On May 12, 2010, as a member of the PMI-SD 2009 Project or the Year team, I had a front-row seat to hear Gene Kranz speak of NASA and the Apollo 13 Moon Mission at the PMI-SD 7th Annual Conference Opening Event. This Kickoff event was held in the prestigious San Diego Air & Space Museum. About 150 people attended.

It was an honor to hear Gene speak. I remember hearing President's Kenndy speech about sending a man to the Moon and back at the time. I remember the first Mercury misson by American Alan Shepard and John Glenn's first American in orbit flight. I remember the terrible events on the Apollo 13 mission, I was 20 years old at the time.

In 1986 I met and spoke with Jim Lovell, Commander of the Apollo 13 mission. Jim gave an hour's presentation on that space flight from his perspective. Now I have heard firsthand, both sides of the story of that history.

Gene Kranz is very personable. He spoke and shook hands with those of the audience that approached him during his time at this event. I thanked him for his service to our nation and shook his hand. Gene is a legend in his own time.

Not only did the audience hear Gene speak, we used the event to present some special awards to he and others. Those agendas and pictures are below.

Don