Fifty Years ago today, the Apollo crew of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, And Michael Collins made their way to our Moon, with Armstrong and Aldrin completing a successful (if harrowing) landing on the lunar surface. While Armstrong has taken a much more permanent cosmic journey in prior years, Aldrin and Collins are still around, and publicly eschew the the trappings of the title “Hero”.
With much respect, I say they are dead wrong. All of the Apollo crews were calm, dedicated, focused, and intensely brave to do what they did. They are and were indeed heroes.
To be sure, there have been many flavors of heroes before and after Apollo 11, and with the new Artemis initiative at NASA, we will need these sorts of fine people again, and very soon.
Ad Astra to Heroes, Past, Present, and Future!