Highways Into Space: A first-hand account of the beginnings of the human space program Read Free

just eight days before the news of the unconditional surrender of Japan, Dad was inducted into the U.S. Army and served in the Army Air Corps. Dad was stationed at a number of places around the country and I remember that Mom went to visit him one time when he was stationed in Georgia. This was during the winter and Mom expected the weather in such a warm southern state to be just like summer. It was not so.
    Another problem followed Dad all of his service time. Somehow, the Army lost his papers, or at least the payroll papers. They could still ship him around to new assignments. But, the real downside was that he never got paid. Mom got a counter clerk job at the local drugstore. So, her paycheck had to support the home front and she also sent money to Dad for cigarettes and incidentals. The kids, of course, were never told any of this. It must have been about this time that Pop, my Dad’s father, came to live with us. Our guess is that it was to watch us while Mom worked.
    Dad spent his last time in service at Shepherd Field in Texas. He told us of the German POWs who were kept there. We were surprised to hear that they were relatively free to walk around the base, not in serious confinement during the day. And, they were very happy to be where they were rather than on any front, especially the Eastern one. I remember the celebrations when V-E day and then V-J day occurred, people in the streets, car horns blasting, lots of cheering and weeping. I don’t think I was aware that the next destination for Private Lunney would have been the Pacific. When Dad finally got back home, he had this big duffel bag full of standard gear, all of which we thought was really cool. Uncle Steve of the Seabees brought home koala bear stuffed animals and a boomerang from Australia. It had been damaged some, but we loved throwing it out in the field. It did not work like we saw in the movies, but it was fun trying.
    After the war, Dad bought a large truck, like you might see in the U-Haul lot today. The cargo section was accessible from the cab and was good for traveling and camping. I don’t know how Dad swung the money; maybe his Army pay finally caught up with him. Either way, Dad wanted to go into the moving business and tried to get a license to start the business but he was never successful. The story that I understood was that the local cab company blocked any approval. Whatever the reason, Dad was very disappointed and we did not forgive the yellow cab company.
    With no more submarines to build in Philly, we moved back to Scranton. Dad was going back to the mines.

Years of Formation
    When we moved back to Scranton, we rented the middle unit of a triplex in West Scranton at 1139 Eynon Street. This was probably in 1946 and we lived there for about five years. We went to school at St. Anne’s, which was a very large parish with a twelve-grade school. The nuns had different names than at St. Agatha’s, but they all went to the same training course. They looked the same and had the same three-sided rulers. (I make fun of what has become a stereotype of the nuns, but they were selfless teachers for generations of young kids and the world is now a poorer place as they and their schools become more rare.)
    At St. Anne’s, I went in training to become an altar boy. The priest who led that instruction was Father John Mark. And he was a rigorous perfectionist and disciplinarian. But we really did learn the Mass and how to serve the priest who was conducting the service. Father John Mark drilled us on all the procedures and especially all the responses in Latin. Even today, I still find myself replying to myself in Latin to the prayers that the priest now says in English. And yes, I did get to try the wine.
    Certainly, my early years were very strongly influenced by my family and the environment in which they lived. My Dad, my uncles Stanley and Steve, like so many others, worked in the mines of northeastern Pennsylvania. My two grandfathers