"Splashdown!" Remembered

After a busy September, the Sanford Lions Club settled back into its weekly meeting schedule Oct. 1 at the Lions Fairgrounds with hearty thanks all around to all those who helped make the 2009 Lee Regional Fair a big success on Sept. 15-20.

Club members also were recognized for helping host over one thousand bicyclists and their crews the following week who used the fairgrounds as a night stopover on an annual ride from the mountains to the coast. The club provided a dinner and breakfast for cyclists while the Chamber of Commerce provided bus transportation for those wishing to explore other areas of the city. Lions President Richard Hendley said club members demonstrated their dedication and commitment to both the mission of Lionism and to the community of Sanford in praising all their efforts.

An update on the sick from the club was given and special condolences were paid to the family of Bob Jasany whose mother passed away in Cleveland, Ohio. The club also sent get well wishes to Mrs. Sarah Mann, wife of Tommy Mann, Sr., who has been ill and was a patient at Moore Regional Hospital.

An interesting program on the recovery mission for the Apollo 10 space module from the Pacific Ocean was given by Lion Bill Bradford who served as a helicopter pilot aboard the USS Princeton. With the assistance of grandson Gene Phelps manning the slide projector, Bradford gave fascinating behind the scene details of the 1969 recovery operation that most people only saw on their small television screens at home.

Bradford piloted an SH3 Sea King helicopter similar to Marine One used to transport presidents. They were used as submarine hunters as well as assisting NASA in the recovery of space modules after splashdown in the South Pacific near American Samoa. As pilot on a backup helicopter, Bradford had a front row seat from his cockpit on the helicopter carrier’s top deck. He captured every stage of the recovery mission with his camera from the module’s first sighting to its hoisting aboard the USS Princeton as well as ceremonies welcoming aboard astronauts Thomas B. Stafford, Eugene kA. Cernan and John W. Young. He also displayed many maps, articles and other memorabilia from his experiences working on the NASA assignment.