A short comment about the 60 -70s "Space Program" and "Race to the Moon"

[hunter]

4. It surely kept my grandfather out of trouble.

He was one of the engineers who made it happen.

My grandfather was nothing but trouble his entire life, and an Army Air officer in World War II. The Army very wisely kept him on the ground running various aspects of the war machine. The furthest the war took him, so far as we know, is Alaska, but there are hints of Europe.

I saw my grandfather ride a bicycle once and it was among the most terrifying things I've ever witnessed, he was 100% klutz, a danger to himself and others, with a great big grin on his face. I can't imagine him flying an airplane, although he claimed to know how. Riding in a car with him driving was scary enough. In the Army he had a driver. As a civilian aerospace engineer he had my grandma.

In the course of his military service he acquired a knack for exotic metals in somewhat mysterious circumstances. He was taciturn about the war. The war was a dirty job that had to be done. But he'd always talk about his work for the Apollo project with great pride. Bits of metal he made took men to the moon and back. Some of these bits of metal are in the Smithsonian.