On July 20th, 1969, this day 57 years ago, the crew of Apollo 11 landed on the moon. At 4:17 EDT, Neil Armstrong reports, "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." Later, Armstrong exits the Eagle lander, and with his words, "That's one small step for man... one giant leap for mankind," that one man brings all of mankind onto another thing, out there, in space. Our own moon, distant, the object of people's dreams, worship, and imaginations for thousands of years, was walked upon by man. From that moment, we are no longer locked to a destiny where this world, our Earth, this 'middle enclosure' so called by Anglo-Saxons some thousand years ago, but instead, a new frontier more wonderous and deadly than anything else faced before was opened. This was an achievement for all of humanity, but it was accomplished only through the United States of America. Our nation is one who's historical population consists of pioneers, settlers, and conquerors. The heritage of the United States begins with Englishmen, descended from the Anglo-Saxons who sailed to a distant island and established their own homes and kingdoms, and those Englishmen forged from a savage wilderness a nation that would be founded on principles that enshrine God as the source of liberty, and governance derived from the people. From 13 Colonies turned into 13 States through the violence of war and the work of our Founding Fathers to establish a new government, our people went further into the New World, always seeking and opening new frontiers. By the 20th Century, this seems to have come to an end, but that assumption couldn't be further from the truth. The Space Race begins with the oncoming of the Cold War and it is won by the United States, despite Soviet accomplishments early on, when it was men wearing the American flag who became the first of mankind to step on the first landing ground, the Sea of Tranquility on the moon. Just over 20 years before, we had just finished a brutal war, deadlier than any in human history, ending it with the deployment of Atom Bombs that brought us into a different conflict, one of science and politics with wars and contingencies aiming to stop the spread of Communism. If things had been slightly different, we could have had nuclear war, and the world as we know it would be truly hellish. This did not happen. Instead, the crew of Apollo 8, soon after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, would be the first of mankind to witness Earth Rise from orbit around the moon, and they would read the eternal words of scripture, "In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth... and God saw that it was good..." on Christmas day. That is our legacy, that is our spirit, and it would bring us to this day 57 years ago with the moon landings. That is, what I believe, makes the United States distinct from all other nations and civilizations. Others may say, 'our nation is hundreds of years old, we defeated so and so enemies, we invented this or that," but we can say, as Americans, "Our people set foot on the moon." We are the only people in human history who can say that it is our achievement, our frontier, no one can take it from you. Our adversaries today may be trying to undo our lead in the lunar frontier race, but I have complete confidence we will overcome their challenges to what has essentially become our future heritage. So as long as we keep faith in God, who governs all things in this vast universe, and so as long we, as Americans, believe that our nation and our people is worth struggling for, worth the hardship fighting and conquering new frontiers, I believe we will go onto achieve more than just a moon landing. Within the next ten years, I know that we will have not just a settlement, but the beginnings of cities, on the Moon. Beyond that, considering it took some almost 200 years to go from our nation being founded in the age of horse-drawn carriages and Benjamin Franklin experimenting with lighting to our nation putting people onto the moon, within the next decade or two, between now and then, we will have put Americans onto Mars. The legacy of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins will be honored and expanded by our generation and the generations to come. This is a bit of a rant that's too long, but, that is how I feel today, and how I will always feel about this.

The biggest problem with this and Young Washington is they lean so hard into using AI for some stuff that it just looks ridiculous and not historical, things like those cannons brought up by the French in Young Washington. If they just went a little further and contracted out with reenactment groups to get authentic period-correct equipment and orders of battle, these movies would be great.