MACON COUNTY, Ill. (WAND) — History sits about as far away from the ocean as a person can be, along the northernmost edge of Macon County.
But amidst the sea of corn and soy, Al Hassebrock is sifting through 50 years of memories.
"We stood there on the deck and pretty soon somebody shouted out 'there it comes!'" he said.
Hassebrock wasn't supposed to see the Apollo 11 splashdown. But there he was standing on the deck of the USS Arlington watching history.
"It was just good luck," he said. "You heard the boom and then [saw] a glow and a streak and then finally three big orange parachutes."
The more famous USS Hornet was a little behind schedule due to a storm. The Arlington, a covert communications vessel, happened to be in the right place at the right time to watch the space capsule land in the Pacific Ocean.
Even President Richard Nixon missed the splash down. He flew from the Arlington to the Hornet in the early morning hours of July 24, 1969.
Hassebrock's front row seat to history has inspired a lifetime of collecting. He searches for anything connected to Apollo 11 — or the other two space missions he saw splashdown, Apollo 8 and Apollo 10.
"[I] wasn't thinking about being there witnessing history," Hassebrock said. "Today, you look back and — my goodness — was that a special day."
