[Gemini XII]

Directly from the Estate of Chuck Friedlander, NASA 

A COMPANION TO BUZZ ALDRIN’S FAMOUS “GO ARMY BEAT NAVY” FLAG 

Chuck Friedlander recounted how his wife Diane made Aldrin two flags out of felt and Nylon. One flag spelled out “GO ARMY BEAT NAVY” and the other is the present flag. 

 “GO ARMY BEAT NAVY,” sold in these rooms in 2022 for $27,720, was famously brought to space by Aldrin, who flew it on his EVA for Jim Lovell to see during GEMINI XII.

Diane Friedlander applied “LA” on the back for “Lovell Aldrin” and the Gemini insignia. Only the “Go Army Beat Navy” flag made it to space with Aldrin, in a now famous sequence that Chuck Friedlander and Aldrin had rehearsed secretly in a hallway to keep the surprise hidden from his crewmates. 

While Friedlander jokingly hoped that this would not inspire any “Go Navy, Beat Army” signage in return, he detailed in his audio diaries that multiple astronauts had plans to fly their military pride in space. Dave Scott planned to go out on his flight, Gemini VIII, and put a “BEAT NAVY” sign on the Agena. Michael Collins, two flights later on Gemini X, would have retrieved it, and the two of them would have gone to West Point during football season to present the flag. Their plans never came to fruition.  

Charles “Chuck” Friedlander worked closely with the NASA astronauts of the Gemini and early Apollo missions as Chief of the Astronaut Support Office at Kennedy Space Center. Like Buzz Aldrin, Dave Scott, and Michael Collins, Friedlander was a graduate of the United States Military Academy of West Point. 

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