Ticonderoga Apollo Recovery (CVS 14) - Naval Cruise Book

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Welcome Aboard! is We pause to Thank God PRAYER OF THE APOLLO IEJRECOVERY As offered by CDR Lex L. Davis, CHC, USN, on the recovery ship USS TICONDEROGA Almight God, Who alone prescribes the order of the Universe, We lift our thanks to Thee For the safe return of Astronauts Young, Duke and Mattingly. As the heavens once led Wise Men to the cradle of Thy Son, So may the knowledge of Thy celestial creation Guide us to greater understand- ing of Thy will for mankindg That Thy goodness may be magni- fied throughout the world, To the honor of Thy Holy Name. Amen.

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., -- ,N ,,.-U' nw' , J! .,,u ' V,-,, 1 ,',- -1 ,MfwN' In nm' 1 ff' fin' if Q rf: NA A H N Space Traveler's Prayer GOD OF TH E UNIVERSE . . . Grant us your understanding. We are frail men of the planet Earth who seek new truths and knowledge of your creations. You have permitted us technical knowledge to travel beyond oluxr native sphere. Please grant us the wiulom to never abus: t v gi t. s ln our eagerness., we have many fears and doubtsg not of your divine purpose, but of our right to further know that purpose. Help us to go forth with courage, humility, and compassiong but prevent us from ignorant interference with those natural laws which you have ordained. Guide us safely through the vastnes of space and let us not lose sight of you as the Universal Light as we probe the darkness of the unknown. ., -. i' f ', 'sf 5,6- You are our hope and our strength. Bless us with your consolation that what we do is good . . . and gently contain us if we should wonder from that intent. We thirst for new knowledge and new adventure. Let us know those truths which will enlighten us and which will further compliment your glory with firm conviction and sound reason. r Q Allow us to comprehend and accept with tolerance. that which we do not understand. And never permit us to arbitrarily destruct that which we perceive as unnecessary in our child-like innocenur. Our science can warm our ships but only you can warm our heart in the cold mysteries of space. Comfort ns and give us courage GOD OF THE UNIVERSE . . . for we are only frail men of the planet Earth. Amen. lc. H. rolrrnzn- 'N i ' T X e -A r X ,rga f

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CAPT John Young YOUNG- It really is great to be back I think I have to say thank you to four different groups of people today Im not going to make a long speech because that isn t my nature Ive been working with a couple of guys for about two years They ve always demonstrated their clever intelligence resourcefulness and all the good words In the last ll days where time was critical and things had to go just right in rather difficult problems and minor problems Ken and Charlie performed in an outstanding manner Their professional cool courage and discipline which required time-critical button-punching switch-throwing and stick pulling was tremendous And they also demonstrated cool professional courage in situations where there was some personal risk involved I feel. So to all that I d like to say Outstanding' For the benefit of you Navy guys that s a hearty Well Done . The second group of people is the group at Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston Texas and around the country. They did so much for our mission to make it go We could tell by ,ral if LCDR Thomas Mattingly every message that came to us that there had been a lot of people working all over the Country to do their job And by golly we appreciate it because we made that mission go thanks to you The third group of people that nobody ever talks about very much is the taxpayers I think you taxpayers we taxpapers got your money s worth on this you really did You saw an example of goal-oriented teamwork in action the kind of thing that made this a success You also saw sitting right there in Casper right now a mission of discovery. There are secrets in that vehicle that nobody knows what is there There is some basic knowledge and understanding in that vehicle right now We re going to find those things out one of these days and it s going to benefit us all I can guarantee it I feel that if we had not done our mission we d have been remiss in not uncovering this basic knowledge and what I m saying is that the knowledge locked in those secrets is pushing back the last real frontier the frontier of the unknown and by golly that s essential to the survival of humanity on this LCOL Charles Duke planet And the fourth group of people maybe the group I feel more at home with than anybody is the good old U S. Navy Thanks for being here because right about now Charlie Ken and myself aren t swimming too good MATTINGLY- 'I can tell you that a group of all males never looked so good We ll take care of that in a short time too Thank you very much for a professional job You really did a bang- up job. DUKE- Its pretty difficult at this time for me to put my feelings into words right now We ve seen so much and done so much the last ll days You wouldn t think one could be topped but sure enough the next one tops it The most clearest is re-entry right now and that s pretty hard to top. It s going to be awhile to digest everything that s happened but I go along with John I would like to say thanks from the bottom of my heart to the four groups of people he mentioned Thanks again It s good to be back and I look forward to seeing everyone again. Admiral H S Morgan, Jr CTF- 1 30 This is a moment of pride and humble triumph for the crew of Apollo 16 Those of us of the Pacific Recovery Force spread about this ocean are honored to be a small segment of the picture I know the crew is glad to be back and we re all glad to see you back xx 1 Wim l W, cc . . , 7 , . 9 , , 7 o s o , U 1 . 3 ' 7 1 . Q r , 9 n . . c , , . , 9 1 v x ' r 2 ' ' , . . 1 7 ' yr . . , st n 1 a s cc 2 r 1 y r 0 , 0 ' r r ' 9 r . 9 2 1 ! ' r 1 r 1 - - , 1 . . . , r cc 1 x 1 n r , y r . r y 2 a r , ' y a 1 7 - n . . O O O at . 7 ! . 1 n y .