Apollo 11 Recovery July 24, 1969

This is a photo essay showing materials related to the Project Apollo Mission Recovery Team, Task Force 130. My mother, Evelyne Dolores Farmer, was employed by the U.S. Navy in Hawaii, from Fall 1968 through the summer of 1969. She was the personal secretary to the Commanding Officer of the Project Apollo Recovery Task Force in the Pacific. The Pacific task force recovered all the Apollo missions that went to the moon, including Apollo 8, Apollo 10, and Apollo 11. My mother worked in a classified facility known as "Kunia Tunnel," an extensive underground communications and control center for the military services in Hawaii. She was responsible for formatting and typing the extensive operations orders for the recovery effort, which included contingencies for nearly any occurrence. After the Apollo 10 mission in April 1969, and the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969, our family was privileged to see the actual command modules, in a hangar on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor. The visit to the Apollo 11 command module was within a day or two after it was cleared from quarantine after returning to Earth and recovery by the aircraft carrier USS Hornet. The command module looked like a very toasty Hershey's Kiss candy, with burned gold foil and other covering material, after surviving the fiery reentry into the Earth's atmosphere. This all made quite an impression on my two younger brothers and me, then aged 14, 11, and 10. Presented here are images of the Apollo 10 command module, along with first issue covers from the Pacific and Atlantic recovery ships for Apollo 11, and some logos and insiginia from Task Force 130. If you have any information or comments to share, please contact me. In the mean time, please enjoy the photos. You may view them as a slide show or indexed list. Men from Earth, by Buzz Aldrin and Malcolm McConnell Here is more information about Project Apollo and USS Hornet. This web site is dedicated to my father and mother.

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