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Posted: Nov 13, 2023 12:06 PMUpdated: Nov 13, 2023 12:19 PM
Former NASA Administrator Bridenstine Honors Veterans, Elders at Elder Care Anniversary
Nathan Thompson
Honoring our veterans and respecting our elders are important to former NASA Administrator and former Congressman from Oklahoma Jim Bridenstine. He was the guest speaker during Elder Care's 40th anniversary breakfast on Saturday at Tri County Tech's Event Center.
During his remarks, Bridenstine gave a stirring speech — recollecting the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union starting in the 1950s, which led to the Space Race between the two countries.
Bridenstine reflected that the Soviet Union won the initial steps of the Space Race, leaving America scrambling to catch up. Despite public opposition, billions of dollars were spent after President John F. Kennedy made a challenge in 1962.
Bridenstine recounted the numerous failures of the Saturn V rocket that would eventually power humans to the moon. He memorialized astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, who were killed in a tragic fire on the launchpad during Apollo 1 in 1967.
Through trials and tribulations, Bridenstine said America's space program continued and in 1968, three astronauts — Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders — became the first humans to orbit the moon during Apollo 8. Bridenstine said NASA gave the astronauts a directive when they broadcast back to Earth for the first time on Christmas Eve 1968. That command... "Say something profound."
Pilot Anders began the speech with the following words...
Lovell and Borman continued the reading of Genesis 1 for all the world to hear, even behind the Iron Curtain — certainly something profound in the Soviet Union.
Bridenstine said the lessons learned during the Space Race and the trials and tribulations America went through during the Civil Rights Movement and the remainder of the Cold War — built on the foundations that our country knows today. He says programs like Elder Care in Bartlesville build on that heritage and honor those who experienced history.
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