A SAFE
RETURN
Apollo 13 Astronaut’s Medal
Recovered
04/04/07
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| James A. Lovell was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1970 after returning the Apollo 13 capsule home safely. Due to an imperfection in the medal above, a replacement was manufactured and presented to Captain Lovell. The imperfect medal was supposed to be destroyed but ended up in the hands of a private collector. |
When an explosion rocked the Apollo 13 lunar
module in 1970, scuttling a moon landing
and endangering three astronauts on board—an
event that riveted the nation and tested
the resolve and ingenuity of the U.S. space
program—the mission’s onboard
commander, Captain James A. Lovell Jr., famously
said, “Houston, we’ve had a problem.”
Earlier this year, Captain Lovell, a recipient
of the Presidential Medal of Freedom for
safely bringing Apollo 13 and its crew home,
was in touch with our FBI office in Chicago
to report a new problem: the Medal of Freedom
originally cast for him, but replaced due
to a defect prior a 1970 presentation ceremony,
was up for bid on an Internet auction site.
The defective medal was supposed to have
been destroyed long ago, but it apparently
slipped out of the White House, eventually
falling into the hands of a private collector
in Pennsylvania. When Captain Lovell learned
the medal bearing his name was up for auction,
he worried the sale might sully the reputation
of the rare decoration, one of the nation’s
highest civilian awards.
“He was upset by the fact that it
might diminish the medal itself,” said
Special Agent Brian Brusokas, who works in
the Cyber Crimes Unit in our Chicago office
and opened the investigation.
The posting on the auction site touted that
the medal was the “original” version
meant for the Captain Lovell and called it “the
ultimate collector’s item.” It
read, in part: “This original medal
was destined for the trash but lucky for
us it was saved 37 years ago.”
Agent Brusokas quickly identified the seller
and last month recovered the medal and its
accessories, including the wooden storage
box bearing the presidential seal. The medal’s
authenticity was verified by the White House.
Since the medal still technically belongs
to the White House, the collector’s
possession of it amounts to theft of government
property. No arrests have been made and no
charges have been filed, but the investigation
is continuing. The actual medal presented
to Captain Lovell by President Nixon is still
in his possession.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom was established
in 1945 to honor service in World War II
and was revived in 1963 to recognize distinguished
civilian service. Captain Lovell and fellow
crewmen John L. Swigert Jr. and Fred W. Haise
Jr. received the honor on April 18, 1970,
a day after arriving home and just seven
days after Apollo 13 launched en route to
the moon. An oxygen tank exploded a few days
into the mission, causing the crew and managers
on the ground to abort the moon landing and
improvise a safe journey back to Earth. Lovell’s
role in the heroic saga was dramatized by
Tom Hanks in the 1995 movie “Apollo
13.”
This
isn’t
the first time the FBI has been brought
in to help recover a medal. In 2003, three
Congressional
Medals of Honor wound
up on an Internet auction. Cyber agents in
our Buffalo office tracked down the seller
in Canada and recovered the medals, which
were more than 100 years old.
The sale of a Presidential Medal of Freedom
isn’t illegal or unprecedented. Actor
James Cagney’s medal, awarded to him
in 1984, was auctioned in 2000 for $51,000.
The difference in this case is that the Pennsylvania
dealer didn’t own the medal. “It’s
legal,” said Agent Brusokas, “only
if you have good title to it.”
In the end, we’re proud to have played
a role in upholding the integrity of the Presidential
Medal of Freedom for Captain Lovell and for
all the winners of this prestigious American
honor.
