Man on the Moon?

I lived in Santa Monica, California (L.A.) between 1976-1979, so I have a lot of "brushes", but here is one of my favorites:

In the Spring of 1979 I was a student pilot at Santa Monica Airport in California (A.K.A. "Clover Field", where they built the C-47 transport planes used to drop paratroopers in WWII, and the same airfield where Howard Hughes first learned to fly). To further my exposure to aircraft, I had taken a job at Duke Aviation at the far South West end of the airport, working for owner "Woody" Duke (Do a Google Earth of "90405" - it's still there!). One day Woody came out of his office and said he was going for a sandwich and would be back in 15 minutes. Shortly after he left the phone rang, the caller asking for Woody:
Me: "Woody just stepped out for a sandwich, he'll be back in about 10 minutes."
Caller: "OK, tell Woody I'll be there in a few minutes."
Me: "Sure , and who shall I say called?"
Caller: "Buzz."
Me: "Yeah, Buzz. Buzz who?"
Caller: "Buzz Aldrin."
Me: "GULP."

Five minutes later I had Buzz Aldrin, Co-Pilot of the first manned space mission to the surface of the Moon, a real "Pilot's Pilot", standing before me, leaving me speechless.

-Mike Sullivan

John F. Kennedy Jr.

In 1997 I was spending the Christmas vacation in Vero Beach, FLA at my inlaw's rather exclusive "gated community"-a place called "John's Island." All the buzz that week was that John F. Kennedy Jr. and his new bride Carolyn were going to be staying at a house in the community for the week following Christmas.

Christmas was on a Thursday in 1997. That Saturday I took my kids to McDonalds. We went down A1A, crossed the bridge over the intercoastal, ate our dinner and returned. While cruising down A1A, about 3 miles from John's Island, I noticed a white convertable Dodge something or other (clearly a rental by the plates) pulled off to the side; the couple in the car was obviously looking at a roadmap. I remarked to my kids "Oh look, they must be lost."

About a half mile from where we saw the car, I pulled into a 7-11 on A1A to get gas. My then 3 1/2 year old son used to like to "help" me pump the gas. Once we were done, we started walking into the store to pay and what do we see but the White Dodge convertable pulling into the gas station. I saw the driver and said to my self "Holy S___, that's JFK, Jr!"

In the store there were 3 or 4 people in line, I took my spot in line just as JFK, Jr. came in the store. My son was running up and down the aisles as 3 year olds do and as he rounded the corner of the aisle at the front of the store he smacked right into JFK, Jr. I apologized and he gave a little smile and said "that's OK" as he ruffled my son's hair. I said I'd noticed they were looking at a map a way back on A1A and asked if they were lost. He said ,yeah, they were lost. I said "well, I know which house you're staying at at John's Island-its four houses down from my inlaws-why don't you just follow us and I'll lead you to where you're staying." He said that would be great and shook my hand. While he was shaking my hand I said to him "ya know, just about every woman I know would absolutely s___ themselves if they knew I met you!" He kind of chuckled and followed me out of the store.

We walked over to his car and Carolyn said hi to my son and let him pat the little dog they had with them. They followed me the 2 or 3 miles down A1A to John's Island and I led them to the house they were staying at. They honked and waved and I went back to my inlaw's house. When I told everyone this story, the ladies went nuts! We never saw him that week around the club and a few days later they had to cut their vacation short to attend the funeral of Michael Kennedy, the child molesting son of Robert Kennedy who was killed in a ski accident.

A few years later JFK, Jr and his wife and sister in law perished in an airplane accident.