Letter: The Eagle has landed

By Howard G. Sutton
Posted 7/28/21

Pondering this month’s coverage of billionaires, proving Sir Issac Newton’s law of gravity and motion, I reflected back on a momentous event 52 years ago.

At   3:17 p.m. EST on …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Register to post events


If you'd like to post an event to our calendar, you can create a free account by clicking here.

Note that free accounts do not have access to our subscriber-only content.

Day pass subscribers

Are you a day pass subscriber who needs to log in? Click here to continue.


Letter: The Eagle has landed

Posted

Pondering this month’s coverage of billionaires, proving Sir Issac Newton’s law of gravity and motion, I reflected back on a momentous event 52 years ago.

At  3:17 p.m. EST on July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 landed on the moon.

There are threads of Rhode Island connections to that historic event.

After the deadly Apollo 1 launch pad fire, NASA commissioned Owens Corning to develop beta cloth. This material, which resists burning at temperatures up to 1,200 degrees, was used for all future NASA space suits. The fabric was manufactured in Asheville, Rhode Island.

Owens Corning subcontracted the printing of the patches on the beta cloth to Screen Print Corp. of Coventry. Using special pigments and traditional, non-machine, screen printing practices, the patches, flags and names of the astronauts were manufactured for the space suits.

Here is where I enter the story. For two summers I worked at Screen Print, producing what seemed like miles of fabrics used mainly for drapes and upholstery. Printing was done on long tables with two men manning a screened boxed form, dye and a squeeze. Colors were overlaid until the final process was completed and destined for Aunt Josie’s raised ranch in suburbia.

I was home on break from college, putting my liberal arts education to no good use and working at the plant. My sidekick on the other side of the table grasping the squeeze was Ray, 15 years my senior.

Ray had a double major in Narragansett. One was in beer and one was in the nags running at the track in Pawtucket. He was a master at hops consumption, but as for the ponies, he could lose money wagering on Seabiscuit.

Apparently, there was a great disturbance in the force because we were assigned the Apollo 11 job. We toiled under the watchful eyes of the suits from Corning and NASA, who ensured that the final products were pristine. We made more mistakes than the Nixon administration. NASA’s standards were clearly higher than those for Aunt Josie’s drapes.

Printing hundreds of iconic eagles with olive branches in its talons landing on the Moon, I often thought why they needed so many, since there were only three guys on the flight. But, the suits were happy, the bosses were happy, Ray still got to the track on time and I was pulling down a buck-forty an hour.

Life was good.

I did raise an underaged ’Gansett salute to myself and Ray when I heard Commander Armstrong say, “Houston. Tranquility base here. The Eagle has landed.” The Rhode Island-made patches were on the Moon.

Howard G. Sutton of Bristol is publisher emeritus of The Providence Journal.

2024 by East Bay Media Group

Barrington · Bristol · East Providence · Little Compton · Portsmouth · Tiverton · Warren · Westport
Meet our staff
MIKE REGO

Mike Rego has worked at East Bay Newspapers since 2001, helping the company launch The Westport Shorelines. He soon after became a Sports Editor, spending the next 10-plus years in that role before taking over as editor of The East Providence Post in February of 2012. To contact Mike about The Post or to submit information, suggest story ideas or photo opportunities, etc. in East Providence, email mrego@eastbaymediagroup.com.