Adrienne Liva Sweeney, whom I interviewed last week, told me several interesting stories about working for Don Ho. One of them, I thought, deserved its own column. It’s about the greeting Hawaii gave the Apollo 13 astronauts when an emergency caused them to land in the Pacific instead of the Caribbean, 47 years ago this week.

You may recall in April 1970 that an explosion two days after liftoff put the three Apollo astronauts at risk and canceled their planned lunar landing. They had lost one of their two oxygen tanks.

Cmdr. James Lovell famously told mission controllers: “Houston, we’ve had a problem.”

The country watched over five days as ground controllers struggled to get them back to Earth safely. This was back in the days when their main computer had less than 100 kilobytes of memory.

I encourage you to watch the movie “Apollo 13” starring Tom Hanks if you haven’t seen it before.

The astronauts were able to minimize their electricity consumption, use the moon’s gravity to slingshot back to Earth and manually approach re-entry.

ROLLING OUT THE RED CARPET

On Friday, April 17, 1970, Pan Am flight P208, flying at 37,000 feet, saw the Apollo capsule re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere as the sun was rising in the South Pacific.

The pilot radioed a welcome to the astronauts and banked for the passengers to get a better view. It looked like a big whitish-yellow star, one stewardess said.

J. Akuhead Pupule was on KSSK radio with actor Jack Lord the morning of Saturday, April 18, and they suggested Hawaii should roll out the red carpet for the astronauts.

They invited Don Ho, who told Sweeney to call all his musicians and dancers to the end of Lagoon Drive that afternoon. The Air Force put two flatbed trucks together for a stage, and Ho and his musicians and dancers performed.

One of the dancers had just gotten married, but left her honeymoon to dance for the astronauts and President Richard Nixon. “The bride kissed her new husband goodbye and set out for the airport,” Honolulu Advertiser columnist Bob Krauss reported.

Well over 1,000 people began showing up three hours before the event. Reporters said they wore bikinis, shorts and muumuu, and held banners saying “Aloha.”

Scores of reporters flew in at about 3:30 in the afternoon. A battery of teletype machines and phones had been set up for them. The crowd fielded their questions: How do you spell exotic names like “Koolau Mountains” or “Keehi Lagoon”?

Nixon and his wife, Pat, arrived on Air Force One with the astronauts’ families at about 4 p.m. The spectators waved American flags and burst into applause.

HEROES WELCOMED

A few minutes later, the astronauts’ plane pulled up and an even louder cheer arose as Lovell, Fred Haise and John Swigert emerged on the apron.

It was so loud that Don Ho and the Aliis couldn’t play the song they had rehearsed for the moment.

Hawaii Gov. John Burns and Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi joined the president and astronauts on the stage while Air Force One served as a backdrop for the festivities.

Aku and Lord, in a red hibiscus aloha shirt, emceed the event, and Nixon spoke to the crowd. He told them that leaders from more than 100 countries had sent them greetings and congratulations on a safe return.

Television cameras captured the president with Diamond Head and a rainbow over the Koolau Mountains behind him.

“You did not reach the moon,” Nixon told them, “but you did reach the hearts of millions of people on Earth by what you did.”

Despite all our technology, in a crisis, it’s the character of men and women that will make the difference, he said. Greatness does not come simply from triumph over adversity, “adversity brings out the character of a man. Theirs is the true spirit that built America.”

The president then gave the astronauts the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award.

Burns presented them with bronze paperweights of the state Capitol. The engraving said: “With great aloha in your safe return. Apollo 13. From the people of Hawaii.

Don Ho and his group then played for an hour. The lyrics “Tiny Bubbles/ in the wine” were modified to “Tiny module/ in the brine.” They finished up with “One Paddle, Two Paddle” and “God Bless America.”

A VISION OF UNITY AND ALOHA

A motorcade took the astronauts and their families to the Ilikai Hotel, and the Nixons to the Kahala Hilton. The next day the Nixons attended Kawaiaha‘o Church. Reporters broadcast it nationwide.

In his sermon, the Rev. Abraham Akaka said, “Let our striving lead to one nation, one world, one humanity, indivisible, with aloha, justice and peace for all.

“We can show people that on God’s ukulele, no string can say to any other, ‘You don’t belong,’ or ‘You must look and sound like me.’

“A one-string ukulele, or one whose strings all have the same sound, would be terrible. Each string must find its right pitch.”

Flying back to the mainland the next day, Nixon radioed his thanks to Burns from Air Force One. The president expressed his appreciation for the outstanding treatment the party had received and was particularly impressed by the competence of the Honolulu police force.

Bob Sigall, author of “The Companies We Keep” series of books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories of Hawaii people, places and companies. Contact him via email at sigall@yahoo.com.