How astronaut Charlie Duke brought the Air Force to the moon – AirForceTimes.com

In 1972, Air Force test pilot Lt. Col. Charlie Duke celebrated the services 25th birthday nearly alone and far from home in unfamiliar territory.

He placed a specially engraved coin on the dusty ground, large and silver and embossed with the Air Force seal, along with other mementos that reminded him of America.

A special salute from me to the United States Air Force on their silver anniversary this year, from one of the boys in blue thats pretty far out right now, said Duke, according to a contemporary transcript.

Duke, an Apollo 16 astronaut, was sending his regards from the moon.

A compilation of photos of an Air Force 25th anniversary commemoration coin that was laid on the moon during Apollo 16 in April 1972, overlaid with the coin's design to show its detail. Space imagery expert Andy Saunders remastered the image of the coin. (NASA/Johnson Space Center/Arizona State University/Andy Saunders)

The Air Force medallion is thought to remain in the same spot 50 years later, as another milestone approaches and the Space Force begins to carry on the Air Forces legacy in the cosmos.

This month marks the 50th anniversary of Apollo 16 the penultimate moon landing by American astronauts in the Apollo era in the same year as the Air Force turns 75.

Andy Saunders, a space hobbyist-turned-NASA imagery expert, is unveiling new high-resolution photos from Dukes visit to coincide with Apollo 16s half-century anniversary. They are part of his forthcoming book of restored NASA images, Apollo Remastered, due out in September.

A lot of the images of these incredibly historic moments are actually really poorly represented, even on NASAs website, Saunders recently told Air Force Times.

Charlie Duke, a retired Air Force brigadier general and Apollo 16 astronaut, participates in a memorial service for renowned aviator Chuck Yeager in Charleston, West Virginia, Jan. 15, 2021. Yeager died Dec. 7, 2020 at age 97. (Edwin Wriston/Army National Guard)

Photos from the Apollo missions were taken on analog film, which can make images too grainy when enlarged online. To create crisp remastered images, Saunders takes extremely high-resolution scans of that film which NASA stores in a freezer in Houston then layers the images with frames from the originals to make the details pop.

Duke, now 86, was the 10th of just 12 astronauts to set foot on the moon, and the youngest to do so at age 36. He piloted the lunar module on Apollo 16 and served in supporting roles on four other Apollo missions.

It was a tremendously exciting adventure, Duke told Air Force Times in an April 13 interview.

He is a 1957 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, where he fell in love not with ships, but with airplanes. His few rides in the N3N-3 Yellow Peril biplane at Annapolis sparked a desire to fly, and he transferred into the Air Force to begin flight school.

This commemorative medallion was taken to the moon by U.S. Air Force Col. Charles M. Duke Jr., lunar module pilot for the Apollo 16 mission. A second, duplicate coin was left at the Descartes moon site by Duke in commemoration of the silver anniversary of the Air Force. This medallion was presented to the Air Force July 13, 1972, by Duke. (Ty Greenlees/Air Force)

Duke completed his first solo flight in late September 1957, getting one step closer to his goal of becoming a fighter pilot. But the space race was about to catch up with him.

Less than a month later on Oct. 4, 1957 the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the worlds first artificial satellite in space.

The United States created NASA two years later and picked the first American astronauts. At the time, Duke was serving in the 526th Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Germanys Ramstein Air Base. He hadnt yet begun to dream about a new kind of flight.

Then in 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space; the U.S. followed by launching Navy Cmdr. Alan Shepard on his own suborbital flight. President John F. Kennedy followed up that achievement by announcing the plan to put an American on the moon by the end of 1969.

A duplicate of this commemorative medallion was taken to the moon by Col. Charles Duke, lunar module pilot for the Apollo 16 mission. He left it at the Descartes moon site on April 20, 1972. (Ty Greenlees/Air Force)

Duke met astronauts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology while studying for his masters degree in aeronautics. Their enthusiasm convinced him to pursue a spot as a military test pilot the breeding ground for many astronauts of that era.

He took on the challenge as part of Class 64-C, or 64-Charlie, and graduated in 1965. Col. Chuck Yeager, the first man to break the sound barrier and head of the Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School at the time, encouraged Duke to stay on as an instructor pilot.

When NASA put out a call for new astronauts, Duke found that he fit the bill. NASA selected him as part of its fifth group of 19 astronauts in 1966.

The 12 men who formed Class 64-C had particularly good luck with the jump to spaceflight: four headed to space and three visited the moon, Duke said. So they created a souvenir a piece of spacesuit fabric with 64-C scrawled on it that would travel with them as a reminder of where they started.

The 64-Charlie little beta cloth made it on a number of flights, Duke said, including to the moon and as part of the space shuttle program.

An image of a piece of spacesuit material with "64-C" written on it in honor of Apollo 16 astronaut Charlie Duke's class at the Air Force test pilot school. (NASA/Johnson Space Center/Arizona State University/Andy Saunders)

When it came time for Apollo 16 in April 1972, Duke realized that year marked the 25th anniversary of the Air Forces founding. He was slated to be the only Air Force officer to fly into space that year, too.

I got hold of the Air Force up at the Pentagon and started talking to the chief of staffs office, Duke recalled. I said, I want to do a Happy birthday, U.S. Air Force while Im on the moon, and they thought that was a great idea.

Apollo 16 launched on April 16, 1972; its three-man crew touched down at the moons Descartes highlands four days later on April 20. It would prove to be the United States second-to-last moon landing of the first space race.

NASA notes that Navy Cmdr. John Young, the mission commander, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Ken Mattingly and Duke drove more than 16 miles over three moonwalks on the Lunar Roving Vehicle and collected more than 200 pounds of rock and soil samples in their 71 hours on the surface.

An image of a family photo that Apollo 16 astronaut and Air Force Lt. Col. Charlie Duke left on the moon in April 1972. (NASA/Johnson Space Center/Arizona State University/Andy Saunders)

Duke left tokens behind as well.

In advance of his trip, the Air Force had minted two silver coins with its official seal to commemorate the services 25th anniversary. Duke took both to the moon, plus the 64-Charlie cloth, a miniature Air Force flag and a snapshot of his family.

Hey, Tony, he said to the spacecraft communicator in Houston from the moon, according to a NASA transcript of the mission. Is Stu [Roosa] around? Tell him 64-Charlie just topped the Mount Whitney event.

He laid one coin and the family photograph on the moons surface, where they likely remain today.

You can see exactly where it landed and then bounced, Saunders said of the coin that remains on the moon. You see a huge amount of detail in the photographs.

An image of an Air Force 25th anniversary celebration coin on the moon during the Apollo 16 mission. (NASA/Johnson Space Center/Arizona State University/Andy Saunders)

Saunders noted that radiation from space would have crinkled up and faded the picture, but he plans to send a small copy of the photo back to the moon in a more resilient capsule on a commercial lunar mission at the end of the year.

Duke brought the other coin, the flag and a moon rock back to the Air Force. Those items now reside in the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.

Though Duke took a picture of the test pilot class memento in space, he said he doesnt recall whether he left it there.

Saunders believes the cloth is still on the surface, though likely not in its original spot because of its lighter weight. He expects the coin will last millions of years, however, even with micrometeorite strikes.

Space imaging expert Andy Saunders plans to send a small copy of Charlie Duke's family photo back to the moon in a more resilient capsule on a commercial lunar mission at the end of 2022. (Courtesy of Andy Saunders)

No one knows exactly where the artifacts are, but they are thought to sit near where the lunar module was parked, he added.

It certainly brings it alive with the definition that these pictures have, Duke said. To be the only Air Force officer to have a chance to say happy birthday from the moon was very, very special for me.

The airman-turned-astronaut spent about two decades on active duty and reached the rank of colonel before joining the Air Force Reserve in 1976. He worked in training and recruiting and flew T-38s before retiring near the 30-year mark as a brigadier general.

He has logged almost 266 hours in space and 4,150 hours in aircraft.

Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Charlie Duke, Apollo 16 astronaut and 10th person to walk on the moon, climbs into a 560th Flying Training Squadron T-38 Talon before an incentive flight Feb. 19, 2015, at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas. (Airman 1st Class Alexandria Slade/Air Force)

Duke is also known for serving as the spacecraft communicator, or CAPCOM, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin planted the first human footsteps on the moon during Apollo 11 in 1969.

He prepared for his own possible trip to the moon as part of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission in 1970, but was famously sidelined from the backup crew when he caught the measles from his son.

It all worked out, Duke said. Mattingly came back on our [Apollo 16] crew and we became good friends and worked really wonderfully together.

As the United States prepares to return to the moon and beyond, Duke is excited for what he sees as a natural next step in space exploration.

Veteran journalist Nick Clooney, seated with back to camera, moderated a panel discussion with Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, far right, Charlie Duke of Apollo 16, John Grunsfeld of the Hubble mission, not seen, and Goddard Space Flight Center Deputy Director Laurie Leshin July 20, 2009, at the Newseum in Washington as part of the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. (Bill Ingalls/NASA)

He believes the commercial spaceflight boom will lead to a division of roles: NASA can focus on deep space exploration with its Artemis missions to the moon and then to Mars, while private companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin can handle military, civilian and tourist work closer to Earth.

I see a lot of big cooperation with near space and Im very excited about the commercialization of space, he said. Its going to result in, I think, some really, really big breakthroughs.

When Duke looks at the moon now, he sees his own object reached with a sense of satisfaction and pride.

A small-town boy from South Carolina getting to go to the moon was never even a dream of mine, he said. Yet it happened.

Rachel Cohen joined Air Force Times as senior reporter in March 2021. Her work has appeared in Air Force Magazine, Inside Defense, Inside Health Policy, the Frederick News-Post (Md.), the Washington Post, and others.

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