Bio of Native

[Guest guest]

Dear Group,

 

It has been said that 1000 years from now, the only name that will be

remembered from the 20th century is that of Neil Armstrong.

 

I've heard Neil Armstrong has more schools, buildings and roads named

after him than either Roosevelt or Kennedy, and has been awarded more

honors than any man in history.

 

He is the only living human to ever appear on a US postage stamp. A

primary requirement is that you must be dead for five years!

 

It would have been more fun the cat had not been let out of the bag, and

would have allowed other members the joy of exercising their jyotish

muscles.

 

Below is a bio I whittled from 23 pages down to 2 pages of highlights,

telling of aversion to fame, strong military career, and life as a

professor.

 

Neil Alden Armstrong is an American aviator and a former astronaut, test

pilot, university professor, and United States Naval Aviator. He was the

first person to set foot on the Moon.

 

Before becoming an astronaut, Armstrong was in the United States Navy and

saw action in the Korean War. After the war, he served as a test pilot at

the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. He graduated from Purdue

University.

 

Early years

 

His father worked for the Ohio government, and the family moved around the

state repeatedly for the next 15 years, living in 20 different towns.

 

In 1947, Armstrong began studying aerospace engineering at Purdue

University. His college tuition was paid for under the Holloway Plan,

followed by three years of service in the United States Navy. At Purdue,

he received average marks in his subjects.

 

Over Korea, Armstrong flew 78 missions for a total of 121 hours in the

air, most of which was in January 1952.

 

While at Purdue, he met Janet Elizabeth Shearon. According to the two,

there was no real courtship and neither can remember the exact

circumstances of their engagement.

 

The couple had three children together – Eric, Karen, and Mark. In June

1961, Karen was diagnosed with a malignant tumor of the middle part of her

brain stem. Her health deteriorated to the point where she could no longer

walk or talk. Karen died of pneumonia, related to her weakened health, on

January 28, 1962.

 

There was no defining moment in Armstrong's decision to become an

astronaut. Armstrong's astronaut application had arrived about a week

past the June 1, 1962 deadline. Dick Day, with whom Armstrong had worked

closely at Edwards, worked at the Manned Spacecraft Center, saw the late

arrival of the application, and slipped it into the pile before anyone

noticed.

 

Apollo program

 

Initially, Aldrin thought that he would be first to walk on the Moon,

based on the experience of Gemini. However, for Aldrin (LM Pilot) to get

out first, he had to climb over Armstrong (commander) to get to the door.

 

Addionally, a March 1969 a meeting determined that Armstrong would be the

first person on the Moon, in some part because NASA management saw

Armstrong as a person who did not have a large ego.

 

Voyage to the Moon -- Return to Earth

 

While preparing for the liftoff from the lunar surface, Armstrong and

Aldrin discovered that in their bulky spacesuits, they had broken the

ignition switch for the ascent engine. The ascent engine had no switch to

fire. They could not use anything made of metal and eventually found a

plastic cap to a ball point pen. Using it they pushed the circuit breaker

in to activate the launch sequence.

 

Professor

 

Armstrong announced shortly after the Apollo 11 flight that he did not

plan to fly in space again. He accepted a teaching position in the

Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Cincinnati.

 

He decided on Cincinnati over other universities, including his alma

mater, Purdue, because it had a small Aerospace department; he hoped that

the faculty members would not be annoyed that he came straight into a

professorship with only the USC master's degree.

 

Business activities

 

After Armstrong retired from NASA in 1971, he avoided offers from

businesses to act as a spokesman. The first company to successfully

approach him was Chrysler, for whom he appeared in advertising starting in

January 1979. Armstrong thought they had a strong engineering division,

plus they were in financial difficulty.

 

Personal life

 

The first man to walk on the Moon was also approached by political groups

from both ends of the spectrum. Unlike former astronauts and United States

Senators John Glenn and Harrison Schmitt, Armstrong has turned down all

offers. Personally, he is in favor of states' rights and against the

United States acting as the " world's policeman. "

 

In the fall of 1979, Armstrong was working at his farm near Lebanon, Ohio.

As he jumped off of the back of his grain truck, his wedding ring caught

in the wheel, tearing off his ring finger. (Moon is finger, in the 8th

afflicted by RA from the 12th, he was running RA/RA)

 

Armstrong's first wife of 38 years, Janet, divorced him in 1994. He met

his second wife, Carol Held Knight, in 1992 at a golf tournament. They

were married on June 12, 1994 in Ohio.

 

Since 1994, Armstrong has refused all requests for autographs, after he

found that his signed items were selling for large amounts of money and

that many forgeries are in circulation.