On October 31, 1969, Harold O'Connor, manager of the Merritt Island
Wildlife Refuge, watches a 10-foot-long alligator inch its way toward a busy
highway at the Kennedy Space Center. O'Connor, aided by assistant Jerome
Carroll, not shown, guided the large gator to safety in a nearby pond, several
miles south of the Vehicle Assembly Building, in background. It is the opinion of the author that this is the alligator that delayed him in making a delivery for President Richard Nixon and inspiring the "award." (NASA image KSC-69P-0819 via NASA on the
Commons/Flickr)
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Contributing Writer
In modest contrast with the many international accolades the Apollo 11 crew received, I was the only person in the world, to my knowledge, who received an Apollo 11 “Order of the Gator" award. By way of background, as their Apollo/Saturn V space vehicle lifted off, its four hold-down arms retracted, slamming into heavy wooden blocks that lessened their impact. Someone, somewhere, thought it would be a good idea to make a gavel from a section of one of these blocks for President Richard Nixon. I was assigned to pick up this block at the Launch Control Center and drive it a few miles to Cape Canaveral’s airstrip, where a plane was waiting to fly it somewhere.
But on the way to the LCC, I saw several vehicles, including a tow-truck, parked by a roadside. I stopped and quickly found out that a car had struck a large alligator that was still alive, but immobile—and probably unhappy about the unwanted attention. After determining that a wildlife expert was supervising the effort to tie a line to its tail to tow it safely into the nearby woods, I called for a photographer, so that I could send a follow-up news release to local media about this encounter.
And five months later at my company’s Christmas party, a co-worker, unexpectedly, called me to a podium. He gave me a plaque with the inscription–the “Order of the Gator.” It included an attached stuffed baby caiman, a little brother of the alligator family. My co-worker had composed a poem about my caring about the injured alligator. During the rescue activity, I completely forgot about my mission to get a small section of a hold-down arm’s wooden block and a not-so-pleasant message boomed over a police car’s radio, asking where the guy with the block was. So I got back on track, picked up the wood and delivered it to the Cape’s airstrip, but I never heard if the president received this unique gavel.
The "Order of the Gator" award. (Courtesy of Steve Milner) |
This exhibit also features lunar rocks, a recreated Apollo command module and the actual telephone Nixon used to call Armstrong and Aldrin on the lunar surface—among other items. I also checked the library’s sales store, hoping it sold Apollo 11 gavel recreations. However, the closest Apollo 11 items it sold included a commemorative half dollar, moon rock candy and a mission ball cap. So a half-century later, the mystery of Nixon’s Apollo 11 gavel continues.
Editor's Note: In addition to serving as public affairs officer for 17 years at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Steve Milner was also a public affairs contractor with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at Cape Canaveral during the manned Gemini, Apollo and Skylab programs.
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