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Author
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Topic: Location of Apollo 8 post-flight plaque
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LM-12
Member Posts: 3208
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 01-15-2014 09:01 PM
  
Where is this Apollo 8 plaque located?
On this spot Apollo 8 Astronauts Colonel Frank Borman Captain James Lovell & Lt Colonel William Anders first touched Earth at 14:37:35 after their historic manned flight around the Moon 28 December 1968  |
cfreeze79
Member Posts: 455
From: Herndon, VA, USA
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted 01-19-2014 04:12 PM
I'd wager it would be on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. Just a guess, though. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3208
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 01-20-2014 05:20 AM
I think you might be right.My first guess was on the deck of the USS Yorktown when they stepped off the helicopter, but that would have been December 27. The following day, the Apollo 8 crew was flown from the Yorktown to Hickam Air Force Base on Oahu. The Yorktown, with the command module onboard, arrived in Hawaii on December 29. The USS Yorktown is now a museum in Charleston, South Carolina.
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ea757grrl
Member Posts: 729
From: South Carolina
Registered: Jul 2006
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posted 01-20-2014 07:19 AM
The moment may be seen in the special report contained here. (This was the first take of two on this special report, by the way, but the film contained therein is the same.)For the record, the aircraft from which they disembarked at Hickam was a C-1 Trader, BuNo 136775 (RW-775), operated by VR-30. From many visits to Yorktown over the years, there has never been any marker I've seen commemorating where the astronauts disemarked from the helicopter; much of the flight deck has been replaced with a concrete-like material as the wood beneath the non-skid has deteriorated, but even back when most of the original flight deck surface remained I never saw any markers there, or anywhere else aboard the ship. I could be wrong, but I never saw anything other than in exhibits here and there. |
cfreeze79
Member Posts: 455
From: Herndon, VA, USA
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted 01-20-2014 09:15 PM
According to Bullet Background Paper on December Historical Events in PACAF: 27 December 1968: The first men to circle the moon – Apollo 8 astronauts, Air Force Colonel Frank Borman, Navy Captain James A. Lovell Jr., and Air Force Major William A. Anders, splashed down at 10:51 a.m., approximately 1,000 miles southwest of Hawaii, thus concluding its historic lunar orbit mission. The crew arrived at Hickam AFB on 28 December 1968, en route to the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas. They received a large and festive welcome (including leis, grass-skirted hula girls, and many high-ranking civilian and military officials among the some 10,000 persons on hand to greet them) as they set foot on American soil for the first time since their liftoff from Florida. 28 May 1969: Colonel Frank Borman, Apollo 8 Command Pilot, returned to Hickam for a ceremony dedicating a plaque located where he and his crew first stepped onto American soil following their historic moon-circling flight in December 1968. That leads me to the "at Hickam AFB in Hawaii" conclusion. Another forum concurs with this assessment. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3208
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 01-22-2014 04:50 PM
The schedule of activity for the Apollo 8 crew on December 28 included this:1120 Two COD aircraft depart YORKTOWN; scheduled to arrive Hickam Air Force Base at 1430W.The schedule is included in the "Apollo 8 Recovery Post-Mission Report" submitted by the Commanding Officer of the USS Yorktown. |
ea757grrl
Member Posts: 729
From: South Carolina
Registered: Jul 2006
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posted 01-22-2014 08:44 PM
As it happens, if you go to that video link up above, going a few installments earlier in the series will show you raw footage of the crew's fly-off from Yorktown once they were within range of Hickam. Interesting stuff. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3208
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 01-23-2014 12:11 AM
Interesting indeed. Thank you both for the info and links. |
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