Buzz Aldrin's training as an astronaut, scientist and pilot prepared him for for his walk on the moon but not his return to Earth.
On July 24, 1969, Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. splashed down an international hero--obligated to abandon his career goals and family life for a strange tour of duty: ceremonies, parades, banquets, speeches, overseas goodwill tours and news conferences.
The identity change--from MIT doctor of astronautics, fighter pilot and astronaut to space pitchman--proved brutal. While publicly serving as an American icon, Aldrin battled depression, alcoholism and the unraveling of his 17-year marriage.
Heroes, though, dig deep for inner strength. They strive to save lives. And Aldrin saved his own. Summoning extraordinary courage, maybe more than what he needed to shoot down Soviet MIGs over Korea and ride a rocket to the moon, he broke from a suffocating tether. Through the following decades, he hewed a stronger, truer identity.
Aldrin, now 71, learned what few men do: the pilgrimage within, where self-knowledge and true success lie, is more difficult than the 240,000-mile journey to the moon.
"You make changes, you learn to accept things," Aldrin said. "You become satisfied with slow progress. Now I'm comfortable and at peace most of the time."
Aldrin learned the importance of goal-setting from his aviator father, Edwin Sr., whose friends included Orville Wright, Charles Lindbergh and Robert Goddard. Young Aldrin turned personal challenges--his father's dares, grade school, camp and West Point (where he graduated third in his class)--into stepping stones for a sky-borne career.
"Maybe it was the challenge of flight, the opportunity to fly, the competition of summer camp and the inspiration and discipline of West Point," Aldrin said. "I think all of those things helped me to develop a dedication and inspired me to get ahead."
He flew 66 combat missions as a Korean War fighter pilot, earning the Air Force's Distinguished Flying Cross. He funneled his space fascination into an academic pursuit, earning an MIT doctorate in astronautics after completing a dissertation on spacecraft rendezvous and docking.
A math whiz who was considered one of the brightest astronauts, Aldrin used his analytical talents, experience in guidance and navigation and faith in human ingenuity to devise innovative solutions to NASA's rendezvous and docking problems.
