I was able to see Neil Armstrong speak at Oshkosh for the 25th Anniversary of the moon landings when I was there in 1994, and they had the following astronauts there:
It was bloody awesome! They had it in the outdoor pavilion, on a warm summer night, and they just had no format and went round-table and told stories! (The ones about Frank Borman's "gas problem" in Gemini really hit my funny bone!)
But the part of that really made it wonderful was, as we listened in the growing darkness in that open-sided pavilion near the runway right after the sun went down, a huge roar rose up...as we all in unison turned to look, a Concorde took off in full afterburner, sharp cones of blue flame exiting the back of each engine!
En masse, the entire audience turned and looked back to the runway right in the middle of one of the astronauts on stage who was spinning a yarn.
I can't remember which astronaut it was, but I recall him saying "Go ahead! Turn around and look! All of us up here on the stage are looking too!"
These men, who had all flown in space, and had a gazillion hours flying all kinds of aircraft including the hottest kind, were at heart, just like us...aviation enthusiasts whose hearts still, even after all they had seen and done, beat just a little quicker at the sight of four meaty flame-thrusting, ear-splitting jet engines!
If you have ever seen the movie "Master and Commander" there is the following dialogue spoken by Russell Crowe (Captain Jack Aubrey) as he recounts the two times in his life he had spoken to Admiral Nelson:
I felt that I had something very fundamental in common with those great men up on that stage, and sure, it was a degree of hero worship, but...I am not ashamed of it...:)
My buddy and I had the opportunity to try to converse with Gen. Yeager as we stood waiting for something, but...it was obvious he wasn't interested in chatting. A couple of brief attempts where he looked away with just a grunt, and we understood and left it at that. I thought at the time he was cold and rude, but over the years, I have come to understand that in his life as a celebrity (not something he deliberately sought out or liked) he simply didnt want to talk to people. He wasn't being a deliberate jerk. I accept he just wanted his privacy.
Now, speaking to Bob Hoover...that was a man who enjoyed shooting the breeze! We spent about 15 min with him, and was he ever an affable gentleman!
Great story, thanks for putting it up.
I’ve known one or two highly accomplished men; deep down, under the layers of armor they’ve built up to be able to deal with responsibility and pressure, they’re still motivated by the things that excited them as children.
I’ve no doubt this is true of the great pilots and astronauts you listed.
What a great story! :-)
Cool. I used to see Pappy Boyington at airshows. He was also very affable. I mostly listened, since I was a shy boy, but I sometimes chatted a bit with him.