The EECOM console—that is, the mission control console responsible for the electrical, environmental, and (initially) communications of the Apollo command and service module—wound up being home to an outsized number of famous names. Perhaps most famous is John Aaron, the "super EECOM" responsible for, among other things, the "SCE to aux" call that likely saved Apollo 12 from a mission-terminating launch abort. But equally skilled among EECOMs is T. Rodney ("Rod") Loe, who was kind enough to offer us an hour of his time to talk about his Apollo memories.

Loe would have been the EECOM sitting on the console during the Apollo 1 fire, if not for a simple coincidence: his wedding anniversary falls on January 27, the day of the fire, and on that day in 1967 Loe had swapped shifts with John Aaron so that he could celebrate with his wife Tina (she had arranged a celebratory poker game at their home for some friends).

Of course, the poker game never had a chance. Aaron was reportedly so shaken by the events of that afternoon that Loe had to come up to the space center and drive him home; the following days and weeks of accident investigation and root-cause testing were grim work indeed. But in the race to space, perseverance paid off. Almost two years later, after Apollo 8 had finished what most people at NASA considered the gutsiest mission in the entire program, Loe found himself once again alone with Aaron. This time it was at The Flintlock, a popular flight controller watering hole. While the rest of the controllers partied themselves silly, Loe and Aaron stood in the doorway and marveled at the magnitude of the task they'd just helped complete.

On that December night at the end of the tumultuous, shocking year of 1968, Loe was content to relax and simply be a proud American.