Did You Know This About Neil Armstrong?
Peter Robinson ·
August 27, 2012 at 6:33pm
Reading the obits, I found myself struck by one fact--of which, I confess, I'd been completely unaware: As a naval aviator during the Korean War, Neil Armstrong flew seventy-eight combat missions.
During one mission, his plane, flying low, clipped a cable that the North Koreans had strung across a valley as a kind of booby trap, forcing Armstrong to bail out. He narrowly missed landing in Wonson Habor, which the North Koreans were then mining, drifting instead toward a U.S. Marine base, the wind very likely saving his life.
Seventy-eight missions. He may have been unassuming, the very model of the quiet and fastidious engineer. But Neil Armstrong was also one tough hombre.
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Aug '12
Re: Did You Know This About Neil Armstrong?
No, I did not know this until I read the recent obituaries. That is a fantastic record.
Dec '10
Re: Did You Know This About Neil Armstrong?
Yep! It's one of the incredible things that happened before the lunar landing. He was in good company -- another F9F Panther Pilot by the name of Ted Williams also served during the Korean War and flew 39 combat missions.
Jul '12
Re: Did You Know This About Neil Armstrong?
Williams was John Glenn's wingman during Korea in theory but given Williams's WW II experience he was the flight leader.
May '12
Re: Did You Know This About Neil Armstrong?
Dollars'll get you donuts that cable is still there.
Ted Williams? What a roster!
Dec '11
Re: Did You Know This About Neil Armstrong?
Didn't know the details, but I assumed most of the pilots from the space program were combat pilots at some point.
Jun '12
Re: Did You Know This About Neil Armstrong?
Did not know that. That is impressive, indeed!
Jul '12
Re: Did You Know This About Neil Armstrong?
He was the very model of a modern man in general
May '10
Re: Did You Know This About Neil Armstrong?
He also flew the X-15 at Mach 5.74, and reached over 200,000 ft altitude. In another aircraft he got the landing gear stuck in the mud in the Smith Ranch Dry Lake after a rainstorm. He had a very exciting stint as a test pilot before his spacegoing days.
Re: Did You Know This About Neil Armstrong?
Ah, Mark, you would be the expert on this. Thanks for adding this. We all knew about Armstrong's quiet dignity. What I wasn't aware of was his sheer patriotic toughness.
Mar '11
Re: Did You Know This About Neil Armstrong?
Wait, I don't understand.
I was told men who are bringers of hope and change author two self-serving biographies chronically their paltry deeds before they reach age 40.
And yet Amazon returns not a single hit for such a book in this case. Harumph: What sort of fellow is this Arm-too-strong anyway!?
Jul '12
Re: Did You Know This About Neil Armstrong?
Astronauts were recruited almost exclusively from combat pilots, and Armstrong was indeed a good-one. He wasn't flashy or high-profile, like Glenn, Yeager or Gabreski, but he was very good, and rarely made mistakes. The "Right Stuff" consisted of men who were willing to take risks, yet were very thoughtful and decisive, cool-headed, and not reckless. A tough combination to find, but Armstrong exemplified it in spades.
Jun '10
Re: Did You Know This About Neil Armstrong?
No wonder he was so calm during the moon landing: it may have been tricky but at least no one on the moon was shooting at him.
Re: Did You Know This About Neil Armstrong?
My thought, too!
Aug '10
Re: Did You Know This About Neil Armstrong?
To note another pilot hero in passing, James D Ramage made his final a few weeks ago at 96. He was the boss to many, perhaps Armstrong as he commanded an Air Group during Korean. He spoke of Wally Schirra and other astronauts as if they were his students.
We will all miss Armstrong, but there is a whole generation of our defenders and pioneers of the last frontier that are leaving us now. Not to divert attention from the death of Armstrong, only to remind that he is also an avatar of an age of accomplishment by this country of ours. Accomplishments that need to be renewed.
Aug '10
Re: Did You Know This About Neil Armstrong?
Didja also know that the distinctive way of speaking that you hear from airline pilots on the tarmac, the old, "ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking," is reportedly an impersonation of Chuck Yeager's drawl?
You gotta be pretty damned impressive for nearly every single commercial pilot on the planet to impersonate your voice when telling people to put their seat belts on.
Aug '10
Re: Did You Know This About Neil Armstrong?
That we know of...
Nov '11
Re: Did You Know This About Neil Armstrong?
How fortunate for humanity that it was Armstrong who took "one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." His words expressed both the universality of the accomplishment and his own honest humility. How fortunate for humanity that his indelible place in history ensures that his noble character will endure as a guiding standard of virtue.
Nov '11
Re: Did You Know This About Neil Armstrong?
These were fellows who consistently made the right split-second decision, one right after another after another, without adequate information.
If they made one wrong decision, they were probably dead.
But more than that, they were unafraid to make split-second decisions, one right after another, without adequate information, because hesitation was usually the same as the wrong decision.
But even beyond that, there's a mysterious quality to all excellent performance, of whatever kind: When people are performing at their best, at some deep level they actually stop thinking about what they are doing, and instead just do it.
Of course, to reach that level of excellence requires rigorous preparation. But in the performance itself, a kind of unconscious divine intuition takes over, like a musician improvising.
That's The Right Stuff, whatever activity one is engaging in.
Peter shows that quality as an interviewer.
(Aristotle: Happiness consists in being excellently active.)
Apr '11
Re: Did You Know This About Neil Armstrong?
Don't forget that he saved both himself and Dave Scott during his Gemini flight when they started tumbling end over end and could have blacked out had he not taken quick and decisive action. They don't make heroes like him anymore.
Jun '10
Re: Did You Know This About Neil Armstrong?
Peter Robinson
My thought, too! · 1 hour ago
That reminds me of a documentary I saw that pointed out that the Apollo program took place during the Vietnam War. One of the Apollo astronauts interviewed said he sometimes felt guilty that he got to fly in space while his old buddies were flying combat missions over Vietnam. He didn't think the astronauts deserved all the adulation they got when the combat pilots were the real heroes (though of course many were both).