"I wish I could describe the
feeling of euphoria I felt.
It was the greatest feeling in the world."
Apollo 8 Commander Frank Borman
Capt. Fiefield had the ship maneuvered to where the SEALS and the space capsule were located. Before we got there, the Yorktown helicopter brought the astronauts right to the flight deck. The door opened to the "helo" and there they were. It looked like they had practiced for that moment of glory because one stepped down a bit, and they all held their hands up to wave at the Yorktown sailors and the world via live television. Photo officer Lt. George Jackson is visible in the bottom picture (wearing a white officers hat) as is PH2 Milt Putnam and PH1 John Starkey.
"WE COME IN PEACE!"
It seemed to me that our astronauts had practiced how they would greet the tv
cameras sending their image out to the entire world.
HS 4 air crewman peeks around Astronaut Major Anders from inside "Old 66"
helicopter.
Aboard the recovery carrier USS Yorktown, Apollo 8's Lovell, then Navy captain said he was glad to be back with sailors at the sea again. "I've been living with two Air Force man for the past week," he jibed, "and it's great to be aboard."
Anders said he, too, was happy to be at sea in the Pacific, "but to tell you the truth, I was just hoping we'd hit any ocean."
"And he," cracked Lovell, "was the navigator."
The pinnacle of aviation meets the wooden
flight deck of the WW2 era US Navy
Astronaut Borman, with our Captain Fifield holding the
microphone,
as the flight deck crew in their red shirts, yellow shirts, green shirts and white
uniforms watched and listened;
all of us
standing on the wooden flight deck of our USS Yorktown
