Homer Hickam Quotes
When I was a West Virginia lad of 17, I met a Massachusetts lad of 42 by the name of John F. Kennedy. At the time, I was in a bright orange suit that I had just purchased to wear to the 1960 National Science Fair, where I hoped my home-built rockets would win a medal. Kennedy was in West Virginia trying to win the state's presidential primary.
Hickam, Homer. "When Kennedy Called for the Moon." The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 2011.
His debating opponent, Dan Quayle, compared himself to John F. Kennedy:
Canada's first female Prime Minister
Grandfather of President John F. Kennedy
The CIA had attempted to employ the Mafia to assassinate Fidel Castro, the strongman of Cuba, and Castro found out about it. He then warned that U. S. leaders could be assassinated in retaliation. Although LBJ appointed the Warren Commission to investigate the JFK assassination and the commission concluded that Castro and Cuba had nothing to do with it—Oswald was a gunman acting alone. Johnson privately never believed that but only confided his believes to his closest confidants lest there would be public pressure to retaliate against Cuba and Johnson had no hard proof—just a suspicion.
Ever since the end of WWII, many Republicans have called their Democratic Opponents Marxists and Communists even for a conservative Democrat like Kennedy. Even Ronald Reagan stooped to this tactic before he ran for the Presidency.
Expert and political opinion is divided on this view. Kennedy himself did not hold it. His first year in the White House was a triumph of oratory, but he felt privately that he had failed thus far in his Presidency.
This is not always implemented by modern politicians who only see the young through the narrow lens of people too young to vote yet or for those that are of age, have poor turnout statistics. However, Quintus appreciated the other values of the young. President Barack Obama used this principle effectively and better than most modern candidates. Quintus’ older brother was running for Consul—the highest elected office of the Roman Empire. The Handbook, was his advice to his brother as to how to conduct his campaign.
The University of Alabama was one of the best college football teams and most people thought of Coach Bryant as singularly focused on football and nothing else. However, this quotation illustrates the degree of penetration and awareness that occurred when JFK was assassinated.
Homer Hadley Hickam Jr. is an American author, Vietnam War veteran, and a former NASA engineer who trained the first Japanese astronauts. His 1998 memoir Rocket Boys (also published as October Sky) was a New York Times Best Seller and was the basis for the 1999 film October Sky. Hickam's body of written work also includes several additional best-selling memoirs and novels, including the "Josh Thurlow" historical fiction novels and his 2015 best-selling Carrying Albert Home: The Somewhat True Story of a Man, his Wife, and her Alligator. His books have been translated into many languages.
