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Astronaut Al Worden's Distinguished Service Medal


uniformcollector
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uniformcollector

I was fortunate to pick up astronaut Al Worden's Air Force Distinguished Service Medal recently. It is engraved slightly angled and off center which is very surprising given the fact that it was awarded upon his return from Apollo 15. His wings and citation are also included, but unfortunately, his other awards went elsewhere.

 

Here is his bio courtesy of Britannica. A really incredible man!

 

Worden graduated in 1955 from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, and he earned M.S. degrees in astronautical and aeronautical engineering and in instrumentation engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1963. He was a U.S. Air Force pilot and a commercial test pilot before joining the space program in 1966.

 

During the Apollo 15 mission, he orbited the Moon while commander David Scott and lunar module pilot James Irwin descended to the Moon’s surface. On the return trip, Worden took a space walk—at what was then the record distance from Earth for such activity, about 315,000 km (196,000 miles)—retrieving cassettes containing films of the Moon from the rear of a subsatellite that they had sent into orbit two days previously.

 

After serving at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, from 1972 to 1975, Worden resigned from the Air Force and the space program to enter private enterprises in Colorado and Florida. He wrote a book of poetry, Hello Earth—Greetings from Endeavour (1974), and a children’s book, I Want to Know About a Flight to the Moon (1974). Falling to Earth: An Apollo 15 Astronaut’s Journey (2011; written with Francis French) is a memoir. Worden passed away in 2020 at the age of 88.

 

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T Ambrosini

Very nice!  I had the privilege of talking to him briefly at the Kennedy Space Center a number of years ago.  We were in line at a concession and he was in front of me.  We started to chat and he had some interesting perspectives about his trip to the Moon:

 

- Space travel had some moments of excitement...  Take-off and landing.  The rest is pretty boring, routine stuff.  You look out the tiny window and see stars.  Hours later you look out the window and see the same stars.

- He was very happy to remain in the Command Module in orbit while the others went to the lunar surface.  He really liked the extra space inside the cockpit!

- While tethered to the CM doing an EVA ("spacewalking") it hit him....  He was staring at the Moon and Earth and was on neither of them.

 

Talk about an extraordinary life!

Tom

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uniformcollector

Thanks Tom, that must have been a great experience! One of these days I'll have to get a copy of his book, seems like he had some amazing stories.

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cagedfalcon

Very nice!
I felt privileged to have this but to have something personal....outstanding! f772384ac279c52f529021bf0a8be643.jpgc6405302100487a4e142c4ed76c668ab.jpg3e18d8dd0ac0f0480444bffbf53226e5.jpg1091a725cf05d8c7218c7ee028354fe2.jpg

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

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manayunkman

No such thing as routine when your flying thousands of miles an hour in a tiny box in the vacuum of space.

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That's an absolutely superb medal, and congratulations on adding it to your collection!

I was going for his NASA DSM, but was left in the dust during the bidding... 

worden nasa dsm 2.jpg

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uniformcollector

 

10 hours ago, cagedfalcon said:

Very nice!
I felt privileged to have this but to have something personal....outstanding! f772384ac279c52f529021bf0a8be643.jpgc6405302100487a4e142c4ed76c668ab.jpg3e18d8dd0ac0f0480444bffbf53226e5.jpg1091a725cf05d8c7218c7ee028354fe2.jpg

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk
 

 

What a great piece! Looking at that photo, it will always be incredible that we managed to get twelve people on the moon with much less technology in their spacecrafts than in early versions of the iPhone. 

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uniformcollector
1 hour ago, Dave said:

That's an absolutely superb medal, and congratulations on adding it to your collection!

I was going for his NASA DSM, but was left in the dust during the bidding... 

worden nasa dsm 2.jpg

 

Thanks Dave, there was definitely quite a bit of interest in that one! I was surprised that even his unissued NASA DSM sold for $3,670 in a later auction. Hoping to get this one over to the Michigan Heroes Museum where most of Worden's other military items are.

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Glad to see that Al Worden's medal is in good hands.

 

I also had the honor of meeting Al Worden a couple of years ago at Spacefest.  He was a very friendly man who was happy to share his experiences with us. 

 

In case you are interested in astronauts and space, there is an (usually) annual gathering of astros, space workers and fans in Tucson, AZ called Spacefest.  This year's show is coming up fast, July 16-18. 

 https://www.spacefest.info/astronauts

I won't be able to make it this year, but have had a great time the 3 or 4 times I was able to go.  

 

Mikie 

Al Worden.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...
uniformcollector

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 15's launch--one of the most scientifically important Apollo missions and one where Worden performed the very first spacewalk in deep space. I've since been able to add his Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School pin and certificate (the latter is singed by the school's commandant, a Colonel by the name of Chuck Yeager). 

 

 

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