I am fortunate that Rocket Men by Robert Kurson was an assigned reading for our Book Club. It is a well-written account of the 1968 Apollo 8 NASA mission to orbit the moon, which included the three astronauts returning home during the Christmas holiday. As you may read in other sections of the Portfolio, I was in a bunker on the Korean DMZ in the winter of 1968 and knew almost nothing of this historic event taking place around the moon above me. Apollo 8 is on a long list of events I missed in 1968, including the assassinations of MLK, Jr. and RFK, riots at the National Democratic Convention in Chicago, the Summer Olympics in Mexico City, and the release of some excellent (now classic) rock music albums.
Rocket Men filled in the gaps for me, not only about the Apollo 8 mission but also about many other events in the second half of 1968. The book is also an intimate description of the crew, including Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders, detailing how they grew up, joined the military, became astronauts, their families, their Christian faith, and the sacrifices they made for the NASA mission. The book ends with four words taken from one of thousands of telegrams sent to the returning astronauts, which read: “THANKS. YOU SAVED 1968.” Reading Rocket Man saved and supplemented my 1968 Army experience, for which I am grateful