Nevadans recall their roles in first lunar landing

Sunday, July 18, 1999 | 2:43 a.m.

"We were a relay-communication vessel. We transferred the messages from the moon," said Anderson of Reno.

"I was in the honor guard detail that greeted Marine One, the helicopter that brought President Nixon aboard to greet the astronauts when they landed."

Anderson met Nixon and ate cheeseburgers with him. He also questioned the president about politics, women in the military and the health of Sen. Ted Kennedy, recently involved in a car accident at Chappaquiddick.

"He didn't seem comfortable with that," the former Reno talk-show host said.

"Shows you how innocent I was then. I didn't hesitate to ask the commander-in-chief about anything."

Anderson is among the Nevadans who have a piece of moon-landing history to call their own.

Some northern Nevadans met astronauts when the pilots came to Stead for survival training. Other residents were close to the action in 1969 or had something to do with the program that sent men to the moon.

"I worked making space suits for NASA at Litton Industries at the Space Science Center on Beverly Hills," said Dewey Jay, 75, of Gardnerville. "It was very exciting seeing the results of our work.

"I felt close to history. I wish I could live it again." Yerington native William Manha worked as an engineer on the final assembly-and-system checkout for the Apollo program.

"I watched the landing on TV and I was in awe," the 59-year-old said. "But the landing wasn't all of it. I was afraid until they got back on Earth."

Today, Manha is working on the NASA space-shuttle program in Texas. His daughter, Elizabeth Barker, works with data from the Hubble Space Telescope. Son Anthony, who watched the landing as a toddler, lives in Reno.

"We all remember the landing as a time when the world's human spirit was uplifted," the elder Manha said.

Bob Oakes was in the Air Force in Florida when Apollo XI left the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center. He and his fiancDee planned their wedding for July 25 and wanted to see the historic launch as well.

The public had to stand well back from the site and watch through binoculars.

"I thought we were too far away," said Oakes, who lives in Reno. "Then when it went up, it was like we were standing right underneath it.

Tom Darby of Spanish Springs was celebrating his ninth birthday, but had little interest in his own party. His uncle built rockets for Rockwell International and he was glued to the TV.

"All I wanted to do was watch them on the moon," he said. "I was so tickled."

His next-door neighbor, a man in his 90s, came out on the street with a pair of binoculars. "He thought he'd be able to see the lunar lander," Darby said. "He was dying to see the men on the moon."

Anderson, who was aboard the U.S.S. Arlington for the flights of four Apollo missions, went back to his regular job of helping decode the secrets of the Vietnam War that were sent to his ship. He said he'll never forget his part in history or meeting a president.

"I'm a liberal Democrat, was one even then, but I still got goose bumps when the president's helicopter landed on deck," he said. "It was an honor.

"And it was exciting to have a part in history, to be there when John F. Kennedy's promise came true - to send men to the moon and land them safely home before the decade was out."