NEW YORK, NY – Mars Ocean Analogs (MOA) proudly announces the triumphant return of Captain Reed Stowe to New York City on June 15, 2025, concluding a remarkable series of ocean voyages designed to prepare future astronauts for the rigors of deep space exploration. Over the past six months, Captain Stowe and his diverse crews sailed the Atlantic twice, once through the Caribbean, and twice across the Gulf of Mexico, culminating in a historic journey to Starbase, Texas and back. This ambitious expedition underscores MOA’s mission to provide challenging training for the space community through real-world analog experiences.

The ambitious series of five back to back Mars Ocean Analogs began in New York, NY on December 22, 2024 in 16 degree weather and ended June 15 in a lighting and thunder filled rain storm. This is the only deep space training program where the analog astronauts have to prove their physical abilities and overcome real danger and fear that nest prepares them for what they aspire to face on a real Mars mission. Going to sea on a relatively small sailboat is challenging and the program was not designed to be easy.

Captain Stowe, a world-record holder for his 1,152-day non-stop voyage at sea (846  days without seeing another human), designed these expeditions to impart his hard-earned expertise. Through hands-on experience, he taught participants the mental and physical endurance techniques that su

stained him during his historic journey. “The ocean is a classroom for deep space,” said Stowe. “By sharing how I thrived in isolation for over three years, I’m preparing these crews for the psychological and practical demands of a three year Mars mission.” By completing this journey, MOA sets a new benchmark for analog training, proving the ocean’s power to prepare humanity for the stars.

The Schooner Starship that still holds the record for The Longest Sea Voyage in History and carries out the boldest Mars training missions is battered from many sea miles, but possesses timeless magic, wonder, and astounds all who come aboard.

The post Reid Stowe, the World’s Longest Sailor… is still Standing! appeared first on Good News!.

Listen to “Good News Broadcast LIVE Mars Space Odyssey” on Spreaker.

Listen to “Fred Sullivan speaks to Good News” on Spreaker.

Listen to “The Crew” on Spreaker.

Listen to “Reid Stowe speaks to Good News” on Spreaker.

Listen to “Departure from the dock to learn about life at sea” on Spreaker.

Hello Everyone,

November 17-29, 2024 – New York City

Good News Broadcast will LIVE STREAM on YouTube the “High Sea” training as a Kick-Off for their 23rd Annual Earth & Water Day LIVE 5-Hour Worldwide Clean Energy Concert in Times Square on April 22, 2025.”

The Mars Ocean Analogs® crew is set to embark on a groundbreaking sailing mission this November, departing from New York City on the historic Schooner Anne Starship. Led by veteran sea captain and world record holder Reid Stowe, the team will undertake NYC’s first-ever high seas analog training for aspiring astronauts. This mission, scheduled from November 17 to November 29, will simulate the extreme conditions of danger, high performance, isolation and self-sufficiency that astronauts will face during future missions to Mars.

The link for LIVE STREAM IS XXX

The Schooner Anne is the same vessel that Stowe commanded on the longest sea voyage in history, spending 1,152 days continuously at sea without resupply from 2007 to 2010—an unprecedented analog for a journey to Mars. During that voyage, Stowe and his crew navigated far beyond the sight of land, in conditions similar to what astronauts will experience during a three-year mission to Mars.

Why Is This Mission So Critical Now?

As space agencies worldwide accelerate their plans to send humans to Mars, a crucial gap remains in astronaut training. The human mission to Mars and back is expected to take approximately three years, during which astronauts will be isolated in a cramped, high-stakes environment—one that only Reid Stowe has simulated continuously over three years through his record-breaking voyage.

“Mars aspiring trainees must gain experience in the isolated, life-and-death expanse of the high seas to truly prepare for the challenges of a Mars mission,” explains Stowe, Commander of the Schooner Anne. “While billions of dollars are being invested in space technology, extreme astronaut training at sea is being overlooked. The human element is the weak link, and our mission is to strengthen that by offering real-world, high-seas analogs that push both physical and psychological limits.”

A Proven Training Ground

This upcoming mission will be the Mars Ocean Analog team’s fifth high-seas expedition, following four successful voyages that have attracted global media attention and support, including a mission to the SpaceX launch pad near the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Mars Ocean Analogs® crew is inviting select members of the media to meet the captain and crew aboard the Schooner Anne, which has played a pivotal role in advancing human spaceflight training through these Mars analog missions.

Contact Mission Control to schedule an interview:

Reid Stowe

Phone: (336) 707-1705

Email: info@marsoceananalogs.org

Website: www.marsoceananalogs.org

Instagram: @marsoceananalogs 

This voyage promises to play a critical role in preparing the next generation of astronauts for humanity’s boldest mission yet: Mars.

Earth & Water Day 2025 in Times Square and broadcast around the world on April 22, 2025, will be Good News Corporation’s 23 Annual Pause the World for Peace Event and MOTHER EARTH.  The Historic Event is a partnership with Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine and Nonprofit, 501 C 3, est. 2002.  Good News Corporation GNC is producing the Worldwide Clean Energy 5-HOUR Concert with OMMM, www.earthday.org, AY Young and in discussion with other caring MOTHER EARTH citizens and organizations.

For information contact:

Paul Sladkus, Founder of Good News Corporation, paul.sladkus1@gmail.com or call 917 687 1790.  Go to www.pausetheworldforpeace.org for details.  PS – Good News Corporation was the official broadcaster of the original 1000 Days at Sea and honored to be close friends with Reid and Crew for many years.

Mars Ocean Analogs® notable press features:

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/science/article/global-sailor-reid-stowe-plots-a-course-to-mars-qqwrv0l90?region=global

https://www.valleycentral.com/spacex/miami-to-south-texas-sailors-hope-to-train-future-mars-astronauts-dock-near-spacex/

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/local/westpb/2021/01/27/mars-mission-sea-space-meet-palm-beach-county-mars-ocean-analogs/4251051001/

The post Kick Off Event for Earth Day 4/22/25, Nov. 17-29 Mars Odyssey Analogs at SEA appeared first on Good News!.

Mystical visions carry him across the sea.

On the open ocean, the view is the same in every direction: The white-hot sun beams its light through the cobalt sky, cascading through dynamic clouds to meet the shimmering horizon at the far edge of the heaving lapis lazuli water. Out there, where the sublime simplicity and scale of the ocean erase everything else, ideas and visions take on new weight. Thoughts become all you have. In a state of ecstatic bliss, working with devoted hands and love in his heart, Reid Stowe carves conjured images into wood on the open water, alone with his thoughts.

Stowe is an artist, an adventurer and a world-record-holding endurance sailor whose epic 1,152-day nonstop voyage around the globe made history when he completed it in 2010. His sailing, and his art — the two have always been intertwined — began long before that odyssey, however; as a young man he voyaged on small boats across vast oceans, painting, carving and sculpting along the way. His first sculptures were figureheads for his boats, carved, he said, “because I needed the gods to take care of me.” His courses took him through the South Pacific and up the Amazon River — he admits that he “spent the better part of (his) life in the wild.” While still in his early 20s, he touched four continents on a little wooden catamaran he built at his family beach house in Ocean Isle Beach.

for more info, go to http://www.saltmagazinenc.com/the-shaman-of-the-sea/

The post The Shaman of the Sea – Reid Stowe, the World’s Greatest Long Distance Sailor. Are you a sailor, let us know? appeared first on Good News!.

Warren Hegg
National Supervisor
“Keep the Spirit of ’45 Alive
www.Spiritof45.org
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408.857.5252

-J Day in Times Square is a photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt that portrays an American sailor kissing a woman in a white dress on Victory over Japan Day (V-J Day) in Times Square in New York City, on August 14, 1945.

The photograph, taken with a Leica IIIa camera, was published a week later in Life magazine among many photographs of celebrations around the United States that were presented in a twelve-page section titled Victory Celebrations.[1] A two-page spread faces three other kissing poses among celebrators in Washington, D.C., Kansas City, and Miamiopposite Eisenstaedt’s, which was given a full-page display. Kissing was a favorite pose encouraged by media photographers of service personnel during the war, but Eisenstaedt was photographing a spontaneous event that occurred in Times Square as the announcement of the end of the war on Japan was made by U.S. President Harry S. Truman at seven o’clock. Similar jubilation spread quickly with the news.

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Alfred Eisenstaedt signing his famous “V-J Day” photograph on the afternoon of August 23, 1995, while sitting in his Menemsha Inn cabin located on Martha’s Vineyard. He died shortly after midnight about 8 hours later.
The photograph is known under various titles, such as V-J Day in Times Square, V-Day, and The Kiss.[2][3]

The official United States celebration is not on this date, however. V-J Day is instead celebrated on September 2, the date of the formal signing of the surrender.[4] A special day of remembrance is marked in Japan and other countries on September 2.

Because Eisenstaedt was photographing rapidly changing events during the celebrations he did not have an opportunity to get the names and details. The photograph does not clearly show the faces of either person involved in this embrace and several people have claimed to be the subjects. The photograph was shot just south of 45th Street looking north from a location where Broadway and Seventh Avenue converge. Soon afterward, throngs of people crowded into the square and it became a sea of people.

Contents
[hide] · 1 Accounts by Alfred Eisenstaedt
· 2 Another photograph of the same scene
· 3 Identity of the kissers
· 4 The photograph in popular culture
· 5 See also
· 6 References
· 7 External links
Accounts by Alfred Eisenstaedt[edit] In two different books he wrote, Alfred Eisenstaedt gave two slightly different accounts of taking the photograph and of its nature.

From Eisenstaedt on Eisenstaedt:

In Times Square on V.J. Day I saw a sailor running along the street grabbing any and every girl in sight. Whether she was a grandmother, stout, thin, old, didn’t make a difference. I was running ahead of him with my Leica looking back over my shoulder but none of the pictures that were possible pleased me. Then suddenly, in a flash, I saw something white being grabbed. I turned around and clicked the moment the sailor kissed the nurse. If she had been dressed in a dark dress I would never have taken the picture. If the sailor had worn a white uniform, the same. I took exactly four pictures. It was done within a few seconds.
Only one is right, on account of the balance. In the others the emphasis is wrong — the sailor on the left side is either too small or too tall. People tell me that when I am in heaven they will remember this picture.
From The Eye of Eisenstaedt:

I was walking through the crowds on V-J Day, looking for pictures. I noticed a sailor coming my way. He was grabbing every female he could find and kissing them all — young girls and old ladies alike. Then I noticed the nurse, standing in that enormous crowd. I focused on her, and just as I’d hoped, the sailor came along, grabbed the nurse, and bent down to kiss her. Now if this girl hadn’t been a nurse, if she’d been dressed dark clothes, I wouldn’t have had a picture. The contrast between her white dress and the sailor’s dark uniform gives the photograph its extra impact.
It became a cultural icon overnight and by establishing his copyright, Eisenstaedt carefully controlled the rights to it, only allowing a limited number of reproductions which determined how it could be used.[citation needed]

Another photograph of the same scene[edit] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/50px-Question_book-new.svg.png
This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2014)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/Kissing_the_War_Goodbye.jpg/220px-Kissing_the_War_Goodbye.jpg
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Jorgensen’s similar photograph
U.S. Navy photo journalist Victor Jorgensen captured another view of the same scene, which was published in the New York Times the following day.[5] Jorgensen titled his photograph Kissing the War Goodbye. It shows less of Times Square in the background, lacking the characteristic view of the complex intersection so that the location needs to be identified, it is dark and shows few details of the main subjects, and it does not show the lower legs and feet of the subjects.

Unlike the Eisenstaedt photograph, which is protected by copyright, this Navy photograph is in the public domain as it was produced by a federal government employee on official duty. While the angle of the photograph may be less interesting than that of Eisenstaedt’s photo, it clearly shows the actual location of the iconic kiss occurring in the front of the Chemical Bank and Trust Building, with the Walgreens Pharmacy signage on the building façade visible in the background.

Identity of the kissers[edit] Edith Shain wrote to Eisenstaedt in the late 1970s claiming to be the woman in the picture.[6] In August 1945, Shain was working at Doctor’s Hospital in New York City as a nurse when she and a friend heard on the radio that World War II had ended. They went to Times Square where all the celebrating was and as soon as she arrived on the street from the subway, the sailor grabbed her in an embrace and kissed her. She related that at the time she thought she might as well let him kiss her since he fought for her in the war. Shain did not claim that she was the woman in the white dress until many years later when she wrote to Eisenstaedt. He notified the magazine that he had received her letter claiming to be the subject.[citation needed]

Since the identity of the woman had been claimed, in its August 1980 issue, the editors of Life asked that the kissing sailor come forward. In the October 1980 issue, the editors reported that eleven men and three women had come forward claiming to be the subjects of the photograph. Listed in the October 1980 issue as claiming to be the woman were Greta Friedman and Barbara Sokol as well as Edith Shain.[citation needed]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/03/Edith_Shain.jpg/200px-Edith_Shain.jpg
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Edith Shain at the 2008 Memorial Day parade inWashington, D.C.
On June 20, 2010, Shain died at age 91, following a battle with liver cancer.[7] In April 2012 the issue of who the woman was remained as a new book on the topic was about to be released. The authors, George Galdorisi and Lawrence Verria, stated that Shain could not have been the woman because her height of just four feet ten inches was insufficient in comparison with the height of any of the men claiming to be the sailor.[8]

Those claiming to be the sailor were Donald Bonsack, John Edmonson, Wallace C. Fowler, Clarence “Bud” Harding, Walker Irving, James Kearney, Marvin Kingsburg, Arthur Leask, George Mendonça, Jack Russell, and Bill Swicegood.[9]

George Mendonça of Newport, Rhode Island, was identified by a team of volunteers from the Naval War College in August 2005 as “the kisser”. His claim was based on matching his scars and tattoos to scars and tattoos in the photograph.[6] They made their determination after much study including photographic analysis by the Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who were able to match scars and tattoo spotted by photograph experts, and the testimony of Richard M. Benson, a photograph analysis expert, professor of photographic studies, plus the former Dean of the School of Arts at Yale University. Mr Benson has stated that, “It is therefore my opinion, based upon a reasonable degree of certainty, that George Mendonça is the sailor in Mr. Eisenstaedt’s famous photograph.”[6]

Mendonça, on leave from the USS The Sullivans (DD-537), was watching a movie with his future wife, Rita,[6] at Radio City Music Hall when the doors opened and people started screaming the war was over. George and Rita joined the partying on the street, but when they couldn’t get into the packed bars decided to walk down the street. It was then that George saw a woman in a white dress walk by and took her into his arms and kissed her, “I had quite a few drinks that day and I considered her one of the troops—she was a nurse.”[6] In one of the four pictures that Eisenstaedt took, Mendonça claims that Rita is visible in the background behind the kissing couple.[6]

In 1987, George Mendonça filed a lawsuit against Time Inc. in Rhode Island state court, alleging that he was the sailor in the photograph and that both Time and Lifehad violated his right of publicity by using the photograph without his permission. After Time Inc. removed the case to federal court, Mendonça survived a motion to dismiss.[10]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/66/George_Mendonca_and_Greta_Friedman.jpg/300px-George_Mendonca_and_Greta_Friedman.jpg
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George Mendonça and Greta Friedman, guests of honor at the Bristol, Rhode Island, July 4 parade in 2009
Although the issue of who the kissers were/are was no longer contended in a court of law, it continues to this day.

Life’s October 1980 issue did not include Glenn McDuffie or Carl Muscarello, who are described below.[11] These claims have been made much more recently.

Mendonça and Friedman (both individually and together), as well as Shain, Muscarello and McDuffie, were widely interviewed in the succeeding years by Life, PBS, NBC, CBS and others. The life stories of Mendonça and Friedman, and how they came to be in Times Square that day, as well as the reasons they are considered most likely to be the ones photographed, are the subject of a detailed book on the photo.[12] Mendonça recognizes Friedman to the exclusion of any other woman as the “nurse” he kissed in the photographs (or, to be precise, the woman in the white uniform, as Friedman was a dental assistant—a nurse’s uniform was customary in a dentist’s office to be worn by female assistants and hygienists in that era).[13]

Carl Muscarello is a retired police officer with the New York City Police Department, now living in Plantation, Florida. In 1995, he claimed to be the kissing sailor. He claimed that he was in Times Square on August 14, 1945, and that he kissed numerous women. A distinctive birthmark on his hand enabled his mother to identify him as the subject. Edith Shain initially said she believed Muscarello’s claim to be the sailor and even dated after their brief reunion. But in 2005, Shain was much less certain, telling the New York Times, “I can’t say he isn’t. I just can’t say he is. There is no way to tell.”[14] Muscarello has described his condition on August 14, 1945 as being quite drunk[15] and having no clear memory of his actions in the square, stating that his mother claimed he was the man after seeing the photograph and he came to believe it.[16]

Glenn McDuffie laid claim in 2007 and was supported by Houston Police Department forensic artist Lois Gibson.[17] Gibson’s forensic analysis compared the Eisenstaedt photographs with current-day photographs of McDuffie, analyzing key facial features identical on both sets. She measured his ears, facial bones, hairline, wrist, knuckles, and hand, and compared those to enlargements of Eisenstaedt’s picture.

“I could tell just in general that yes, it’s him,” said Gibson, a 25-year department veteran. “But I wanted to be able to tell other people so I replicated the pose.”[18] In the August 14, 2007 issue of AM New York McDuffie said he passed five polygraph tests confirming his claim to be the man.[19] He says that on that day he was on the subway to Brooklyn to visit his girlfriend, Ardith Bloomfield.[19] He came out of the subway at Times Square, where people were celebrating in the streets. Excited that his brother, who was being held by the Japanese as a prisoner of war, would be released, McDuffie began hollering and jumping up and down. A nurse saw him, and opened her arms to him. In apparent conflict with Eisenstaedt’s recollections of the event, McDuffie said he ran over to her and kissed her for a long time so that Eisenstaedt could take the photograph:

I went over there and kissed her and saw a man running at us…I thought it was a jealous husband or boyfriend coming to poke me in the eyes. I looked up and saw he was taking the picture and I kissed her as long as took for him to take it.[20] Gibson also analyzed photographs of other men who have claimed to be the sailor, including Muscarello and Mendonça, reporting that neither man’s facial bones or other features match those of the sailor in the photograph. On August 3, 2008, Glenn McDuffie was recognized for his 81st birthday as the “Kissing Sailor” during theseventh-inning stretch of the Houston Astros and New York Mets game at Minute Maid Park.[citation needed] McDuffie died on March 14, 2014.[21]

As part of a WW II memorial at Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts, a new painting titled “Victory Kiss” by Jim Laurier of New Hampshire was first unveiled on August 24, 2013 to honor the event captured in the photo. George Mendonça was in attendance for the unveiling, stating that just before he kissed the nurse, he had been in New York City’s Radio City Music Hall.[22]

The photograph in popular culture[edit] In 2005, John Seward Johnson II displayed a bronze life-size sculpture, Unconditional Surrender, at an August 14, 2005 sixtieth-anniversary reenactment at Times Square of the event made famous in Eisenstaedt’s photograph. His statue was featured in a ceremony that included Carl Muscarello and Edith Shain, holding a copy of the famous photograph, as participants.[23] Johnson also sculpted 25 feet (7.6 m)-tall versions in plastic and aluminum, which have been displayed in several cities, including San Diego (right) and Sarasota.[24][25][26]

In the 2009 film, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, a life-size blow-up of the photograph plays an important role when characters Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) and Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams) escape pursuers by jumping into it and emerging in a monochrome 1945 Times Square, and losing a cell phone, which catches the attention of one of the background sailors, Joey Motorola, played by actor Jay Baruchel. Then Ben Stiller cut in on the sailor for a kiss with the nurse, played by actress Alberta Mayne before jumping out of the photo.[citation needed]

The picture is referenced – albeit showing a different camera – in the 2009 film Watchmen, which depicts alternate history versions of iconic moments in American history. During the opening credits, The Silhouette, a costumed heroine, kisses a female nurse.

In the 2010 film, Letters to Juliet, the Eisenstaedt photograph is featured in a scene where an editor of the New Yorker questions Sophie about her fact-checking (her job there) of the image as if it would be published in that magazine as a full-page feature. He questions her closely about whether the photograph was staged and most importantly whether it truly was “spontaneous and romantic.” Sophie gives him several pieces of information obtained from a sailor in the background of the photograph. She assures the editor that all of these facts were thoroughly checked and found to be correct, so he need have no concern.

The kiss was parodied in the The Simpsons episode, “Bart the General”. As celebrations ensue following victory for Bart in a battle against the school bully, a young boy dressed as a sailor kisses Lisa as a photograph is taken. After the photograph is taken, Lisa rebukes the boy, telling him to ‘knock it off’ and slapping him in the face.[citation needed]

In 2012, while performing a show for the Marines during the New York City Fleet Week, singer Katy Perry kissed a man on stage, replicating the pose.[27]

In the 2012 film Men in Black III, Will Smith views The Kiss occurring while time traveling after his fall from the skyscraper.

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