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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Ms. Cynthia Brzostowski

While Dad was stationed on Guam in support of the Air Force bombing campaign during the Vietnam war, we thought we were pretty well isolated from main-stream America. Guam did, however, have one of the NASA tracking stations in support of the Apollo missions. This was in the days before routine satellite communication. My class made a field trip to the station before the Apollo 11 mission and I was one of the lucky ones to get a souvenir computer data printout. Ironically, one of the engineer's daughters was in my group of Astronaut Candidate interviewees a few years ago...
After their mission, the Apollo 11 crew made a world tour which included a stop at Agana. Fortunately for me, once again, my class was included in a field trip to the airport to greet the crew. I vividly remember the crew exiting their aircraft and each boarding their own individual caribou cart and standing in them as they passed one after the other through the crowd of school children. I remember thinking that rickety caribou cart looked like a pretty precarious ride but of course I am sure the crew thought they had seen worse. As Neil's cart, which was in the lead, passed by me, I reached up and was amazed that Neil reached down and shook my hand. You can imagine the thrill it gave me as an eleven year old boy with nascent dreams of becoming an astronaut. I remember holding his hand tight, not wanting to let go of the moment. How can I let go of that dream now?
Matt Brzostowski, Ph.D., CFII, MEI, CFIG