Photo by MELANIE L. BENFIELD
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Joe Dowdy, NASA's Kennedy Space Center's Special Operations Manager, presented a presentation to Pine Ridge Middle School recently. Dowdy talked about the space programs past, present and future. Melanie Benfield/Special to the Naples Daily News
NAPLES — Nearly 40 years ago, 5-year-old, Col. Joe Dowdy sat in front of a black and white television, mesmerized as he watched Neil Armstrong become the first man to walk on the moon. Today, Dowdy works to promote the excitement he felt that day in the lives of youngsters across America.
Now retired from the U.S. Marine Corps and currently serving as Special Operations Manager at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Dowdy addressed Pine Ridge Middle School students in Sharon Baines science class this week, presenting a video history of the space program.
Dowdy grew up in Little Rock, Ark, during America’s race to space in the 1960s. He recalls gathering with his family to watch every launch.
“We were challenged by a young president - John Fitzgerald Kennedy - to place a man on the moon by the end of that decade ...” said Dowdy. “The decade was the 1960s.”
Dowdy went on to explain that Kennedy would not live to see that challenge met in his lifetime. He questioned the students, “Were those our best days? Was that the best that we could ever do as a people? If they were, we are going to cease to be a great nation.”
During the video presentation, Dowdy took students on an historical tour starting in the 1960s. They observed the original Mercury 7, the first steps in outer space, the Gemini Program, the Apollo Program and its first crew, Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin, in July 1969, and the Space Shuttle missions which began in April 1981.
Students also watched a video of the International Space Station, the Mars Rover Landings and pictures taken from space of hurricanes and wildfires on Earth.
Dowdy said he has traveled throughout the world during his career with the Marines, to places such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Beirut, Somalia and Panama. He added he had visited places that, in their own time, had been great countries and empires; places such as Rome, Cairo, Athens, Madrid and London. He said, today, these countries celebrate what they once were rather than what they are now.
Dowdy challenged the students to ensure that America’s best days as are still ahead and encouraged students to take stock in the future of NASA. He outlined the Constellation Program, promoting an American quest to go back to the moon and then onto Mars.
“We are going to fly our first rocket in this program, this summer, from the Kennedy Space Center,” Dowdy said. “It is called Ares One.”
By the time the program launches Ares Five, he said one of the students in the classroom could be aboard.
“The first person — man or woman — to step on the surface of Mars could be sitting in this room,” he said. “The future is here — you are part of it. Go forth and do great things!”
This year, NASA will celebrate its 50th birthday. Dowdy said that landmark should be celebrated nationally, not just in Florida.
“For your generation, the new world awaits,” he said. “We are going to the moon and then on to Mars. You are the men and women — your generation — will do that.”
Contact Melanie Benfield at melbenfield@embarqmail.com.
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