posted 07-08-2021 11:20 AM               

The U.S. Postal Service will be at the Armstrong Air & Space Museum on Tuesday, July 20, 2021 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. to cancel the Armstrong Air & Space Museum's "The Year of the Frogmen" covers. There is no word yet whether there will be a pictorial postmark in use.

The covers will be available via the museum's gift shop for $2 each.

posted 07-08-2021 06:00 PM               

Pictured below are just a few signed Apollo 11 splashdown related postal covers. As it turns out, I did have a Navy-cachet Hornet at-sea cover that has already been autographed by the four frogmen. Signing the official rubber stamp cachet cover was Clancy Hattleberg (signing as Clancy H.), the first frogman to reach the Apollo 11 crew in their command module spacecraft, Wes Chesser, Mike G. Mallory, and John M. Wolfram, all of the US Navy Apollo recovery team.

Other signed recovery covers featured are signed by the prime ship's captain, the air bosses of the two prime Navy pickup helicopter flights, and an air force colonel heading the DDMS for Apollo 11's return from the moon back to Earth.

There are a few flown/carried covers that had been aboard the helicopter support operations, signed by the flight crews, with the frogmen included. Perhaps some of those can be shown later on.

The last cover shown, at bottom right, is for the opening of the Armstrong Air & Space Museum at Wapakoneta, Ohio, on July 20, 1972. Since this cover topic pertains to the Armstrong museum in the first astronaut-moonwalker's hometown that he grew up in, I thought it would be appropriate to include this particular signed cover. It has been autographed by then-Governor of Ohio, John Gilligan, and special guest ceremony speaker Tricia Nixon-Cox, daughter of the late President during the Apollo lunar landings. It was her father that made the famous telephone call to the moon from the White House on July 20th and was aboard the USS Hornet to personally greet the returning lunar astronaut crew.

posted 07-08-2021 06:08 PM               

According to the festival schedule, the four frogmen will be taking part in meet and greet sessions in downtown Wapakoneta on July 16 and then do the same at the Armstrong Air & Space Museum on July 17 and July 18. They will attend the gala at Neil Armstrong Airport on July 17 and the start of the Run to the Moon 5K/10K on July 18.

The covers will be released on July 20. It is not clear if all four frogmen will still be in Wapakoneta, but according to the museum:

Frogman Mike Mallory will be giving a presentation at 2:00 p.m. on the 20th for guests to enjoy as well!

posted 07-09-2021 10:52 AM               

Another cover with a hand cancel signed on the back by the four frogmen.

And finally a cover signed by both the ship's Commanding Officer and Executive Officer.

posted 07-22-2021 12:03 AM               

On the 16th, all four frogmen were in downtown Wapakoneta in a hospitality tent at the intersection of Willipie St. and Auglaize St. After being introduced by the emcee, each individually spoke without a prepared script or visual presentation. They shared many stories about the Apollo 11 recovery, training exercises, and time spent in the military (Vietnam War).

Questions were asked on the fly and each took turns building off of (or correcting) what the others remembered about what happened, in a very light-hearted joking manner. You could tell this was the first time they had all been back together in the same place in a long time and wanted to give each other a "hard time."

After the stories and questions finished, each person was encouraged to step up to the front and have an item signed by all four. For those not bringing an item there were free printed photo collages or a color postcard of the recovery.

Each person was limited to two signed items, which were all to be inscribed "To". About 50 people attended but was hard to know really as many passers-by stopped in only for a few minutes and did not sit down for the full duration.

On the 20th, a representative from the USPS office in Wapakoneta was inside at the entrance to the museum from 11am to 1pm. He did not have a pictorial cancellation for this event, just the standard date stamp device found at the postal counter. Once you purchased the frogman cachet envelopes pre-stamped from the gift shop at $2 each, he would cancel them for you while you waited. He also cancelled other items if you brought them in.

If you visit the museum I suspect they will have some extras as they still have them for sale from past years (I saw July 20th covers from 2019 and 2020 for sale in the gift shop).

Only Mike Mallory was there at the museum at 2pm and gave a pre-prepared PowerPoint presentation. It was one photo per slide with a description which covered the topics of training exercises and the Apollo 10 and Apollo 11 recoveries in which he participated. He introduced each photo, told stories, and answered questions afterwards.

posted 07-22-2021 10:02 AM               

One of the most interesting things Mike said when asked "who was the first astronaut out of the capsule" into the rafts. He mentioned that they (the Frogmen) did not know until just recently that it was Neil Armstrong. He elaborated that since it was a somewhat rough sea and only the eyes were visible through the biological isolation garments it was not something they focused on knowing at the time.

He also mentioned that they were left out on the capsule for a significant amount of time afterwards in the ocean to further protect Nixon and the ship's crew from possible biological hazards. After the astronauts were hoisted into the helicopter, they cut and sank the rafts as well.

His description of how they eventually got on board the Hornet by climbing up a cargo net next to the where the galley dumped its waste water was amazing to hear. The frogmen were quite literally in a chum bucket of food scraps, ready made for the sharks.

The Apollo 10/11 "hippie flower" sticker story was also one of my favorites.

posted 07-22-2021 08:58 PM               

It goes to show or help support what I have always been told by others on the USS Hornet that the recovery team and other ship personnel did in fact acquire some of the Kapton for themselves as harmless personal souvenirs of man's first lunar landing mission.

posted 07-23-2021 12:17 PM               

Fifty-two years after recovering the Apollo 11 astronauts and capsule, the four Navy frogmen who took part in the historic mission reunited for the first time.

The men visited the Armstrong Air and Space Museum to meet the public and talk about that day, July 24th, 1969. The reunion was part of the Summer Moon Festival, in Neil Armstrong’s hometown of Wapakoneta, Ohio.

It also marked the first time that all of Clancy Hatleberg, Wes Chesser, Mike Mallory and John Wolfram have been together since 1969. In this WKYC Studio digital video, the group talks about the training, sharks, souvenirs, and hippie flowers on wetsuits.