January 27, 2025 - Good Morning! It’s Monday, January 27.
If you’re over 60 years old, I’ll bet you remember where you were on July 20, 1969, when Apollo 11 landed on the Moon. But, do you recall where you were on January 27, 1967? I do. On that day, the astronauts of Apollo 1 were killed as their capsule was engulfed in flames on the test pad. We knew, inherently, that space travel was dangerous. But no other astronauts had died before, and it was a shock to our nation.
I grew up in Houston in the 1960’s. I lived where all the astronauts lived. We thought of them as hometown heroes. So, when Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee died that day, it hit us especially hard. Would the quest for the moon continue? Should it continue? How could it continue? These were hard questions that were answered over the next 20 months, when there were no manned space flights. Apollo 7 finally took off in late 1968 and the race did go on. And when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface on that summer night in 1969, he carried with him a patch that read “Apollo 1”. That patch is still there.
And so, we’re reminded that to achieve great things, there must often be great sacrifice. It was a lesson that my father’s generation learned during World War II, a lesson brought home to my generation that day in the winter of my fifth-grade year. And today, as Americans, we’re reminded of the astronaut’s sacrifices every time we look up at the Moon. And, as children of God, we’re reminded of another sacrifice every time we look up at the Cross.
Meet you back here tomorrow,
David
cindertex50@yahoo.com
