posted 06-23-2012 12:58 PM               

(Mr. Coyote's appearance was slightly altered for this patch: he had a gray beard to reflect Alan Shepard's age, he was red to reflect Stuart Roosa's hair color, and he had a noticeable belly to reflect Ed Mitchell's physique.)

While just the creation of this patch was a pretty good practical joke (or in astronaut terms, "gotcha"); Cernan, Evans and Engle took it a step further. From Cernan's memoir, "The Last Man on the Moon":

Ron, Joe and I, as the backup crew, had final access to the spacecraft, and while we set the switches and checked the gauges, we also stuffed our Roadrunner patches into every nook and cranny, setting up a future mini-blizzard of "gotchas" for the Three Rookies. [None of the prime crew had orbited the Earth.] Perhaps the most repeated phrase on the private radio loop during the flight of Apollo 14 was Shepard's annoyance when still another patch would suddenly appear. "Tell Cernan," he growled, "Beep-beep, his ass."

There are specific references to the badges (patches) in the transcripts of on-board conversations. For example, at 1 hour, 26 minutes, and 16 seconds into the flight, Shepard commented, "There's more badges." Mitchell responded, "OK, I got it." Shepard answered, "I'll get it out of the way ... I'm over here ... beep, beep, beep all over the place." Roosa chimed in, "He who laughs last." Shepard answered, "Well I'm - even so, I'm hell of a lot happier that we're flying and looking at their patches, rather than the other way around." Roosa quipped, "Well that's what I meant by laughing last."

(Interestingly, it's possible that this specific patch for sale even landed on the moon with Shepard and Mitchell. Again from Cernan's book: "All the way to the Moon and back, even on the lunar surface, whenever the crew opened a box, bag or locker, out would float a First Team mission patch." There were patches taped to the LM's bulkheads. However, since the Apollo 14 crew understandably didn't keep track of where each was found on the spacecraft, there's no way of knowing.

The patches were returned to Cernan, Evans, and Engle (who was later replaced with Harrison Schmitt for Apollo 17). A few were soon placed on signed 14"x11" presentation certificates reading "This patch reluctantly carried to the moon on Apollo 14." (I love the addition of the word "reluctantly.)

(There are a lot more details about the flown Apollo 14 backup crew patches, including a video still of Roosa holding one during the mission, on this excellent website.

This patch was presented to Olin Teague (1910-1981), a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 6th congressional district from 1946 - 1978. Throughout the 1960's and early 1970's, Teague chaired the Science Committee's Manned Space Flight Subcommittee, and was one of NASA's biggest supporters in Washington.

On March 9, 1962 he and other members of the committee visited the Marshall Space Flight Center. Here is von Braun explaining a very early Skylab model - Teague is standing to the right of it.

In fact, Teague was so instrumental in NASA's successes that the official name of the visitor center at Johnson Space Center is the Olin E. Teague Visitor Center. Apart from visitor related functions, the building was utilized as a working press area during Space Shuttle missions, and is still a site for press conferences, and a facility for employee gatherings and special events. (Here's a pdf file of a 1981 Space News Roundup, with the main story being about the visitor center named after Teague.)

Teague, not incidentally, enlisted in the Army in 1940, fought on D-Day at Normandy, and became the second most decorated soldier of World War II (after Audie Murphy), with a Silver Star with two clusters, a Bronze Star with two clusters, and two Purple Hearts. He spent two years in Army hospitals recovering from his wounds, and was discharged a colonel in 1946. As Chairman of the House Committee on Veteran's Affairs from 1955 to 1972 he was such a supporter of veterans that even today the VA presents the annual ''Olin E. Teague Award'' for contributions to improving the quality of life of disabled veterans.

Also named for him were the Olin E. Teague Research Center at Texas A&M, and annual awards and scholarships from several organizations involved in space exploration.

Here's another look at the signatures. I'll send high resolution photos of the patch and certificate to interested buyers.

(Because of the nature of the parchment paper used, there has been some uneven discoloration on the certificate. The patch is in excellent condition, but has come loose from the certificate. I could have fixed that in a few seconds with archival-safe adhesive, but I thought that would be something the buyer would want to take care of him- or herself. Perhaps the buyer would rather frame it in a way that the glass is gently holding it in place. However, if the buyer would like me to do the research and get just the right adhesive to reattach it, I will. There is also an mark about 1.5 inches long at the top right, well away from the patch and any writing, that looks as if a drop of water got into the top of the frame it used to be in at some point in the last 40 years.)

Only two of these vintage, backup-crew-signed presentations have been sold at auction in the last ten years or so. The one given to North American Aviation president Bill Bergen sold last month at Heritage for $4,780. I recognize that Bergen must have done a better job of having it framed, as his was brighter and cleaner looking. (Although I will say that the signatures on this one are darker than the faded ones on Bergen's.) Also, that was through an auction house with a massive list of bidders.