Ed Mitchell, American Hero

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If we're lucky, we all get old and fortunate to have a happy life. But a tragedy is when you are an American hero and end up at the age of 80, a little short of money and being sued by the very government you served. That's what happened to suburban Lake Worth resident, Ed Mitchell.

Former astronaut, Ed Mitchell, and a Captain in the U.S. Navy, was selected to head the Apollo 14 mission to the Moon in 1971. He was the 6th person to ever walk on it's surface, walking for 9 hours. We all watched in awe.

Back then, he and his fellow astronauts were given permission by the government to keep certain mementos of their trip as they would have been left behind, virtually destroyed. He kept a camera that now he wants to auction off. It is estimated to bring $80,000. Now 40 years later, the government says he needs to return it; it is not his. They want the money.

The U.S. gives billions away to foreign governments, some not even our friends. We spend absurd amounts of money on crazy pork such as $19 million to examine gas emissions from cow flatulence or $107,000 to study the sex life of the Japanese quail. We renege on a 40 year old camera?

Ed says, "It was all government throw-aways, government junk." Ed Mitchell is worth 100 times the value of that camera.