His movie star good looks should have propelled him into the spotlight. But this hero believed anyone on the Apollo team could have been the first on the moon and so shunned his well deserved personal glory, chalking it up to the luck of the draw.

Looking like a character out of 2001 A Space Odyssey we see Neil Armstrong suited up for glory. His attitude was that he wanted to do great things for the US because that is what Americans do, and they do it simply because they can. And because they can do it then morally they should do it.

Somebody had to be the first to walk on the moon he said. It just so happened that his number came up. It was for this reason and his natural humility that he refused to profit personally from his feat, although he got plenty of offers. This is an act of selflessness unheard of and possibly unthinkable in this day and age. No Armstrong astronaut action toys for him. No story books, coffee mugs, posters and designer clothes with his brand name on them as is the normal path of persons who crowd the limelight today.

We have two memorable famous quotes from Mr. Armstrong that almost everyone in America and the world are familiar with. “The Eagle has landed and “One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.

The fact that the Eagle landed seems so matter of fact today. Inevitable. Of course the Eagle landed we say. It was all thought out in a clinical scientific fashion like a routine appendectomy. But on that day for several critical minutes, the Eagles success was anything but inevitable. The landing area that was expected to be smooth and Eagle friendly, turned out to be strewn with boulders and there was no visible safe landing area anywhere around.

Then with less than a minutes worth of fuel remaining before the eagle would be forced to crash, the communication with the Eagle which had been spotty as it got closer to the moon’s surface, went suddenly dead.  It was Neil Armstrong, piloting and keeping his cool, that spied an area big enough and close enough for a landing possibility. It had to be there and it had to be at that moment and with only seconds of fuel left, controlling the craft by hand he made the landing that saved the mission and his life and fulfilled a dream.

For years no one knew of how dire and how close to catastrophe that first attempt to land on the moon had been. It was only after the a few years and the Apollo program was finished that the stories came out and I learned how close we were to failure. I wonder if I had been the one in that strange place on that day of reckoning if I would have been able to stay cool and perform as perfectly as Neil Armstrong? I wonder if I had done so would I have been as humble as he?

When it was time to  launch the Eagle from the moon and reunite with the Apollo space craft, there was vast uncertainty at NASA as to whether or not the Eagle engines would fire. Even though it had been test fired on earth over 250 times without a problem, because this was the moon and not earth, because of the lack of oxygen on the moon, there would be only one attempt possible, to fire the engine successfully. There would be no second try. If the engine did not fire the first time there would be no second chance and the astronauts would die there and never return to earth.

A speech had already been prepared for President Nixon  in case the feared failure of the Eagle to launch became true. Fortunately that too went off without a hitch and the courage of all three astronauts was rewarded with overwhelming success.

I believe Neil Armstrong would want to be remembered at his passing as one of the ones who did it because they could, So in his memory, let all of us in the US and the world who aspire to the highest calling of their nature and hold their ability to accomplish all they can dear, give all props and kudos to the men and women of Apollo and NASA whose quality of humanity made a man on the moon a reality.

We are so proud of you Neil Armstrong and all the Apollo team on who’s achievements we ride into the future.