Reply To: Role Models

[Natasha Belle]

Another interesting set of posts. My heroes were people who seemed ordinary but achieved remarkable things. As a tech-head Alan Turing and Ada Lovelace impressed me, my Maternal Grandmother was a willing participant in The Battle of Cable Street and fined 10/- for hitting a Policeman who was trying to arrest the person next to her, the paperwork is still in the family. My Grandfather was a socialist all his life and my Gran was his second wife, it took 18 months to get a divorce. During WW2 he rapidly barred white USAAF airmen from his pub due to ongoing problems, when he passed there were dozens of cards from those he’d kept in touch with.
Finally Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin but not for Apollo 11 – Buzz worked out how people could move around and work in space helped by his love of diving. Neil was on Gemini 8 when everything went wrong and they were being thrown about close to blacking out. He regained control without his heartbeat rising more than a few BPM, re-entering very short on fuel he managed to get down safely a very long way from pickup. That ability got him the Moon Landing slot.