To the Moon on a Slide Rule: and other tales of the dawning of the Space Age

THE WAR HAD ENDED…

AND BILL KETCHUM’S dad came home, altered somehow from the man he’d been before. Growing up around military air bases, young Bill tried to understand his father’s mysterious world—the world of aviation and quiet people who dedicate their lives to great causes.

As an adult, he found a place in that world. His role was to help create rockets that might keep his homeland safe, if a new war erupted. Then, when it didn’t, he was glad to point those same rockets…

TO THE MOON

Technology became the means to an extraordinary human accomplishment. Along the way, Bill established memorable friendships and had great adventures. And he perceived that other extraordinary accomplishments have been occurring down through the centuries, in the most unlikely places. Which is greater, the achievement or the experience? This collection of true stories is about the experience.