PORT ANGELES — Ed McKay finished off his five-layer cake with a spacecraft-shaped top 40 years ago aboard the USS Hornet.
The cake was for a celebratory reception on the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier responsible for plucking the three astronauts out of the water after their mission to the moon.
McKay, who was a commissary for the Navy aboard the ship, was assigned the job of cutting, carving and decorating the cake.
Although technically present at the reception, the three astronauts were kept under tight quarantine until they arrived back in the United States and could undergo complete health exams.
During the lunar landing, those aboard the ship hadn’t had the chance to see it live.
“At that time, ABC news was aboard doing a newscast, but all the signals were leaving the ship, so we couldn’t see it,” he said.
“But we got to hear it on the squawk box.
“It was amazing knowing that they were up there right then.”
McKay, who went to school to become a chef prior to joining the military, joined up about three years before his ship assisted the astronauts.
“I thought I’d join up to beat the draft,” he said.
The only volunteer
At 22, the petty officer second class was the only one who volunteered to cook, carve and decorate the cake for the reception, though others — like his friend Martinez, whose first name he doesn’t recall — were dragged along on the task as well.
“I volunteered because it was something I liked to do,” he said.
“We carved it out and decorated it for the reception, and then we had to carry it down something like four or five flights of stairs.”
During the prayer offered at the reception, when everyone else’s heads were bowed, McKay was taking a peek, he said.
“When everyone else had their eyes closed, I had one eye open and was watching the corner of icing fall off,” he said.
“That corner of the cake wasn’t so lucky coming down all those stairs.”
In addition to meeting the astronauts just shortly after their historic journey to the moon, McKay also met President Richard Nixon, among many others aboard the ship.
“It was pretty exciting,” he said.
Although McKay is now the senior pastor at Hillcrest Baptist Church, he said he sometimes still cooks up treats in the kitchen.
“I still enjoy doing that,” he said.
“It has been a long time since I’ve done a cake, though.”
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladaily news.com.
