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Astronauts, famed pilots salute troops

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — The men who were the first and the last to walk on the moon, the astronaut who immortalized the words “Houston, we’ve had a problem,” the only Air Force flying “ace” in the Vietnam War and the test pilot who took the Blackbird on its maiden flight — all together, all mugging for the camera with troops.

Neil Armstrong, Gene Cernan, Jim Lovell, Steve Ritchie and Robert Gilliland had come here to kick off an eight-day tour of bases in Germany, Turkey and deployed locations in U.S. Central Command.

They spoke with and signed autographs for wounded service members at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center as well as troops waiting for flights at the USO in Ramstein’s terminal.

A Navy pilot before he joined NASA, Armstrong, 79, has tried to avoid the spotlight since he took those historic first steps on the moon. He declined to be interviewed by an Air Force Times reporter, too, but graciously spoke to each soldier, airman, Marine or sailor who asked for a picture or just wanted to know what it was like to stand on another celestial body.

“He doesn’t do many of these anymore, but when I asked him if he wanted to be a part of this, he didn’t hesitate because he wanted to reach out to the troops,” said Mike Whalen, a friend of Armstrong’s and a partner of Morale Entertainment Foundation, which organized the Legends of Aerospace Tour.

Cernan, the 12th and last man to walk on the moon, said he jumped at the opportunity to join the tour. The Navy pilot didn’t fly in Vietnam because he joined the space program instead.

“Vietnam was my war and I didn’t get to fight in it because all my buddies got their tails shot off, and I got my picture in the newspaper because I went to the moon,” he said. “And that’s something that has always bothered me, and maybe that’s why I wanted to come over here so much.”

Between pictures and autographs, Lovell, 81, and Cernan, 75, talked about the future of the U.S. space program.

Both criticized President Obama for wanting to cancel the Constellation program, which would return an American to the moon by 2020, and they urged Congress to reject the commander in chief’s request.

“We will go back to the moon not withstanding our president and his outlook for the future and future of space,” Cernan said. “Under the president’s proposed budget, it is a mission to nowhere.”

Manned space flight is essential, they said, particularly in light of the space advances of other nations such as China.

Lovell said he appreciates the concerns about expensive government programs, but he pointed to the advances brought about by the space race between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union — from electronic communication to ready-to-eat foods.

“The investment that we have made in the space program has a lot of intangible and tangible benefits that we sometimes forget,” he said.

The former military pilots also weighed in on military aviation’s transition from manned aircraft to unmanned aerial vehicles.

Ritchie, 67, shot down five MiG-21s in 1972 to earn the distinction of the Air Force’s last fighter pilot “ace.” He described the fifth-generation fighters — the F-22 and F-35 — as a “quantum leap” in avionics.

“I just wish I could be part of one of those programs,” said Ritchie, who flew an F-4 Phantom when he shot down the MiGs.

The retired brigadier general gave a nod to the rise of remotely piloted aircraft and the advantages that drones can offer, including pilot safety and long dwell times, but he said, “We can’t discount the importance of having that human brain inside the cockpit.”

Lovell noted the Navy has followed the Air Force’s lead in placing a premium on adding to its RPA fleet.

“I guess in the Air Force more people are going through training to be UAV pilots instead of pilot pilots,” he said. “And the Navy is going that way, too, to some degree.”

Cernan said the transfer of more and more pilots from the air to the ground has hurt morale.

“A lot of young aviators are wondering how long we are going to be in the cockpit,” he said.

Cernan used himself as an example of why young pilots and airmen should stay positive. He never imagined he would travel through space.

“I walked on the moon,” he said. “Tell me what you can’t do.”

It’s the military’s next generation that Lovell, Cernan and Ritchie agreed they look forward to meeting on their tour. While their accomplishments have received worldwide attention, they stressed that every service member makes an important contribution.

“These are the real heroes these days, not us,” Lovell said.