re: Former Apollo astronaut Walt Cunningham dead at the age of 90

On a personal note, losing Walt hurts. I spoke to Walt last week. He said he was feeling okay, but to me he was sounding weak, but we had a good conversation about the Artemis program, about his wife, Dot, (who he adored) and his utter disdain for Democrat politics especially concerning global climate change. His birthday and my youngest son's birthday are the same. Every year for the last five years, Walt would call up and wish my boy a happy birthday, and we'd wish Walt one, too. He had multiple long conversations with my son, and I credit Walt with encouraging my son's interest in physics and engineering.

Sharing a friendship with a real American hero was one of life's privileges. I looked up to Walt, a lot. It took a lot of guts to be among the first 3 men to strap into an Apollo launch after 3 of their friends died in a fire on Apollo 1. Had they failed in their mission, the whole space program would have been set back a decade or more. We affectionately just referred to him as "Colonel".

I wish I could tell you more. He was funny, brave, kind and affable. The world lost a good soul.