Moon landing

Dear Editor:Every time I see one of the moon hoax letters I have to laugh at the "I refuse to acknowledge the truth" attitude which permeates these doubting Thomas's. ("Moon Hoax," Letters to the Editor, 8/15/13) I was alive and listening in 1969 at 2 p.m. on AFVN radio to the Apollo 11 landing while serving as a river rat in Vietnam on that day. It was a deep blue, cloudless sky along the South Vietnam coast over the South China Sea with a silhouette of about 2/3 of a bright golden moon at 4 o'clock in the sky that afternoon over there. Mr. Mike Sandoval is a regular contributor to the "letters" section. While I find his dogged misbelieving of the truth these 40-plus years a waste of time and energy, I have to wonder how much good he might have done with all that misguided energy if he had used his brain to investigate the truth and actual facts before continually spouting off on the old standard "moon hoax" nonsense. I am not surprised at those who whine and complain about things without verifying any information. I, myself, followed the whole space program beginning with Russia's first satellite Sputnik and ours, the Echo, and the first man in space, Russia's Yuri Gargarin and our Alan Shepherd was second. I followed each program from Mercury to Gemini to Apollo to the space shuttles with the eager excitement of a youngster, teenager and a young adult and now older adult. I hope Mr. Sandoval can find some peace of mind with this information and finally enjoy the fact that we, the United States of America, really were on the moon on numerous occasions. It was an amazing scientific feat complete with failures and heartache along the way. I hope Mr. Sandoval and I can in the future enjoy this incredible accomplishment together on the same page when the anniversaries come around. P.S. The International Space Station is real too. Rolf Olsen Downey

********** Published: Sept. 5, 2013 - Volume 12 - Issue 21