Project Apollo Recovery Team Patch

NASA made Snoopy the mascot of its Manned Flight Awareness safety program in 1968, and in May 1969 the Apollo 10 lunar module flew under the call sign "Snoopy." This Project Apollo Recovery Team patch puts the beagle in a space helmet on top of his doghouse, floating on the ocean. That is splashdown, the last step of every Apollo flight and the one the recovery forces owned. When a command module came down under its parachutes, Navy ships, helicopters and swimmers were waiting. Their job was to get the crew and the spacecraft out of the water safely.

Every crewed Apollo flight from Apollo 7 to Apollo 17 ended at sea with a Navy prime recovery ship on station. USS Essex picked up Apollo 7 in October 1968, followed by USS Yorktown for Apollo 8, USS Guadalcanal for Apollo 9 and USS Princeton for Apollo 10. USS Hornet recovered Apollo 11 in the Pacific on 24 July 1969, with swimmers from Underwater Demolition Team 11 attaching the flotation collar and passing biological isolation garments into the capsule, and Hornet recovered Apollo 12 that November. USS Iwo Jima picked up Apollo 13, USS New Orleans Apollo 14 and USS Okinawa Apollo 15. USS Ticonderoga brought home both Apollo 16 and Apollo 17.

The patch has the cone shape of an Apollo command module, a triangle with a rounded base, edged in a white merrowed border and a navy band. PROJECT APOLLO runs up both sloped sides in red letters on white. Inside, against a light blue sky, Snoopy sits on his doghouse in a round space helmet with a red scarf, and the doghouse floats on navy waves. RECOVERY TEAM is stitched in white across the water. A small copyright line for United Feature Syndicate, the company that distributed the Peanuts strip, runs along the right side.

Recovery duty was long days of waiting and a few minutes of hard, precise work. Helicopter crews flew out to the capsule, swimmers went into open ocean to secure it, and the ship's crew brought the spacecraft and astronauts aboard. Every flight had a plan for the water, and the recovery forces met every splashdown of the program. On the lunar flights, those swimmers were the first people to touch a spacecraft that had been to the Moon. The waterline on this patch is where their part of the mission began.

It fits a shadow box next to a USS Hornet or Apollo 11 patch, or the jacket of a sailor who manned the rail on a recovery ship. It is also a good gift for a kid who grew up on Peanuts and is just learning what Apollo was. The patch measures 4 by 5 inches with an iron-on backing, and a few stitches will hold it for good. Splashdown was the finish line, and this team was there for it.