To the Moon and Beyond

THE GEMINI PROJECT Important words I've heard since I was a little girl. I knew they had to do with my father's work as an Electronics Engineer and a bit of time we spent living in Hawaii when I was small.

It wasn't until a large envelope was discovered, while sorting through Mother Comfort's papers, that contained correspondence from a former co-worker during her years at Boeing that I got curious. He was living in Cocoa Beach, Florida in 1967, and had compiled various "Full Color Space Pictures" (11 x 14 framing size) along with materials from "America's Spaceport 'On the Astronaut Trail'".

In the envelope, in living color, there it was...the Gemini lift off, in a blaze of glory. It was a NASA photo from the John F. Kennedy Space Center, published by The Apollo Press, Cape Canaveral, Florida...and somehow it related to my life...my childhood...my dad. Finally, (what took me so long?) I took the packet to himself and asked the question I should have asked years ago. "Exactly what did you do on the Gemini Project?"

I should have heard him say, "I thought you'd never ask", but instead he looked at me like he'd explained it a thousand times. Well, in some ways he did, but I didn't understand the language...a teensy bit technical.

If I understood him correctly (and I hope he will let me know if I still didn't get it right...I will certainly make the proper edits if need be) he engineered and supervised the installation of the equipment that was used at the tracking stations, to monitor the conditions (heart rate etc.) of the astronauts while they orbited.

To my nieces and nephews, and my great nieces and nephews and all the greats after that...'your grandpa is really cool'. He has done, and continues to do, a lot of great things in his life, but the greatest thing he has ever done, was to teach us to have grateful hearts, respect one another, and to love us like there was no tomorrow.