At everything he ever attempted, professionally, he was the best of the best – and what he attempted, what he achieved, should’ve humbled every American in his wide wake.
He flew into space four times. The last mission – Apollo 13 – nearly cost him his life, but really, he could’ve easily been killed countless times during his career in the skies and beyond. Like the time he was in the first crew to ride the Saturn rocket, or during the two Gemini missions before that. He could’ve lost his life during many experiments as a top-shelf Navy test pilot, or on dozens and dozens of occasions before that while landing a night fighter on an aircraft carrier. At night, naturally.
He was among the first three people to go to the moon; in fact, the Distinguished Flying Cross recipient journeyed to the moon twice – and remains the only astronaut to do so, but to have never walked on it. A painful irony for him, surely, but perhaps fittingly.. as he seemed to belong above it all, Earth or moon.
Jim Lovell died today at age 97. He survived his wife Marilyn by two years; they were married for seventy-one. I’m not sure if there has been a man born who outmatched Lovell in the combination of intelligence, skill, mental and physical toughness, and most of all courage. That Lovell reached for the stars was and is no surprise, for he was no ordinary mortal. Hero? The man was almost a god.
This one’s for you, Capt. Lovell.
