being driven down the private road that my grandparents lived (they had a colour TV) to see a load of men sitting in front of TV screens and a large gird on the wall with a curved line down it.. It was a different evening from the normal. Was a long time in bed when Armstrong "Walked". First actual memory of seeing a Saturn 5 launch was 15 a couple of years later. Never thought that 45 years later, the yanks would not have any manned launcher whatsoever and the venerable Soyuz system would be the only way Man could get into space..

[wiggy]

There's a somewhat querky programme on UK TV at the moment, on channel 38/quest - Moonwalk 1, the narrative is a bit gushy and inaccurate (" NASA footage never seen before"..err, yes it has..) but nevertheless there's some interesting stuff .

Oh, 45 years ago tonight I was at home listening to something like this via the black and white TV,
The First Men on the Moon: The Apollo 11 Lunar Landing (http://www.firstmenonthemoon.com/)

and looking at the cartoon LM graphics provided by James Burke et al... later, having had nap I was eventually woken up at oh dark thirty to see the first step ( my Dad, bless him, fell asleep in the armchair and missed the whole Moonwalk....).

[Bill Macgillivray]

Small black&white TV, several beers so not really paying attention - but I do remember the occasion. Oh yes, doing the Vulcan OCU at Finningley as well!
Happy days!!!

[fantom]

Chivenor. Hunter T7 with Flt Lt Rimmer. IF 3 on 141 DFGA Course.

[ricardian]

In the TV room of the Cpl's Club, Plumer Barracks, Plymouth as one third of 604 FAC, attached to 24 (Air Portable) Brigade. The RSM allowed the bars in the Cpl's Club and the Sgt's Mess to remain open

[Gwyn_ap_Nudd]

I was in bed, fast asleep.

[LOONRAT]

Watched moon landing on small black and white TV in officers mess at Nicosia whilst detached from 72 Sqn on UN peace keeping duties flying the mighty Wessex helicopter.

[HTB]

John Eacott

Sorry to disappoint: Jellicoe Division first half of 1969, 40 Air Entry (HSP and Obs) plus a bunch of sailors.

Mister B

[Al R]

There's a family photograph somewhere of me sitting on the bottom step of the stairs, in my Woolies Ladybird dressing gown, drinking a mug of hot chocolate and peering at the murky picture.

I still remember my dad sitting next to me and telling me it was very important and that one day, I'd be glad I could say I saw it. He was right. It has allowed me to bore my kids senseless on more than one occasion.

[nimbev]

In a Herc enroute Muharraq to Changi on the Changi slip. For some reason fuel flow was too high so we changed from Long Range Cruise to High Speed Cruise and diverted to Gan, quick refuel and continued HSC to Changi. As we were being turned round the ground crew were rushing around with transistor radios held to their ears as the module was about to touch down. We listened to events on BBC world service the rest of the way to Changi. The next morning the TV room in the transit mess was packed as every man and his dog was watching the grainey black and white pictures from the Moon.

I can't remember where I was when Kennedy was assasinated, but I'll never forget where I was when Man landed on the Moon.

[MRAF]

Just a twinkle in the eye...

[GreenKnight121]

dk4WRhPQuyo

I can't remember where I was when Kennedy was assassinated, but I'll never forget where I was when Man landed on the Moon.

Cuban Missile Crisis - in my crib (3 1/2 months old)

JFK assassination - likely crawling on the floor (1 year 4 1/2 months old)

Apollo 11 Lunar landing - sitting in the living room watching it on TV (just turned 7 years old).

Reagan assassination attempt - on the bus on my way to classes at the local University, the bus driver had the radio on with the PA mic on and held close to the speaker.

Challenger Space Shuttle explosion - heard the first reports driving across MCAS El Toro coming from my parent squadron back to base HQ where I was temporarily on detached duty - upon arrival I joined the others watching the TV coverage.

Fall of the Berlin Wall - sitting in a friend's house having left active duty 4 months earlier.

[greywings]

I watched it in the relative luxury of the fine 'club' in the Officers' Mess at Watton.

A wonderful facility much missed after the move to Cottesmore

[Wander00]

GW - you and I must have been there around the same time. Me 360, then when medics stopped me flying, SHQ

[con-pilot]

Sad to say I cannot remember the launch, most likely watched it.

As for the landing and Armstrong's first steps, I was in a hotel room in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania watching the landing on a black and white TV. I was waiting for the weather to improve enough the next day so I could ferry a new Piper Pawnee crop duster from the factory back home.

It was the most exciting thing I have ever seen, before or since.

[langleybaston]

As an all-for-it weather forecaster at RAF Guetersloh, nipping across the road to S/Ldr Lewis [Eng O] in Zeppelinstrasse [top patch] and watching his goggle box.
I think he was SEngo of 19 squadron Lightnings but ..............

Zepp housed many future luminaries: Sandy Wilson, Stu Penny and the Govers.
We were next door to Bryan and Mary Smith.

Fabulous gorgeous marvelous days, we thought we were masters of the universe.

Perhaps it was was the Warsteiner.

[middlesbrough]

Making sure my one year old son was present in front of the TV to see Neil Armstrong step onto the moon. A few days later left Ballykelly for another two months in Majunga.

[sharpend]

I was a Fg Off, probably getting drunk. But on the 5th of August 1969 I note I flew Canberra B(I)8 to Nordhorn range to fire 4 x Hispano cannon.

[Alan Mills]

16 July 69, I flew for 6hours 15 mins in WR960 Shackleton Mk 2 from RAF Changi with 205 Sqn. Crew training, no doubt radar homings 1c Sonics and circuits. Captain Flt Lt Bob Parratt (Nav). A month later I flew to Whenuapai NZ for an ASW exercise. Good times.

[Shack37]

Making sure my one year old son was present in front of the TV to see Neil Armstrong step onto the moon. A few days later left Ballykelly for another two months in Majunga.

Probably attending a detailed handover meeting at Madam´s on arrival. I might even have been present as an arrivee or one of the relieved, dates are a bit blurred.

[SOSL]

Sitting in the TV room of the Junior Mess at RAFC Cranwell watching the launch on the brand new, first colour TV I had ever seen. Drinking a pint of Double Diamond (euch).


Thinking - so the spams are going to the moon; whatever.


Nothing seemed impossible at the time, not even TSR2 or that I would graduate - which I did eventually. TSR2 is another story!


In the late 60's and early 70's we felt we were living through the white heat of technology. Try telling that to the kids today .......!!

[Hereward]

Like a previous poster
At Gutersloh fliying a Hunter FR10 (xf457) on exercise Whirlygig

[EESDL]

Sleep walking and peeing in my chipboard wardrobe - which, suffice to say, was an item of furniture not taken to our next house ;-)

[david parry]

Station flight HMS Fulmar best draft ever:ok:

[Herod]

At Ballykelly with the first Wessex to go across to N.I., 14th. Nothing in the logbook, so probably on standby.

[Quietplease]

Sitting on the ramp in Seattle waiting for US Customs to sort out the paperwork so we could export a 707 to Canada. Much whoopin and hollerin on the ground frequency.

[Old Bricks]

SOSL
But do you remember that the film being shown in Whittle Hall that evening was "The Graduate"? Funny, I can remember that, but I had completely forgotten how horrible Double Diamond was. I seem to remember that we were allowed to go to work about an hour late the next morning, having sat up watching the grainy black & white images on the sparkling colour TV for most of the night. We also had the other end of the Apollo scale during our visit to the USAF Academy in 1970(?) which coincided with the epic of Apollo 13.
OB

[Courtney Mil]

I was watching on the TV in Northern Ireland, whilst consulting the amazing charts and posters that NASA had sent to me after I wrote to them. Amazing times. No, AMAZING times.

[Rossian]

......in my hurry to get my two year old daughter and 18 month old son to prop them in front of the TV I dropped my lovely girl face first on the floor.
Cue lots of squawking and crying, then "eye-balls caged" and all floppy asking for her "cloff" the source of all comfort. Soon recovered and we all watched (well I did, lad fell asleep again).

Do either of them remember it? Not a hope in Hell. Why do we, did we, do these things? "It's history in the making, kids" "What's history Dad?"

The Ancient Mariner

[BEagle]

SOSL wrote: Sitting in the TV room of the Junior Mess at RAFC Cranwell watching the launch on the brand new, first colour TV I had ever seen.

I remember that huge colour TV - it was installed in the BBC2 room in the Junior Mess. Very, very few programmes were in colour back then as the main colour service didn't start until 15 Nov 1969, several months after Apollo 11, by which time I was in my first university term living in a cold, damp room in an utter dump of a student hotel in Bayswater. Hardly College Hall!

I was on leave on 20 Jul 1969, along with the rest of the pre-University mob, so I guess it was only the 99 Entry Flt Cdts who watched the landing on that TV?

[Courtney Mil]

I watched it in b&w. That didn't detract from the gravitas of the occasion. I could never have remembered the exact date of the introduction of colour transmissions, but I do recall that I could see colour photos of the landing - not on TV though.

But what an amazing achievement, and what brave men.

[rfDave]

This one is easy.... 14 years old, Left Dallas Love Field on an Eastern Flight to Miami traveling alone to catch a connecting flight to Tocumen Panama on a Blue BRANIFF 707

As we skimmed past Cuba on the way to Panama,the pilot came on the intercom and said that we had landed on the moon
(I didn't know BRANIFF went to the moon --ok, ok its a joke)

But when I finally got to my Brothers home at Ft Gulick Canal Zone we watched all the stuff on a little B&W tv via AFRTS which wasn't much

And as a side note, in 1969, there must not have been much policy/procedure about commercial jets flying thru thunderstorms, because that Eastern flight sure as heck did. I vividly remember looking out at the dark clouds we were in and lightning everywhere and the lights on the plane going on and off....the wing flopping up and down...
Quite a sight for a 14 year old going it alone.....

[Haraka]

by which time I was in my first university term living in a cold, damp room in an utter dump of a student hotel in Bayswater. Hardly College Hall!

Ditto to your experience around that time Beags.
I then forked out another ten bob a week on my semi-subterranean priest hole, courtesy of the Château Hillbrow in Bayswater, for the supply of an ancient two-bar electric fire.
No morning parades though :)

[Old Bricks]

I seem to remember that virtually all the TV progs in colour were US - the most popular being Star Trek and The Rowan and Martin Laugh-In. Just after New Year 1969, some of us were back at the Towers to catch up on Chipmunk flying because of bad weather, and the Junior Mess was closed, so had to use College Hall. Needless to say, the weather stayed poor and one group of flight cadets were watching the large colour TV in College Hall one morning when 2 men in brown coats came in, announced that they were taking away the TV for repair, picked it up and walked out, driving away in a van. No-one thought to query the fact that the TV seemed to be working well at the time. It was only a couple of days later when Mess Manager etc came back to work that anyone asked how long the TV would be away being repaired. Panic all round. RAF plods and the might of Sleaford CID called in. Cadets asked to describe thieves. Best they got was "They were wearing brown coats and looked like TV repair men".
Strangely, the plods did recover the TV from somewhere in North Wales - well-known hotbed of TV thievery, mainly because it was still big and rare and the system had its serial number. And people say life at Cranners was dull!

[SpannerInTheWerks]

Skived off school with a friend of mine and watched the whole event at his Aunt's house.

Only other time I skived off education was to watch the first commercial flight of Concorde from the top of the Queen's Building at Heathrow in 1976.

[NutLoose]

I remember that huge colour TV - it was installed in the BBC2 room in the Junior Mess. Very, very few programmes were in colour back then as the main colour service didn't start until 15 Nov 1969

22 inch? that would have been huge back then :E