Schiff: Astronaut Armstrong ‘a reluctant hero’

Pioneering astronaut Neil Armstrong’s public memorial was held today in Washington, D.C., and the first man to walk on the moon was also honored by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank).

Speaking on the floor of the House of Representatives, Schiff noted he and his son Eli met Armstrong at an event commemorating the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11’s 1969 landing.

“A reluctant hero, Mr. Armstrong never used his Apollo 11 achievement for personal gain,” Schiff said in a statement. “On more than one occasion he questioned his own notoriety, protesting that his walk on the moon was the result of the dedication of more than four hundred thousand people from engineers who designed the Lunar Module to ground controllers who monitored every aspect of the mission, to seamstresses, who stitched by hand the suit that kept him alive on the moon.

“The late 1960s was a time of tumult in America, when our nation was riven by Vietnam, the struggle for civil rights and the emerging women’s movement. In the midst of this, Armstrong’s climb down the lunar module’s ladder and his ‘giant leap for mankind’ united not just Americans, but people of all nations as they watched.”

“That night countless children looked up at the moon and dared to dream.”

-- Bill Kisliuk, Times Community News

Twitter: @bkisliuk