TULSA — On July 24th, 1969 Navy frogman John Wolfram was the first person to greet Apollo astronauts back to earth after they became the only humans to have walked on the surface of the moon.
But that is only part of Wolfram’s story, which he will share this Sunday at a Tulsa church (see details below).
His participation in the Apollo 11 mission to the moon happened in between two deployments to Vietnam.
He also had a drug habit, and tells KRMG a bad LSD trip brought him close to suicide.
On that second deployment, he was injured and received the Purple Heart.
[Hear our full interview with John Wolfram and Pastor Don Martin]
He returned to the states and eventually, found himself at a Pentecostal revival meeting.
“I went back to my apartment that night and I took a pillow case and filled it up with marijuana and pot and LSD and pills and all the drug paraphernalia, and took it down to the San Diego Bay and baptized them - threw them away,” he told KRMG.
He’s spent the next several decades as a missionary around the world, but his primary focus is on Vietnam.
He helped build a church there, dedicated to the memory of his friends who died in the war.
The public is invited to meet Wolfram and hear his story Sunday (Feb. 17th, 2019) at the Metro Pentecostal Church in Tulsa, beginning at 10:00 a.m.
The church is located at 8611 E. 21st Street.