stsmithva
Member Posts: 1933
From: Fairfax, VA, USA
Registered: Feb 2007
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posted 10-27-2012 06:49 AM
   
Here are two First Day of Issue covers for the "In the Beginning" Earthrise stamp, both with Apollo 8 cachets. One is signed by Commander Frank Borman and Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell. The other is signed by Lunar Module Pilot Bill Anders (as "Anders") and by the entire crew of "Old 66", the SH-3D recovery helicopter from Helicopter Antisubmarine Squadron Four that picked the crew up from the spacecraft after splashdown. They were pilot (and commanding officer) CDR Don Jones (later Vice Admiral Jones), LCDR Carl Frank, AWC Novel L. Wood and AW2 James B. Dorsey. Here is a USS Yorktown history web page listing that crew. Jones was also the pilot when "Old 66" picked up the crew of Apollo 11, with Chief Wood also repeating his role.  These two covers are great on their own, but they would make a wonderful display framed with perhaps photos of the launch and Earthrise, and then also a photo of the recovery. This one, for example , shows the Apollo 8 crew beaming as they step out of the helicopter, inside of which one of its crewmember's face is clearly visible. This one doesn't show a crewmember, but it is in color. I've never seen anything else signed by the full SH-3D crew. A cover signed only by Anders (who took the photo shown on the Earthrise stamp) sold just a few months ago for $435. A cover signed by all three Apollo 8 crew members sold at auction less than a year ago for $2,031; but they were all on one cover and it was from another astronaut's collection. A unique and attractive set of Apollo 8 autographs that tells a larger part of the mission's story than "just" the astronauts' signatures. $550, payable in two monthly installments. |
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