Jim Lovell’s Wisconsin Connection with Chris Henry (Hour 1)

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From the Civic Media World Headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, it's the Todd Alba Show.

And now, pursuing truth wherever it may lead, here's your host, Todd Alba.

across Wisconsin on the Civic Media radio network and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Todd Alba, along with Mr. Aaron Zommers, our producer and engineer back on the board.

It is six past the hour of two o'clock on this Tuesday, August 12th, 2025.

It is a great day to be Wisconsinite.

Welcome, everybody.

Glad to have you along the world headquarters of Civic Media in downtown Madison.

High clouds right now.

Sun trying to peek through.

Great to have you along.

Zommer is welcome back for a well-earned couple of days off.

How are you?

Doing well.

You know, it's good to be back.

It was great to have some time up north with the family out in the great outdoors.

Very good.

Our G's hit me a little bit, and I'm still a little woozy because Benadryl is a hell of a drug.

That's right.

Zavers is loopy on Benadryl today.

Just a little bit.

Well, it's good to have you back.

Glad to have you along and glad you got a little time away again.

Many thanks to Parker Olson for doing Yeoman's work and filling in.

Doing a great job.

Always glad to have Parker along.

You can hear Parker every morning along with Mr. Pat Critell on the Pat Critell Up North Morning Show.

No, it's morning's a pack quite low every morning from six until nine.

So happy to have Parker with us last couple days and Zommer is glad to have you back at the helm.

Always good to have you here.

Big show today coming up at the bottom of the hour.

We're going to talk about the legacy and the history of Jim Lovell, of course, the great astronaut who passed away last week.

We announced that happened just before we went on the air last week.

Chris Henry, the

EAA museum director who I believe was our friend Jane McNair show when we did our shows up there at the EAA a couple three weeks ago.

Chris Henry is going to be here talking about the history, the life and times and legacy of Jim Lovell and his connection to NASA, the EAA and the great state of Wisconsin.

That's later on this hour.

And also in the second hour, a what's worse for you emotional edition, getting emotional, closed off.

or enthusiastically open.

What's worse, we'll ask you that in hour number two.

And State Senator Kelder Royce, but a few weeks since she's been here after the state budget was passed and signed into law, of course, she's a member of the Joint Finance Committee.

She's going to be here back on the show talking about nurses and a new bill that was signed into law by Governor Tony Evers.

But of course, he did not necessarily get on board with that early on.

And Senator Royce was one of those who really advanced the cause for nurses and allowing nurses, nurses, nurses to be able to practice in a wider, in a wider way.

We'll leave it at that for right now.

And Senator Royce will be here to expand on that.

What it means for nurses, what it means for people looking for nursing care across the state of Wisconsin.

So that's coming up in hour number two as well.

Little sports for you though, first.

The Milwaukee Brewers the red hot I mean, I don't care was a red hot anymore the white hot Milwaukee Brewers one again last night Ten in a row now for the crew as they beat Pittsburgh last night the Pirates what a game watched it last night on fan duel and had the the radio on on the Brewers radio network as well and The Brewers get another win

Last night, as you said, 10 in a row.

And now they're going to go for number 11 later on this evening.

You can hear the game coming up tonight.

The Brewer is taking on Milwaukee.

The Brewer is taking on the Pirates 605 for the pregame show.

first pitch around 635 from Ampham Field.

You can hear that game on WRCE and Richland Center, WISS in Oshkosh, WRJN in Racine Kenosha, and WCQM up beautiful Park Falls and our new Brewer affiliate in the Northwoods, Buzz of the North, WBZH up in Hayward.

The Brewer is 10-0, by the way, since Pat Murphy, Tike, took a bite of his pocket pancake.

and that came out in DC.

Heard a cut this morning from broadcaster Jeff Levering and was asked about Jason Wilde, this whole mystique of now the late great Bob Euker.

And Levering told this great story, I can't tell as well as he did, but when he had that call over the weekend on Collins Walk Off Home Run, Isaac Collins Home Run,

He just I would tease I'm doing radio because he goes back for three radio and TV is I'm in the radio booth I'm doing radio and I looked at my right where you could have been and and right above Grindel There's you picture picture and Grindel I guess pointed and just said what about that guy?

The magic of you you magic they're called it in Milwaukee Brewers continue to win now six and a half games ahead of Chicago

the Cubs in the National League Central, so great things continue to happen for the Brewers.

You can hear it across many of these stations again.

Pre-game show is 605 on the Brewers Radio Network.

From Green Bay, the Packers, of course, not having a great game, but more concerning news today.

Breaking a couple of hours ago and joining us via telephone from Lambo our great sports reporter Mike Clemens Mike appreciate you taking a few minutes to join us on this on this news out of Green Bay I think by any stretch of imagination anybody objectively watching that game over the weekend that preseason game look I don't care about scores necessarily a winner loss the pregame, but just looking at it.

It was sloppy

LaFleur said the same thing, but Mike, you have brand new news for us this afternoon, something much more concerning for the starting quarterback, Jordan Love.

Yeah, how you doing?

We had no indications of this.

The game was sloppy.

Jordan Love came and talked to us after his two offensive drives Saturday night.

And then we had a practice session that was closed to the public, just media only.

And we watched Jordan out there for almost an hour and a half.

It was helmets and shorts.

but um... uh... you know they were they were running high-speed and they were trying to correct some of the mistakes they made in saturday nights thirty ten lost to the jets and this morning that at about nine little after nine o'clock we had a press conference with brian goodie kissy came and make an announcement usually you know he does things like he talks about what's the things the scouting staff or something said uh... okay well listen uh...

george's got a thumb injury uh... and so we've got to have surgery and uh... so he'll be out a couple weeks or so any questions

i mean just very nonchalant the starting quarterbacks having surgery is so many questions

so i've looked it up here Todd and it was on the second drive that they had was about an eight play drive and you know none of the offensive units that were in there through three or four different quarterbacks

really got anything going that one touchdown run a game uh... but they had penalties you know it there were and so did this drive was getting dragged out uh... the jets players came to play and they were punching and you know after the whistle at the guy named michael clements no no relation that called for unnecessary roughness and then on a uh... third in four jordan get backs up to pass and he gets that and he comes back up in

well you know we didn't notice anything as i said watch them all to practice yesterday except one guy did say you know i had looked like he's using his right hand a lot for some of the handoffs so he jacked is it the thumb on his left hand his right-handed passer they were looking at again yesterday afternoon he kind of want to see how bad it was in practice and obviously was not responding so i believe i'm you know i'm i can't confirm this

he's in los angeles this morning getting surgery on a ligament now they say they think he'll be out there sometime after next week wednesday maybe he could participate in drills but that the fact of the matter is you know the preseason is now three games about five six weeks of practices the key practices that the the four key days to get ready for september seven when you host the Detroit Lions

is this past saturday night against the jets then we're driving down tomorrow to indianapolis because on thursday it'll be the packers in the cult in a joint practice and the difference between joint practice preseason games preseason games are on tv anybody can see him a joint practice you're out there and it's a little bit more confidential and so these teams tend to throw in more of the alerts and adjustments you know looks sort of the tricky things that they'll do on game day

and so that's what it's valuable to these players to be challenged like that you're not just going to run the straight play you're going to also do as they they call them little wrinkles in the play and that's what jordan's missing out on this joint practice on this thursday then if he was going to get any stamps on saturday against the cult uh... and then another joint practice when the seahawks come here to town and a game after that so uh... this is a real setback to get that whole offense

in rhythm with their number one quarterback.

I mean, you and I were talking just last week about how everybody is excited.

And I still think there's a lot of reason to be excited.

But to your point, Mike, we're talking about Mike Clemens, our sports reporter from Green Bay on this news that Jordan Love is having surgery on his hand.

I'll be out at least the preseason here thus far.

The announcement by Brian Gudekunds today.

Mike, to your point, though, it's about rhythm, right?

And one of the things that continues to impress me in your great reporting that we get every hour from Lambeau Field, boy, Matthew Golden not only seems to have the physical ability to perform, but this kid just came in with the right attitude.

It seems like to me, is that the sense you get from being there on the ground?

Humble,

very humble, learning, but it's just the raw talent, Todd.

And there's a reason that they took him in the first round because of the speed.

Good hands.

Good hand-eye coordination.

And it seems to be a quick learner.

He's all about the football.

And they just keep on finding ways.

They started them out with some short slant passes.

And when he got the ball, turned around, one day there was a nickel, a cornerback, and a safety there.

He gave them one move and blew past all three of them.

Then you could see the coaches looking and smiling, right?

so then like that in the next couple days all right let's test them deep so he goes one-on-one well no one can catch him with his speed like four three in the in the four years or so they're laughing and and journal of cd more accurate now with the deep ball than ever before we're talking fifty-yard passes downfield and i think that in the next but i'm sure next test the next test if the kid over the middle right in traffic and that's where he's pick continues to shine so yeah he's the lead dog in terms of receivers

Meanwhile, Romeo Dobbs was having a really good camp until today when he was only about out for a pass collided with the safety Evan Williams and Dobbs went down and I watched him get helped walk off the field and then he crouched down by the Gatorade stand just bent over mouth hanging out.

Oh, geez.

He wears that guardian cap that protection on the helmet.

You know, he had two concussions last year.

I still haven't heard what the official word is on it, but

You know, like, oh my gosh, did he have another concussion?

We won't find out for another day or so.

Right, right.

Well, that's also unfortunately very insightful for us Packer fans up there getting that on the ground reporting.

I was gonna say earlier, Mike, if there is any hope in this, is that the injury, the hand injury of love is on the left hand.

So not the throwing hand at least.

I mean, I know that's not ideal, but at least it's better than the throwing hand.

The good news

is, you know, Daniel Whealon, the punter, he's doing fine.

i mean the puncher sixty-odd

I get the point Mike I get the point I picked a bad day to stop sniffing glue in the words of Leslie Nielsen from airplane All right, well Mike I can't appreciate I can't thank you enough for coming on the show give us this News even though it's not the news that we had hoped I know you're gonna continue to update listeners of our show in civic media with your great reporting on the progress of Jordan Love and all the is the Packers and In the meanwhile, we got the crew down in Milwaukee

going for 11 in the road tonight.

Outstanding, isn't it?

Yeah, it really is.

It's a lot of fun.

Mike, thanks so much for taking the time.

Have a great day, my friend.

You bet, Todd.

Mike Clemens, everybody, our sports reporter.

We'll come back with more after this on the all ball show across Wisconsin.

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Welcome back to the Taliban show on the civic media radio network 22 now past the hour of two o'clock on a Tuesday, August 12th, 2025.

Glad to have you along.

Many thanks to Mike Clemens, our great sports reporter for bringing us like that late breaking news, even though something we didn't want to hear in case you didn't hear a few moments ago.

Brian Gudakun's GM of Green Bay, announcing nonchalantly, according to Mike Clemens.

Uh, yeah, Jordan loves having the little hand surgery.

on his left non-throwing hand out for the preseason at this point.

We'll show, we shall see.

Best wishes to Jordan Love and hopefully you can get back soon.

But to Mike's point, you miss out on those preseason games, those joint practice games.

You're really trying to work out some of that strategy, some of those real game situations against the different opponents.

So we'll continue to follow that.

Want to get to this and update on the severe flooding?

that happened in the Milwaukee area, not just Milwaukee, but the southeast Wisconsin, those historic rains, bringing the latest this courtesy of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

And I think this is important to remember after the storms leave, there's still a lot left to do.

And our friend and colleague, Jane McNair of McNair on air, very transparent this morning on her program with Greg Bach, talking about that.

Jane and her husband had about I think she had five five and a half six inches of clean water in her basement But still lots of scrubbing and sanitizing to do there She said that her furnace happened to be up on blocks So they didn't lose their power or air condition and that sort of thing But still a lot for for people like Jane to go through to have a water in your house like that Trying to get it up and out and sanitize to make sure that no mold or anything grows

Again, we continue to send our thoughts our prayers good vibes out to to Jane and everybody else in our Company and our listing area that was affected by that But there are people that haven't even worse than that and Jane acknowledged that and talked about that this morning Want to bring you an update now this courtesy of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Though some residents have regained power since early morning thunderstorms today

By the way, another round of thunderstorms went through that area this morning.

There are still nearly 20,000, 19,839 to be exact.

We energy customers remained without power as of about an hour ago.

A majority of the impacted customers were in Milwaukee County.

The number of Milwaukee customers without power nearly unchanged since earlier today, despite other counties seeing power almost fully restored.

This is at least a partial breakdown by county as of an hour ago who don't have power in Milwaukee County.

14,000 plus without power, Waukesha County, 4,500 Ozaki County.

773 Washington 281 Kenosha 24 and then it goes into one or two a single digit numbers after that But our hearts remain with these people that were trying to clean up From the flooding and then their power goes out this morning for additional people.

So certainly thinking of them also an update from the Journal Sentinel Governor Tony Evers declaring a state of emergency yesterday from Milwaukee residents Although they are still not eligible

for federal disaster relief aid.

Several more conditions must be met before the Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA can potentially help presidents.

Namely, President Donald Trump must declare a disaster to trigger a federal response and allow agencies like FEMA to step in and allocate resources.

As of noon today, so a couple of hours ago,

As of noon today, FEMA had not received any requests for federal assistance, according to a FEMA Region 5 spokesman telling the Journal Sentinel.

Governors can request the president make a federal disaster declaration, which in turn clears the way for FEMA to provide aid.

Quote, FEMA, through our regional offices in Chicago, has been closely monitoring the impacts of the recent Milwaukee area flooding.

The spokesperson of FEMA said, quote, we remain in close contact with state officials who in support of local emergency management officials are currently handling the response to this event, unquote.

Again, it's a little unclear as has, I mean, Tony Evers has declared the state of emergency, but has he sent a letter to Donald Trump, to the president?

And also how about our.

Republican members of Congress, US Senator Ron Johnson.

How about Congressman Stile?

How about Congressman Glenn Grossman?

Again, in these situations, in my opinion, we should put partisan politics aside and say, let's just get it done for the people of Wisconsin.

So.

It seems to be a little political chicken the egg going on now these governor evers has declared the state of emergency our own Corey Hartman was reporting yesterday on this show that the governor had also or at least Farrell the accounting executive in walkie-shock County had also declared an emergency in walkie-shock County And I believe the governor then went ahead and extended that state of emergency to walkie-shock County as well but

Again, let's drop the partisan politics.

Let's just help the people of Wisconsin.

And also, due to the weekend's thousand year flood event, permits for overnight and daytime parking will not be required in Shorewood until August 18th.

The Shorewood Police Department lifted restrictions yesterday.

According to the department, alternate side parking still required on applicable streets.

A lot permits still apply.

The department asks residents to follow all parking signs.

So that's for for shorewood in southeast Wisconsin.

I know for the rest of the statewide listeners are kind of like, well, this doesn't really apply to me.

But look, we're trying to do our little part.

I know to be a UK.

Well, listen to station, not just in Milwaukee, but in Brookwood and Menominee or Brookfield, Miami Falls, a walk in Shaw County, all these.

And so this affects a lot of our listeners.

And I think at times like these, we need to take a few minutes to just help out the local folks in that area.

So we're going to continue to monitor this.

Our news department will bring you more information as well.

It's Pam Yankee, Farm Report.

Midwest Farm Report is next.

And then when we come back, we're going to talk about the life and times and the legacy of astronaut Jim Lovell in the state of Wisconsin.

Don't go anywhere.

It's the All Ball Show.

From Superior to Milwaukee, Green Bay to Prairie to Sheen on the Civic Media.

Ready and welcome back to the tunnel ball show on the civic media ready network now 35 minutes past the hour of two o'clock the uncanny music there from Apollo 13 of course the Ron Howard film starring Tom Hanks Glad to have you along.

Thank you Zombers for that We're gonna stop and pause reflect here on on this Tuesday August 12th.

We were on the air last Friday when news came of the death of Jim Lovell the great NASA astronaut

And when it came across, we were going to do a segment with our own Mike Clemens, who was on earlier today talking sports, as he does, our sports reporter.

He said, put me on.

Put you on now if you want to have a great Jim Lovell story.

And it turned out that he had actually interviewed along with our own Jane McNair.

McNair on air had interviewed Jim Lovell down in Milwaukee back in the day.

So it was great having Mike along and to continue to talk more in depth about the legacy and the print that.

James Lovell left on the state of Wisconsin and aviation in particular, live from Oshkosh, Wisconsin and the EAA Museum, the director of the EAA Museum, Chris Henry.

Chris, welcome back to the show.

And thanks for taking time once again for us.

Oh, absolutely.

It's a pleasure to be here, even though it's under these circumstances.

Yeah, absolutely.

And look, Lovell lived a full life.

That was in 97, I believe, at his death last week.

So, you know, certainly had a full life, but.

You know, never, never easily lose people that we really admire, look up to, and in particular people that left such a large and positive imprint on the state of Wisconsin.

Before we get to Level of Life, again, we were just up there with Jane and Greg and I about a month ago-ish or so, right before the EAA.

Give us a quick update, Chris.

How did the EAA air event go for y'all?

Oh, it went amazing.

We ended up with over 700,000 people.

over 10,000 airplanes.

The weather was, you know, really great.

We had a, I think we had one day where we got a little bit of rain.

I mean, it was a little bit of rainy afternoon.

A couple days were some heat, but nothing too crazy.

My favorite thing was the, it was a hot day for us, but I had somebody from Texas with us who thought that it was cool.

And they said, oh, this is nothing, you know, but really just a great event.

And it really is,

like a family reunion.

You see people that are your friends that you only see this time of year and you seek each other out during that week.

It's like, I know you're here somewhere and even if it's just having a quick bite to eat or even just something to drink together on the ground, something like an iced tea, just that few minutes of camaraderie kind of recharges your airplane battery here, if you will.

It gets you all fired up again to go back to work and continue going.

doing everything we can to preserve aviation history and get more people interested in it.

But over 700,000 people, that was a big number.

We were really, really excited about that.

Well, congratulations again to you and everybody else up there on just such a great event.

And again, thank you very much for allowing Jane and Greg and I to come up and broadcast there in your beautiful facility in the EAA Museum.

I would encourage everybody across the state who's listening.

If you haven't been there, there's still some summer left.

And even if it's not summer, take time to go and visit this great museum because you're going to learn, yes, a lot about Wisconsin aviation, but there's a lot of American history there.

And you all do such a great job of presenting that.

and I would just encourage everybody to check it out.

Let's change gears a little bit.

We're talking with Chris Henry, EAA Museum Director in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

And Chris, I know for many of us, you think of Jim Lovell, you think of Apollo 13.

It is a great NASA career.

And of course, the Tom Hanks and Ron Howard movie.

But maybe some of us, a little bit lesser, don't quite fully understand.

There's a great Wisconsin connection to Jim Lovell as well.

There is and it's a he spent a lot of his time growing up in Wisconsin As a matter of fact, there's a really good EAA story to this too, which Always cracked me up was so Jim Lovell went on to become a naval aviator now he flew fighters aircraft like the Banshee and These airplanes had something called a tea tail so the tail the horizontal Stabilizer on the aircraft is kind of up high so you can't really see it sure

And it was a winter in Wisconsin, like we get here.

And he had made sure all the ice was clear off his aircraft.

He was getting ready to go flying, but he couldn't see the tea tail, and he forgot about it.

And as he was getting ready to do the pre-flight on the airplane, a tanker had been refueling aircraft, taxied by, and shut down, and the guy got out, and he said, hey, you couldn't see it, but there's a lot of ice on the top of that tail.

and Jim Lovell later said, you know, that saved my life, because I tried to fly the airplane like that, I wouldn't have been able to climb.

And it was years later that he discovered it was Paul Poberezny, our founder, that was the tanker pilot the tax he'd buy and saw it and stopped him from going.

So there

was a really good EAA tie to it,

but he was also a very proud Wisconsinite here as well.

So a lot of time spent in

Wisconsin.

Just one of those things, right, where...

I mean, had he not got that information, I mean, God forbid who knows how history would have been changed.

And one small act of kindness can literally change the course of history for America and for the space program.

And I don't think it's overstated to say the world.

many regards.

It absolutely would have had a ripple effect through spaceflight history for sure.

Yeah, absolutely.

Did you ever have a chance to meet him in your time at the EAA?

I did.

I actually had a chance to spend a good bit of quality time with him.

I hosted him on a few different occasions thanks to

You know, the first one I did was I did an event specifically on Apollo 13 for the air show at Theater in the Woods, which is like the big amphitheater that we do evening programs in.

And I can remember sending an invite.

And I remember just being nervous when I sent an email invite that Jim Lovell might read this, you know.

And Mary, who was his assistant and really, really fantastic person as well.

I heard from her first and she said, Captain Love will be joining you guys.

I remember immediately feeling relieved that he said yes and then nervous that he said yes.

And I'm like, oh my gosh, we have this guy.

And before he ever came up here, he was a hero of mine.

I mean, I had watched the movie and I had read the book.

And I just remember thinking before I was on staff here, boy, I'd love to just meet him one

day.

And I never thought that I'd have the chance to sort of work with them on a project.

And he came up with the Apollo 13 reunion.

We did that here with Fred Hayes and Gene Kranz from Mission Control, Milt Windler, Bill Reeves.

These guys were all people that worked on the Apollo 13 program.

And I'll never forget, we're leaving the event that evening.

I'm driving them back to their hotel.

We were on a golf cart.

It was a hotel that was on the grounds here.

And we had a full moon that night.

And if you've seen the movie,

you know, that Tom Hanks would sort of put his thumb over the moon, you

know, and then when he

was up in space, he'd do it over Earth.

Jim Lovell was talking to Fred Hayes, and as he's talking to Fred Hayes, he just puts his thumb over the moon.

And I almost wrecked the golf cart because I'm watching you do this and I'm like, wow.

And I even said, I'm like, wow, you actually do that.

And he goes, where do you think Tom Hanks saw it?

He started smiling.

But I'll never forget watching him actually do that on the golf cart driving back to the hill.

It

had to be

surreal.

It absolutely was.

And it was also just surreal.

A couple years later, I think the next year, we actually did an Apollo reunion where we tried to get as many as we could.

I think we had eight astronauts plus Gene Kranz from Mission Control.

And that night, on stage, we have these legends of the Apollo program, and we had another giant full moon.

I mean, so it's just really surreal when you're sitting out, you're watching these guys that went up there and explored the heavens, and then you're looking up and there's this giant full moon.

over the theater, and you're like, wow, that's where they were going.

It was

really,

really pretty wild.

We're talking with Chris Henry, who is the EAA museum director in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, of the legacy in life and times, now the late great James Lovell, great NASA astronaut, friend of the EAA, and spent much of his life as a Wisconsinite here in Milwaukee in the state of Wisconsin.

Chris, what was he?

I mean, most of us, you know, study a little bit of history or whatever.

know of his Apollo 13 missions in NASA, but having had the honor and the opportunity to hang out with him, what was Jim Lovell like just as a person to be around?

I think the thing that shocked me the most, I was really built up for, you know, you don't know when you've never met somebody like this, you're like, oh boy, do they have

Are they like a movie star?

Do they have a bunch of demands or they only want green M&Ms and stuff like that?

You couldn't be more off with Jim Lovell.

He was purely just the most humble hero and the nicest guy and just a jovial guy.

I mean, he was just a very, very friendly person.

When you put him and Frank Borman together, they could have had their own comedy show If anybody listening came to theater in the woods, you guys know what I mean They they were hilarious.

I mean, I guess spending two weeks on a on Gemini seven together Probably sealed a deal for their friendship.

I mean they were best friends But they were absolutely hilarious together.

So very nice guy Very giving of his time

I mean, he gave so much to EAA, both in just his time and coming up for events.

You couldn't be more wrong if you thought that there was going to be an ego.

It was a complete opposite.

It was a jerk or whatever.

No,

not

exactly.

Exactly.

I've had opportunities throughout my life, and politics, or entertainment, or sports, or what have you, to meet some people.

I'm just interested you host a lot of big names like Jim Lovell at the EAA it seems to me that The the true Bigger person the person was with a real leader the real star who's actually legit Generally, maybe not all the time a jelly have the smallest egos as the people who really are kind of the medium or the small fry They have the biggest the biggest egos are the biggest jerks.

I don't know is that what you found as well or

I've been very fortunate because, and I always say this, there's this saying out there that says, never meet your heroes because you'll be let down.

And I always say that my time at EA has proven that phrase completely inaccurate because I've been very lucky to get a chance to meet and work with a lot of my heroes.

And every one of them have been just so much bigger and cooler than I thought they were going to be.

And I know I probably have a very lucky take on that, but

Um, they've all been just absolutely wonderful.

And

like I said,

better than you even hoped that they would be and Jim was, was the epitome of

that.

And I think that's been one of the things and being a, you know, in aviation and around all these pilots and astronauts, maybe that's one of the things we don't talk about enough.

The personality to be in, especially in the days of Apollo 13, when they're literally just basically the machine is built around a human body.

You have to have a certain psyche to, to.

be able to perform and keep your cool and just survive.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, the two things that always stand out, Apollo 8, which is, of course, a mission that Frank and Jim and Bill Anders flew together.

The thing that always amazed me about that is going into that mission.

I mean, to make no mistake, Apollo 8 was a Cold War mission

and

wanted to beat Russia.

They basically told them they felt that there was a one in three chance that they would make it home.

Wow.

And those guys still went and strapped on that Saturn V rocket.

That is, to me, when we talk about heroics and bravery, and they all said, well, we had to do this.

This was for our country.

You're talking to guys that went to the Naval Academy or West Point and duty, honor, and courage are what these guys are about.

Just amazing.

Have you told me there was a one in three chance?

And if I got my car, I wouldn't make it home.

I wouldn't get in my car today.

Yeah,

exactly.

And they just did it and and they did it without thinking of it.

They just thought, well, this is this is what we have to do for our country.

We have to do this.

And then, of course, you know, Apollo 8 was the the success that it was.

Yeah.

But yeah, to me, I mean, when we talk about

the heroics that are Gemini seven, you're going to spend two weeks in space.

Chris, can you stop or can you stick around for another eight minutes or so?

Yeah, absolutely.

Sounds good.

Stay with us.

We'll continue our conversation with Chris Henry, the EA museum director at Oshkosh by the life, the times of legacy of Jim Lovell, great NASA astronaut in Wisconsinite.

Stay with us.

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Welcome back to the title ball show on the Civic Media Ready Network.

Glad to have you along.

It is now eight minutes before the hour of three o'clock and hour number two on what's worse for you.

An emotional addition.

Closed off.

or enthusiastically open.

That is the

That is the question we'll debate in hour number two.

And also the more serious note state Senator Kelder Royce from here in the Madison area will be on talking about a new piece of legislation.

She helped co-author that applies to nurses and licensing and a greater option for nurses to practice and for people to hire them.

So she'll be along talking about that in hour two as well.

Right now we are very happy to continue our conversation with Chris Henry.

He is the EAA museum director in Oshkosh where J-

Matt Nair, Greg Bachai.

We're so honored to broadcast from about a month ago on our tour right before the big EAA flight event there.

And again, if you have not been there or if it's been a while, get back there.

It's a great exhibit.

Chris, before we get back into aviation, I'm not sure if you heard, we had Mike Clemens on earlier, our great sports reporter.

Bad news for we Packer fans.

because Jordan Love has a injury on his non-throwing hand, left hand, having surgery out for the preseason, it looks like.

Which, again, those of us who have joined in Oshkosh will recall that Chris is a fro Pittsburgh, a Pennsylvania fan.

So we'll see if Aaron Rodgers, our former quarterback, can get you guys back to glory this year.

I'm not even kidding.

My Aaron Rodgers Steelers jersey arrives at my house today.

I'm a steal.

I'm kind of a little bit of a Steelers fan, but not so much for Rogers, but because I'm a big TJ Watt fan.

Yeah.

And I'm salty that the Packers passed on him in the draft years ago, and he could be a Green Bay, but I'm happy.

The Watt family are just fantastic.

And so I hope he has another great year.

And he's and he's really wonderful in Pittsburgh.

People in Pittsburgh love him.

And Aaron Rodgers, you know, as much fun as I'll have with the jersey, the true thing is, at the end of the day, you know, my friends in Pittsburgh are going to get to see a Hall of Fame quarterback, another one to throw a football in a black and gold jersey.

So we're excited about

that.

As well, you should be.

As well, you should be.

Talking about it, there was a NASA Hall of Fame.

Certainly Jim Lovell should and would be in it.

He passed away at the age of 97 last week.

Chris.

Maybe part of the untold story in James Lovell spending a lot of time living, growing up in Wisconsin.

You have a great exhibit at the EAA Museum in Oshkosh on Frank Borman that includes a lot of Jim Lovell.

First of all, tell folks who Jim Borman was.

So Frank Borman was one of the new nine.

Same crew or same group of astronauts at the level got selected in everybody knows the original seven.

This was the second group and They flew Gemini seven together.

So again two weeks in space And remember we're not talking about two weeks in the shuttle

This is two weeks strapped to your seat and something besides what they described as a Volkswagen bug.

And my favorite, you know, gotcha that Frank would always say is, I had to spend two weeks in space with a sailor.

Who would want to do that, you know?

And Jim would always laugh.

I know several people that would have enjoyed that trip.

And that really gave us a sense of how long we could stay up in space.

I mean, that was a record-breaking flight.

And then to turn around, Frank testified before Congress after the Apollo 1 fire, where we lost three astronauts, Grissom, Chaffee, and White, to help save the space program.

And then commanded Apollo 8, which was the first time we're going to leave low Earth orbit, first time we're going to park in lunar orbit.

First flight of the Saturn V which was the the big rocket that was as tall as a 35-story building This was a rocket that was gonna take us to the moon and seven and a half million pounds of thrust of that thing so and On that crew of course Frank was commander and he again chose to go with level and then they took the selected Bill Anders as well and Frank once told me

His exact words were if you go on Gemini for two weeks with someone you're either gonna emerge mortal enemies or best friends and I was lucky to have love with me and we became best friends So again, they

would did

Apollo 8 Apollo 8 a lot of people feel is the most important scientific mission ever flown Wow, that is a lot of firsts that we had to undertake and the way the Apollo program was structured Every numbered mission had to be a success

Before the next mission could go.

Wow.

So without Apollo 8 there was no Apollo 9 Without 9 or would be a 10 and you had to hit these goals before we could go and do the moon landing So all of it built on one another and then of course and I think all that flight experience flight experience When Apollo 13's crisis happened, I don't think you could have had a better astronaut in the commander seat than Jim Lovell.

He had just you know

I think he was NASA's most traveled astronaut at that point.

He had all the experience.

He stayed calm.

Mission Flight Director Gene Kranz always told me that at no point in that mission did they get short with guys on mission control or anything.

They just they were just pleasant to work with the entire time, even though you knew that they were freezing and only had a light bulb on up there.

But they were just great sports about it.

And they

came

through

30 seconds or so a final memory what what Jim Jim?

Jim levels legacy to you personally

To me personally, I think one of the things that will always stand out is that despite being as Historically significant and as famous as he was He was always just so just wonderful to everybody here.

We really did view him and his family as family

And when you knew Jim was coming up, sometimes he wouldn't even tell us he'd just pop in the museum if it was outside the air show.

You'd be walking through the museum, you'd be like, is that Jim Lovell over there?

So just an absolutely humble hero if I ever had to.

Frays it up for him.

Well, well done Chris Henry EAA museum director Oshkosh Thank you so much for taking this time help us remember the late great Jim Lovell and his legacy to the state of Wisconsin the United States of the world Thank you so much Chris really appreciate it have a great day up there in Oshkosh

Thank you for having me

our pleasure always come on back our two is next what's worse and State Senator Keldor Royce Don't want to miss it.

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