Download e-book for iPad: Moon Men Return: Uss Hornet and the Recovery of the Apollo by Scott Carmichael

The splashdown and restoration of Apollo eleven on 24 July 1969 was once a ancient occasion, which fulfilled President John F. Kennedy s nationwide target of putting a guy at the moon and returning him effectively to earth through the tip of the Sixties. This booklet tells the dramatic tale of the USS Hornet s restoration of the astronauts after the splashdown in their command module. This targeted account attracts not just on old documents but in addition at the stories of 80 males who served aboard the Hornet and took part within the restoration operation, together with military UDT frogman John M. Wolfram, who was once the 1st to arrive the Apollo II astronauts. Their inside of account deals deck-level views of occasions and comprises information by no means ahead of documented for the general public. Their tales show that even if the restoration operation regarded effortless and uneventful, there have been many difficulties to beat. for instance, a machinist s mate needed to fix a damaged propeller shaft whereas the send used to be underway so the Hornet may possibly achieve the purpose of splashdown on time; storms pressured the send to navigate by way of useless reckoning putting it miles clear of its vacation spot simply mins earlier than Apollo got here down; and a HS-4 helicopter narrowly shunned colliding with the command module because of heavy cloud hide. but, in keeping with the writer, the VIPs at the Hornet by no means suspected something amiss. as well as those behind-the-scenes tales, the publication encompasses a by no means ahead of released photo of the Apollo eleven command module because it splashed down within the Pacific Ocean. formerly recognized basically to these linked to the military SEAL who took the picture, the writer demonstrated its authenticity via interviews with these at the helicopter and those that processed the picture at the Hornet. different images now not formerly published to the general public, together with surface-level photographs taken via UDT swimmers in the course of the restoration method also are one of the illustrations displayed within the book.