The First Man’s Helper … The Untold Story
Who was The First Man’s Helper? … I know, but can I tell you?
I know something about The First Man and his helper that is an untold story; one that I have been prevented from telling for legal reasons, but one that I feel I must tell, in order to give that man … that helper … the the honour that he deserves.
In this article I will first nominate my choice of ‘first man’, and then reveal as much as I am legally able to, in order to tell you about that first man’s helper.
The First Man … my options and my choice:
The first man to walk on the surface of earth … Adam The first man to circle the earth in space … Yuri Gagarin The first man to walk on the surface of the moon … Neil Armstrong The first man to run a four-minute mile … Roger Bannister The first African American President of The USA … Barack Obama
Note: I’m not attempting to diminish the role of this world’s first women. They stand on the same high pedestal as our first men (maybe even higher considering the historic subordination of women), but my choice (for this article) has to be a man because my choice of first man’s helper was my friend, and he told me his story.
My ‘First Man’ choice … and my reasons:
The ‘First Man’ that I have chosen to highlight (from the options listed above) is … The man who was first to walk on the moon … Neil Armstrong.
I choose this particular ‘first man’ because the man who helped Armstrong to get to the moon was a friend of mine who shared his story with me some years ago … a story I was initially planning to publish in 2019 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of that historic first moon landing in1969, and in that context, I prepared a draft for my friend and his family to approve.
Sadly, right at that time, when my planned publication would be have been spot-on to meet the 50th anniversary date, my friend’s health went into serious decline, and his power-of-attorney representative withdrew permission to publish any story that contained his name or photo.
So, in order to tell his story now, I will need to respect the legal restraints placed on me in 2019 (i.e. not to name him or show his photo), and thus he must be presented anonymously … Let’s call him Jim (not his real name) … but his story is real:
You won’t see his photo-image, nor will his name be revealed … but believe me … he did help the first man. I know, because he was my friend, and my friend told me all the details.
Some Background:
My abandoned draft article had the title: ‘My friend and The Moon Landing’, but of course, as mentioned above, it couldn’t be published in 2019. I decided to edit it so as to remove all reference to Jim, giving it a re-write and a new title, but I was still hesitant, and didn’t publish until 2021.
That story re-write was titled: ‘Major Tom to Ground Control’. (I’ll put a link to it at the end of this one). The aim of that article was to match-up the Apollo Moon-landing event of 1969 with David Bowie’s launch of his album ‘Space Oddity’ (both events involving rocket launches in July 1969).
Now, I’m ready to update that story to honour the special input of Jim; one of Neil Armstrong’s helpers for that momentous event. It’s a true story, and I’m now ready to tell it … as told to me by my friend Jim.
The Moon Landing … and My Friend Jim
Jim was recruited by NASA to ‘make’ the Lunar Landing Module that would be called Eagle … the craft that would carry Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin onto the surface of the moon on that day in July 1969 when the world would hear that famous line: “The Eagle has landed”.
Now, here is Jim’s story:
I could have titled it: “From British Aerospace to NASA”, because that’s how it all started, but that would not have mentioned Neil Armstrong & the moon, so I’ve called it: ‘My friend Jim helped Neil Armstrong land on the moon’
During the 1960s, Jim (an Englishman), was working as a fine-tuning engineer at British Aerospace in Lancashire, England.
In the late 60s the American National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation (who were given the contract to build the Lunar Module) were looking for fine-tuning engineers to work on a team that would produce component parts for the lunar landing craft ‘Eagle’.
A recruitment campaign identified Jim, who, following a series of interviews etc went to America … to be part of the Eagle-building team.
“From British Aerospace to NASA to create ‘Eagle’ … wow, what a gig!”
Jim was not alone of course, and he told me that he had one particularly colleague who worked in close liaison with him. (Jim and his immediate colleague being just two of the many engineers building the Lunar Module). But Jim was there, and he shared his story with me … often.
He also told me about the associated computers that provided the data for his work. In those days computers were large banks of air-cooled equipment.
“They spewed out the technical data and exact measurements to be machined for each part of Eagle that I was working on” … said Jim
When Eagle’s components were completed, the finished structure would take its place at the top-end of the Saturn V moon-rocket, between the rocket itself and the command module that would carry three astronauts:
On July 16th 1969, at Kennedy Space Centre Florida, the Apollo 11 project was ready; the Saturn V rocket was ready for lift-off; and the whole world held its breath.
Millions (including me) watched on tiny black & white TV screens at home; others (like Jim) were watching ‘on site’, but at a safe distance from the actual launch site.
Eagle, the Lunar Landing Module, was probably the most vital and essential part, if the mission was to succeed, and five days later we again watched (on our small grainy black & white TV screens) with bated breath, as we saw Neil Armstrong slowly descend Eagle’s external ladder, and utter the now-famous words as his feet touched the moon’s surface for the first time:
“One small step for man; one giant leap for mankind” … Neil Armstrong
Finally … if then, this is “Jim’s story”, and that’s what I’ve made it, I’d like to add one more final declaration. And it’s this:
“One small step for man; one giant leap for mankind; and one great relief for my friend Jim!” … Thank you, Jim.
Postscript … re The 50th Anniversary:
In 2019, a re-enactment of the Apollo 11 event, from rocket launch on earth to lunar module landing on the moon, came in the form of a new movie: “First Man”, released to coincide with that 50th Anniversary.
It re-tells the story of the three astronauts (Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin & Michael Collins); the story of a rocket (Saturn V); a Command Module (Columbia), and a Lunar Landing Module called Eagle.
The movie was based on a book (first published in 2005) titled FIRST MAN: The Life of Neil Armstrong, (a biography of Armstrong by James Hansen)
When this film was shown in our local cinema in 2019 I invited Jim to come and see it with me. That viewing was a delight for me, but for Jim it posed one problem in particular … and whilst he too enjoyed the movie, he did make one quite pertinent and quite ‘telling’ comment after the move had finished.
As we were walking through the cinema foyer on our way out, Jim turned to me and said: “It wasn’t as big as that!”, referring to the scenes in the movie where Armstrong and colleague Aldrin were filmed inside the Eagle module.
Jim had often told me during our many dinner-chats about his lunar venture that the lunar landing module Eagle was very small, and that he could hardly imagine how two astronauts could fit comfortably into it for the decent to the lunar surface, so when he saw them ‘movie-style’, spaciously comfortable, he just had to ‘come clean’!
I like that observation, don’t you? It sort-of ‘proves’ that ‘Jim was there’.
Want more space and science stories? Here’s the link to my earlier article: ‘Major Tom to Ground Control’ And also, to read even more Science Stories from Fred, click on this link
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“The First Man’s Helper” * written by Fred: writer on Medium Thank you for reading … Hope you enjoyed the read.
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