This "World's Highest Merit Award" plaque, dated July 31, 1969, was presented to Neil Armstrong by the GPS Foundation of the Philippines. The plaque commends Armstrong on behalf of the Philippine people for his "matchless courage" as Commander of Apollo 11, the first mission to put astronauts on the Moon. While astronauts frequently recieved honors from around the world, this plaque is unique in that it also recognizes the "300,000 dedicated, unsung men and women who invented, fabricated, tested, and assembled the Apollo 11 hardware, who tracked and guided the flight of its intrepid crew on their journey to the moon and brought them back safely to earth."
Prior to joining NASA, Armstrong served as a naval aviator during the Korean War, flying 78 combat missions. After graduating with a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from Purdue University in 1955, Armstrong became a test pilot for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA, the forerunner to NASA) and flew over 200 different models of aircraft, including the X-15. Armstrong was selected for NASA’s astronaut corps in 1962 as part of the second class selection, and first flew in space as commander of Gemini VIII in 1966.
Shortly after his historic Apollo 11 mission in 1969, Armstrong earned an M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Southern California, and when he left NASA in 1971, he taught at the University of Cincinnati for eight years. In 1986, he was appointed by President Reagan as the Vice-Chairman of the Rogers Commission investigating the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. In his later life, he served on several corporate boards and high-level advisory committees.
Carol Armstrong and the Armstrong family loaned the plaque to the Museum in 2014.
This object is not on display at the National Air and Space Museum. It is either on loan or in storage.