DEDHAM, Mass. — A Navy Corpsman from Chelsea played a critical role in the safe return of the Artemis II crew.
Most of us watched the mission moment by moment at home from a screen, but Chief Hospital Corpsman Vlad Link was right there in person, opening the capsule and checking on the Artemis crew after splashdown.
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Link was part of the Navy dive medical team, tasked with recovering the spacecraft after splashdown, and was the first to reach the crew and conduct initial medical assessments.
“I think what was going through my mind was I’m in here in a space capsule in integrity that it just went around the moon and it splashes down here with my team, with my crew, representing the US Navy, the sailors and our great nation,” said Link.
Practice and preparation that took nearly three years to execute perfectly. “We were a little nervous; however, we trained over the years to manage this. We knew that it was game time,” said Link.
Even sharing with Boston 25 a special moment he got to bring home to his daughter.
“Reid and I were taking a picture, and he grabbed my phone and made a special video for my daughter, and he grabbed the phone and said, ' Hey Anabella, I just landed from the moon, I’m in the space capsule with your dad, he’s so proud of you, he loves you,” said Link.
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