Music Monday: The Who – “I Can See For Miles” triggered by an astronaut Alan Shepard memory
Posted By RichC on May 10, 2021
The Who was never at the top of my music listening list, but like all who grew up in the 1960-70’s era, we all knew the music. This past Wednesday was the 60th anniversary of Alan Shepard‘s flight into space and as a boy who grew up mesmerized by our NASA space program (still am) and the pilots who once flew military jets and experimental planes were tested for “the right stuff” to become astronauts. Many in this elite group left the earth’s atmosphere on the top of very risky early rockets and some eventually walked on the moon; Shepard, Glenn, Armstrong and others were looked up to by me and most boys my age.
In later years I enjoyed the freedom of flight and building experimental airplanes, so the boyhood dream “sort of” came true for me as well. Then in the late 1990s, I had the same experience as Alan Shepard. I too was struck with Meniere’s Disease and the random attacks of vertigo which impacted my flight medical certification and ability to safely pilot an airplane. Thankfully, I eventually found someone who was trained to do the same surgery that Alan Shepard had for his Menieres in 1964 (a questionable procedure today). His positive recovery had him returning to space-ready and commanding Apollo 14 and a mission to the moon’s lunar highlands … making him the older person to walk on the moon. The story of him returning to space was portrayed in the HBO miniseries “From Earth to the Moon” in Episode 9, “For Miles and Miles” … hence today’s Music Monday YouTube music video.
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