Hello.

I'm Beryl Dakers.

Welcome to Palmetto Scene.

This past summer, we celebrated the summer of space and the seventy fifth anniversary of the D. day invasion.

Both events top our program tonight.

With the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo eleven moon landing, one astronaut pivotal to that historic moment was South Carolina native, General Charles Duke.

When Duke visited the South Carolina State Museum.

We had the opportunity to sit down with him and to talk about his thoughts and recollections on the incredible history he was a part of throughout his NASA career.

(background chatter of museum guests) General Duke as we celebrate Apollo Eleven's historic moon landing, we have to celebrate - you have to celebrate it also because you were part of that fiftieth celebration.

And as we all know now you were the voice of mission control or Capcom.

Talk to me a little bit about just the atmosphere surrounding that flight.

Well the it was a very exciting atmosphere if you will.

And we were very anticipating, we were anticipating success.

We have worked very hard in the training.

The technicians and the all who put the rockets together and the space craft that really focused in and the crew and us and mission control had really focused in on our training.

And it was, I was very optimistic that we would pull it off.

We'd had some really good training and the space craft had been performing beautifully.

And the Saturn Five and so as the mission progressed in getting to the moon it hardly any problems at all.

It was really a remarkable.

And so there was a great anticipation as we started our decent.

But of course so we were very focused.

We don't want to make any mistakes.

And so the the crew was keyed up.

We were keyed up.

And the tension began to rise in mission control as we started the engine as we began to go down.

Then we start having a series of problems that got everybody's attention of course.

And one was the communications.

We had to re-orient and then computer alarms, which was, I felt was devastating at first when I heard saw that, but fortunately it, the computer was still operating correctly.

It was just overloaded, but still was controlling.

So we would go on those alarms but that was another level of tension in mission control.

And then as we got down close to the surface, Neil, we were having targeted in the wrong spot, it was rocky and cratered and he couldn't land.

And so that added another level of tension in mission control.

And so he's flying level over across the moon, probably at an altitude of three or four hundred feet maybe and find, looking for a place to land.

Well that took a lot of fuel now we're minimum fuel.

And that really increased the tension.

And so it got very very quiet in mission control.

The tension was not incapacitating but I mean you could really sense the tension in mission control as to the worst I'd, the highest I'd ever experienced in mission control.

And so when we had touched down there was a great sigh of relief.

Everybody was really excited.

And Neil came back very calmly.

By the way, he landed with like seventeen seconds fuel remaining in the total of what we call had to to call an abort.

So anyway he calls, we're Eagle, the Houston tranquility base here.

The eagle has landed.

And I was so excited I couldn't even pronounce tranquility.

It came out twang at first.

And then we were turning blue.

And what I said was you got a bunch of guys about to turn blue.

We're breathing again.

That was a true statement.

It wasn't made up.

It was just true.

We were holding our breath.

Are we going to make it before we run out of fuel?

Is there a fine balance then when you are the designated communicator with the space craft between maintaining your cool and not upsetting them.

And yet knowing that you are relaying this very precious information that determines whether it's a go or no go?

Yeah it was.

You had to be I think a pilot talking to a pilot in the the language that we all understand was important.

So that's why they picked a astronaut back in those days to be the capsule communicator.

Because we were on the same wavelength as far as flying terms and things.

And you know, you knew how to phrase things so that they would be clear to understand.

So it was important job.

It was not just relaying information.

It was phrasing it and getting the the right information up.

But in a way, it was simple and understood I think.

And so fortunately we had a lot of good training.

And I was, it it all went well, even in spite of all the tension.

I don't know whether they felt the tension.

Neil.

Let me put it this way, the tension in mission control during the landing of Apollo Eleven, I was more tense there than I was when I landed on the moon in Apollo Sixteen.

Really?

Because mission control you're looking at your your screens.

And it's just a bunch of numbers.

And you you don't sense it while you're actually doing it, you're looking out the window.

You see the surface.

You see the possibilities of where you could land.

And you're, you're monitoring the systems and things are dynamic and it's moving.

And whereas in mission control you sit there looking at a screen.

And so you don't cap, and the tension because you know they're they're they're doing things that are very very precise.

But you can't really see it.

You just listen to them and you can imagine that tension that occurs when you, are we going to make it, are we gonna make it are we going to make it?

And while there looking outside, and I think they have a more positive attitude, are we going to make it more than than I thought they were going to make it.

I want to fast forward to Apollo sixteen when you became the tenth man and the youngest to walk on the moon.

Tell me what your feelings were?

What was it like for you as you sat in that capsule preparing to launch?

I was ready to go.

Yeah and my thought was keep counting, keep counting.

I've trained for two years and I am ready to go.

I know how to do this job.

Let's go.

And it was important that you went because you only had four hours, a launch window we called it, to get off.

And then you had to wait another month.

Well in that month you could break a leg.

You could have an automobile accident.

You could kill yourself.

You can get the measles.

I could get the measles.

I could, you know, yeah, it's a hundred different things that knock you out of your choice, your chance.

So that I'm sitting in this vehicle.Let's launch.

I'm ready to go.

And we did it right on schedule.

And so we were excited of course and focused.

Were you prepared for the sensations for the physical and physiological experiences that you had?

Physiologically, I was.

The physical I didn't realize it was going to shake as much as it did.

This is a big vehicle.

And you're up on the very top and the bottom where the engines are moving to control the trajectory at all that translates up into the space craft.

And so you get a big vibration from side to side.

Not much noise but a lot of vibration.

And that lasts as you burn out your fuel.

Of course you're being pushed back into your seat, which we were used to.

We knew that was going to happen.

But the vibration was something that was very predominant in our spacecraft.

And I guess that way to put it bluntly that got my attention.

You know I thought there was something wrong but the mission control you go.

And John said go and we're.

So we, in spite of the vibration, we made it in the first stage any way.

And after first stage there was very smooth.

There was a very smooth ascent into orbit and then onto the moon.

When Armstrong landed on the moon he talked about this, how desolate it was and it's grey and dark and forbidding.

And you had sensed that something about how difficult it is to talk about the awesomeness or the beauty of this great, were you disappointed?

No I was not disappointed I, you know, I I was excited I was like a little kid at Christmas.

I was really really excited.

I'm on the moon.

Nobody's ever been here before.

It's a it's the most fascinating desert you could ever imagine.

It's grey, rough terrain with hills to the south and mountains to the north and a valley out in front of us and the whole excitement of let's go explore.

Let's go see what we can find.

And one of the things that that motivated that was all of our photographs that we had studied of our landing spot, you couldn't see objects less than forty five feet.

So forty five feet objects was the limit of our resolution.

And on the moon there's a lotta objects up there less than forty five feet.

So you begin to see all these craters and rocks as you came in and landed.

And then as you drove, 'Man, there's another crater!

There's a big rock!'

And it was just go one wonder after another, I guess.

As we go over this hill was, What's next?

And what are we going see over here?'

So was always, it's always excitement, always wonder, always awe.

Buzz Aldrin did describe it accurately magnificent desolation.

But it was magnificent, wasn't boring.

It was just just the one night one exciting adventure after another as we we so we explored our landing area.

Well we are indebted to you for picking up rocks and bringing back things.

the moon dust and rocks and things for our future scientific endeavors.

But how did you know what to pick up?

Well that's a good question.

And how difficult was it to physically do that?

The, we had a geo a lotta geology training.

Professional geologists.

The head of our geology training was a professor at the University of Texas.

The head of the geology department.

And he had a lot of assistance.

So we, every month we went out into the field.

We had three days of of exploring this area.

And we had to describe the rocks that we saw.

And they they critiqued us on every rock that we saw.

And if we got it wrong, here's what you missed and here's what you should have seen.

And here's what you should have done.

So after six years I had an equivalent of a master's degree in geology.

So it wasn't just a random pick up.

No, no.

But on the moon it was a lot easier than than it was in West Texas for instance.

Than the simulations.

Yeah the simulations, because up on the moon the the rocks are very similar.

There are only three colors actually.

The gray ones, the white ones and the black ones.

So you need, you knew you need to get one of several of different shades of gray in color.

And and you look at some and it had a lot of inclusions in them.

Some were very fine grained.

And so you you tried to select the ones that were a variety if you will.

And you described each one and to in brief, not deep detail but brief, briefly to the scientists in mission control so they could know how you were doing.

Actually the rocks we brought, started describing were not not what they expected.

They expected volcanic rocks in our landing area and there weren't any.

They were mostly anorthosites, fragments of other rock called breccias and fine grained and igneous rocks is what I'm trying to say.

So it was a unique area unlike the other Apollo landing sites.

There were a unique landing area and so they were very excited.

We had tools.

We had a rake that we could pick up a lot of rocks and shake it.

And all the dust would fall out and then would leave these rocks that were.

And then we had a shovel.

We had a we call the thongs that would we could squeeze here and clamp a rock.

But, but you're also maneuvering in all of this heavy space gear.

It was hard yeah, no question about it.

Gloved hands with with something that looks very cumbersome.

Right!

We had a hammer that we had to drive cores into that moon and that was really hard to keep hold of that hammer because you squeezing this hammer as you try to pound this into the moon.

So it was hard work in the space suit, but we trained for it.

And and staying upright as you did this?

Well that's what you tried to do.

We fell down a lot.

but if you fell on your stomach, you just did a series of push ups and you could bounce basically bounce yourself up.

On your back was another problem.

We had trained if we fell on our back and we were by ourselves how to get up.

But it was a hard hard job.

And you did that?

And I fell over backwards by accident yeah on the last.

And it was scary because the backpack is not designed for a crash onto the moon and it contains all your life support system.

If anything broke back there you were dead.

So as I started back, first I'm in trouble in a moment of fear, but I reacted with training and I rolled to my right and broke my fall and bounced onto my back.

John Young my commander once came over and said, That wasn't very smart Charlie.'

He was upset.

And he helped me up and he helped me up and as a result of that my heart was pounding.

But I could hear the pumps running and the oxygen flow, the pressure gauge was normal.

And so I began to calm down.

That was part of that jump was a part of a, Well the fall resulted from a jump to try to set the high jump record on the moon.

And it was it was an Olympic event.

If you remember nineteen seventy two was an Olympic year in Munich.

And so we were there in April, so we were going to kick off the Olympic year with the moon Olympics.

And so I tried to set the high jump record probably did set it because nobody else tried after that.

(laughs) Not a sanctioned event.

Yeah we only have about five minutes and I've got a zillion questions for you.

So I'm just curious in in retrospect as you look at this flight, was there ever a time when you were really scared?

Back when I jumped and fell over backwards.

That's the only time and that was my own doing.

I was never scared of the of the operation of the spacecraft.

I had great confidence in those spacecraft.

Lunar module didn't look like much but it was a good spacecraft.

Where should we be going now in space exploration.

Well it seems to me there two avenues.

The commercial side SpaceX Blue Orgin, Virgin Galactic companies like that are exploring and getting spacecraft ready to go for tourists.

They are earth orbit.

They will also have contracts to NASA to the take supplies and astronauts to the space station.

And I think NASA is going to sort of focus on deep space back to the moon.

And I agree with that.

I think the moon is a great place to build a science station where we learn to live a couple months at a time.

From there, we can develop the systems that eventually are going to take us to Mars.

I think the human spirit of exploration will take us to Mars eventually.

I don't think I'll be, I'll be gone by then, dead and gone.

But the human spirit, I think is going to eventually take us to Mars.

Well President Trump is advocating that we get back to the moon by twenty twenty four.

That's just five years from now.

Well we developed it.

And to Mars by twenty thirty.

Yeah.

Technologically, it's no big deal.

But the money is the big deal.

And if you can get, if he can get Congress to appropriate the money, we can build a lunar module in five years.

We did it on Apollo, fifty years ago.

He started that program in nineteen sixty one with not a clue of how to do it.

And Kennedy says we go to go to the moon.

And eight years and two months later we did it.

And so we did that.

We have the technology.

It's just, can Congress get behind this kind of it kind of exploration like they did in nineteen sixty one?

And so that's the big question to me.

Final question.

Did your space exploration bring you to your faith?

Indirectly.

I look back now, it wasn't the direct - Ny space experience was a great highlight in my life but I still had this urge to do more and I couldn't find any peace until Jesus came in six years later.

And it, he solved he solved a lot of my are problems in our marriage and our family and we discovered the peace of God.

And I look back now at the, in my mind's eye and to see what I saw and I see the scripture in nineteenth Psalms, the heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the works of his hands.

General Charles Duke, thank you.

My pleasure.

Thank you so much.

The state museum was not the only museum celebrating a major milestone.

Marking the seventy fifth anniversary of D. Day the armory was transformed into a military display site as the South Carolina Military Museum hosted an event honoring all World War Two veterans from South Carolina.

The seventy fifth anniversary of D. day is just you know really needs no explanation.

It's incredibly important when the guards decided to do the event, one of the first things they decided was they wanted to gather World War Two veterans still alive in the metropolitan Columbia area.

And that is at least half the reason that this event's being held.

They were very very strong on that.

And the idea being to bring the fellas together one more time.

Probably the last time they will have any meaningful gathering.

And so we've been helping with that as well but they wanted to do as much uniformed living history and display work as they could gather together.

So they called our group.

This is what we do.

This is our specialty.

They knew that we could probably fill the armory.

And I'm very proud to say that we we we've done just that.

We filled the armory with military display work.

Most of us are in uniform just adds to the adds to the atmosphere.

The the magnitude of the World War Two history as it relates and still shapes the nation that we live in is very important to remember and educate and teach the current younger generation.

We're here to celebrating the seventy fifth anniversary of the D. day invasion, which represents the the epitone of trying to liberate the continent of Europe from Nazi tyranny.

But it really touches on all the sixteen million people that served in American during World War Two.

And so it's our honor and privilege to put on this event today.

This event commemorates the liberation of Europe but it's so much more than that.

What what we're talking about is the true heart of America.

When we look at the selfless service these men and women perfomed for our country, we see what true heroes are all about.

You know, so many times we we throw that word around here and it's to where it almost becomes, doesn't mean anything.

But these are the true heroes of America.

They are American tradition and we need to remember that.

We need to remember what makes this country great as people like our World War Two Veterans.

We are humbled as a nation to have an opportunity to pause on a day like today to thank you all.

And to be here, Lord willing, the weather allows us a chance to celebrate that with a fly over that will be even greater.

But for those who made this event possible today, thank you.

Ad for those who took time out of your schedule to come out today to honor and recognize these brave men and women and their families, it's truly humbling and gratifying that you have done so.

(jet sounds in the air) A lot of people ask me you know how what can I do to give back to those who have done so much for our country, our veterans.

And one of the big things I tell them is just to remember.

You know to talk about the bravery of the people that have gone before you and the conflicts' past, talk about their sacrifice, talk about their service.

And one of the big ways to do that is to commemorate the big battles and big events that occurred throughout history, like we're doing today here with D-Day.

You know, they are the greatest generation.

I remember I was a young kid reading about their exploits, their missions, their bravery and so that really inspired me to kind of look at the military.

My grandfather served in World War Two.

My father was in Vietnam.

So looking at past veterans really kind of inspired me to really look take a hard look at the military and to think about doing that as a career.

That's what I did.

So I I entered entered the military and really got the opportunity to serve with three units that actually were apart of the D. day invasion.

Hundred first airborne division, second ranger battalion and then the eighty second airborne division.

So it's just an honor to be part of that lineage.

So to see kids here in the crowd, for them to you know learn about these veterans.

Some of these folks are over a hundred years old.

And they won't be with us very long.

So to have a twelve year old interact with a hundred and seven year old veteran from World War Two is just like just an amazing opportunity to see and one that won't be here very long.

Before we take a picture, let's give these 95 plus year old gentleman a round of applause.

(applause) As we all prepare for Veterans Day, we too salute the men and women who have so bravely served our country.

For more stories about our state and more details on the stories you've just seen.

Please visit our website at Palmettoscene.org.

And don't forget to follow us on social media whether Facebookm, Twitter and Instagram, or all three.

Then join us again next time for another edition of Palmetto Scene.

Tonight's Palmetto postcard comes from McEntire Air Base.

Enjoy.

For ETV and of course Palmetto Scene I'm Beryl Dakers.

Thanks for watching.

♪ Instrumental of song America The Beautiful ♪