50 Years Ago: Wyoming Man Played A Roll In The Moon Landing
His name is Gen. Samuel Phillips, he led the Apollo program for years which resulted in Neil Armstrong landing on the moon, according to Casper Star Tribune.
Phillips father was an electrician in Arizona when he was younger but he needed work and found some in Cheyenne. Samuel came with his father and grew up in Cheyenne, he graduated from Cheyenne High School. After that, Phillips made his way to Laramie where he attended UW. While being a student, he became a pilot and a member of the ROTC program. Upon graduating, Sam then joined the military as an infantry officer.
Once joining the military Phillips became an instant stand out. He flew P-51s and P-38s in World War II over Europe. While doing so he earned quite a bit of medals along the way. But it wasn't his flying ability that got him noticed by NASA. It was the work he did in the Minuteman program that got his recognized. This program was America's main intercontinental ballistic missile system that was used against the Soviet Union.
Once joining NASA, Samuel took over the fledgling program and the rest is history.