The Case of an Astronaut's Missing Omega Speedmaster and How the FBI Got It Back
The Smithsonian Institution’s Office of Inspector General turned over records about the retrieval of the wristwatch worn by Apollo 7 astronaut Donn Eisele while he was in space in 1968. It was stolen in 1989.
It’s been a very newsy month here at FOIA Files. To recap, I unearthed documents about political violence, Elon Musk, the use of crypto by Hamas and the potential threats to earth’s infrastructure from extreme space weather. So I’m taking the temperature down a bit this week and turning my attention to the case of an Apollo 7 astronaut’s watch, and how it was found decades after being stolen from a museum in Ecuador. If you’re not already getting FOIA Files in your inbox, sign up here.
Ever since I discovered that there’s a special unit inside the National Archives and Records Administration that hunts for missing historical records, I’ve been obsessed with tracking down more documents about the US government’s Indiana Jones-like quests to find its lost and stolen treasures.