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Former Navy frogman helped recover Apollo 11 astronauts after moon trip

John Wolfram is touring the country and telling his tales on the 50-year-anniversary of the first manned moon mission.

NORFOLK, Va. — After Neil Armstrong's "one small step for man" on the moon, 50 years ago this summer, the astronauts still had to get back safely to Earth.

That's where former Navy frogman John Wolfram comes in.

"I saw a documentary in junior high school about Navy frogmen," he said. "And that's what I wanted to do. I wasn't going to college, and I knew I'd be drafted, so I joined the Navy. I asked the recruiter if I could be a frogman. He said 'sure, son. Sign right here.'"

Little did the then 18-year-old Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin native know where that decision would lead him.

Two years later, after the 1969 moon landing, when the space capsule of astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins splashed down in the Pacific, it fell to Navy underwater demolition team frogmen to make sure the moon men didn't drown.

"I was a sea anchorman which meant I got to jump in the water first, by myself, swim up to the capsule and attach a little parachute," said Wolfram, who was the first person on Earth to greet the returning heroes. If any actual words were spoken, he doesn't remember them.

"When I looked in the hatch, they had to give me a hand signal that they were ok," he said. "And I gave one to the helicopter above to let NASA know they were alright then."

Now 70-years-old, Wolfram has written a book, Splashdown: The Rescue of a Navy Frogman. It tells not only the moon tale, but stories of his own sometimes dark journey in the years immediately after.

"I was depressed, high on drugs in a hotel room," said the two-time Vietnam War veteran. "Almost took my life. I had a gun to my head, and I heard a little voice from God."

Now an ordained minister living in Georgia, Wolfram will tell his story this Sunday at 10 a.m. at Norfolk Apostolic Church on Azalea Garden Road.

The documentary, "Apollo 11" is showing Sunday at 6 p.m. and Monday at 5:20 p.m. at the Naro Expanded Cinema on Colley Avenue in Norfolk.

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