Legendary astronauts salute their heroes

Jim Lovell is the definition of an American hero. He served in the Navy, retiring as a Captain, and became the first man to take four different flights to space. Lovell is most famous for piloting the Apollo 13 mission, and his legend grew even further when Tom Hanks portrayed him in Ron Howard's 1995 hit film.

The 81-year-old Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient has accomplished extraordinary things in his life. So when Lovell recently uttered these words while meeting our men and women serving overseas, it had real meaning.

"These are the real heroes these days, not us."

The Air Force Times reports that Lovell, Neil Armstrong, Gene Cernan, Steve Ritchie, and Robert Gilliland are on an eight-day tour of U.S. military bases around the world. Their first stop was Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where thousands of U.S. troops work or pass through each month. Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon and a former Navy pilot, spoke to troops and posed for pictures. Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon and also a former Navy pilot, talked about how the war of his time affected him while working as an astronaut.

"Vietnam was my war and I didn’t get to fight in it because all my buddies got their tails shot off, and I got my picture in the newspaper because I went to the moon," he said. "And that’s something that has always bothered me, and maybe that’s why I wanted to come over here so much."

Lovell also jumped at the chance to meet American troops and boost morale. While his NASA career is still celebrated in American culture, another important piece of his enduring legacy will soon be complete in Illinois. The Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center is being constructed on VA grounds near the Navy's basic training facility. How fitting that some of today's heroes will receive care at a hospital named for a man that repeatedly put his life on the line for this country. And instead of only staying active with NASA affairs during his retirement, Lovell has made supporting the military one of his life's greatest causes.

Jim Lovell famously once told Houston that we have a problem. Many years later, America is facing a new challenge, and the retired captain has stepped up to be part of the solution.