I'm watching the live broadcast of Ghost Hunters at Fort Delaware while enjoying the trick or treaters at my front door. Since Halloween is a night for telling stories, I'll tell you the true story that TAPS didn't tell you during this week's broadcast of the USS Hornet investigation.

The Hornet's proud history includes retrieving the capsule carrying the astronauts of America's first lunar landing mission, Apollo 11. Four months later, the Hornet also retrieved the astronauts of Apollo 12.

The history at the USS Hornet, now a museum, includes this:

Apollo 11 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24 at 5:50 a.m. local time, after travelling over 950,000 miles in a little more than 8 days. The splashdown point was 920 miles southwest of Honolulu and 13 miles from the USS Hornet.

Columbia floated down under its 3 orange & white parachutes, hitting the water just before dawn and coming to rest in a Stable 2 (upside down) position. The astronauts triggered the release of the three flotation bags, which righted the CM in about 7 minutes. The first member of the UDT-11 recovery team jumped from helicopter #64 into the water and attached a sea anchor to the CM to keep it from drifting. Three more UDT swimmers then jumped in and attached the flotation collar to stabilize the CM in the choppy water. They inflated and positioned two life rafts - one for biological decontamination and the other for helicopter hoist operations.

The possibility of the astronauts bringing a dangerous Moon germ back to Earth was considered remote, but not impossible. At this point in the recovery, the UDT decontamination specialist, LT Clancy Hatleberg, jumped into the water from helicopter #66 and swam to one of the rafts. He donned a special Biological Isolation Garment (BIG suit) and then handed 3 other BIG suits into the spacecraft so the Apollo 11 crew could put them on.

...Hatleberg signaled CDR Don Jones, pilot of helicopter #66 to position his SeaKing for the astronaut retrieval process. When the helicopter was hovering 40 feet above and slightly to the left of the spacecraft, the air crewmen in the cargo hold lowered a Billy Pugh rescue net down to the raft. The 3 astronauts were hoisted up one at a time and given a verbal physical check by NASA flight surgeon Dr. Bill Carpentier. When all 3 were aboard, the helicopter flew 1/2 mile back to the Hornet and landed on the flight deck. President Nixon and his staff watched intently from the ship's Flag Bridge.

Once Recovery One's engines were shut down and it was configured for shipboard handling, all but one member of the SeaKing's crew exited. With the 3 astronauts and NASA doctor in back, it was towed onto elevator #2. "Helo 66" was lowered into hangar bay #2 and towed to a position adjacent to the Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF). The astronauts exited into bright TV lights and cheers of hundreds of ship's crewmen. They walked briskly about 30 feet to the Mobile Quarantine Facility, where they were locked in.

Ghost Hunters Live:SciFi Ghost Hunters - Ghost Hunters Live aired this evening on SciFi.Here is what occurred on the episode:

The fright-night potential exists on Ghost Hunters Live (today, Space at 7 p.m.). Billed as a supernatural TV event, the live, seven-hour marathon will follow the Ghost Hunters crew on a sleepover at a site reputed to be one of the most haunted locations in the United States. In lieu of night lights, they will bring night-vision cameras.
Produced by the U.S. Sci-Fi Channel, the special will investigate things going bump in the night at historic Fort Delaware, located on remote Pea Patch Island in Delaware.The broadcast will be helmed by the regular Ghost Hunters duo of Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson - two Rhode Island plumbers who have achieved considerable cable fame in recent years as blue-collar ghost chasers - with Stargate SG-1’s Amanda Tapping and Crossing Jordan’s Steve Valentine serving as celebrity guest investigators.