posted 03-03-2011 06:57 PM               

But when the A&E Television Network rebroadcast an edited version of NBC's Apollo 11 coverage in July 1989, I didn't hear what I expected as the astronauts were exiting the helicopter. It took many years and the discovery of more footage (notably ABC's Apollo 11 footage, as rebroadcast on PBS in 1994), but most of it is now available online, and since the transmissions from Hornet were a pool broadcast, both versions pretty much corroborate each other. (Both were edited for rebroadcast in 1989 and 1994; ABC's has a little more sequential fidelity, but both versions still match at key points during the post-landing sequences).

What follows is a link-intensive guide, an attempt to get a definitive version of the Apollo 11 recovery's musical accompaniment, that has come after much investigation.

In this segment, notice what happens at 5:25 into the clip. As the first astronaut is picked up by the helicopter, the band begins playing "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean." ABC pool correspondent Keith McBee mentions Nixon is applauding as the band plays the song. At 6:17 into the clip, McBee says, "We understand that President Nixon asked the band to play 'Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean.'" (This, incidentally, is immediately followed by NBC pool correspondent Ron Nessen's comments about the "Hail Columbia!" greeting on the belly of the recovery helicopter.)

The band is not heard to play again until the helicopter lands aboard Hornet with the astronauts aboard. At 8:50 in this segment, McBee mentions that the band is starting to play again and that there would probably be a musical salute. No one seems to respond to any music, and you can only hear the band sort of warming up as "Old 66" is shutting down. At 9:21, you finally hear a song: "Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder," and there is applause and a great deal of amusement that the Navy is providing an interservice salute. At 10:50, it segues into "This is My Country," which concludes in the next clip as the helicopter reaches the hangar deck. The band then plays "God Bless America" at about 1:55 into this clip, as the plane handlers prepare the helicopter for towing back to the MQF in Hangar Bay Two.

But what about that music as the astronauts get out of the helicopter? The song starts at 4:27, and isn't "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean," but the similarly titled "Hail Columbia." The astronauts step out of the helicopter at 5:37 as "Hail Columbia" is about to segue into a high-octane "My Country 'Tis of Thee" (which you can't hear as well in that clip due to an after-the-fact overdub of Chet Huntley, but you can hear it clearly at 4:02 in this clip). This song ends after the MQF door closes. As the helicopter is towed away, at 7:15, the band begins playing Sousa's "Hands Across the Sea." This continues, and can be heard in the background during CBS pool correspondent Dallas Townsend's interview with the crew of the recovery helicopter.

Given the similarities to the names "Columbia, The Gem of the Ocean" and "Hail Columbia," and given that memory tends to blur events, it's easy to understand. As McBee's comment during the recovery points out, the request from President Nixon was indeed made. But did the band misinterpret the President's request and start playing "Columbia" as the astronauts got into the helicopter instead of saving it for later? Did the band play it earlier since plans dictated the President couldn't be on the hangar deck when the astronauts got out of the helicopter? Or did the President made the request without giving a specific time for the band to carry it out? (It doesn't seem to have mattered to the President, either way; as the footage shows, Nixon was jubilant through the recovery and applauded as the band played.)