Have You Seen My Mom?

About the Book

About the Author

This is the first book of two about me. I was orphaned at the age of four, in and out of foster homes until seven, when I ran away and was found in a garbage bin behind the McCrory''s Five-and-Ten-Cent Store in Bartow, Florida.

The police picked me up, and I was sent to the Florida Baptist Children''s Home in Arcadia, Florida.

I was there for nine years when I was adopted out by a relative. That only lasted a year. We didn''t get along. He kicked me out and I went into Bartow, got myself a job and went back and finished high school.

I got married, was drafted, and had three children.

One night I saw the first launch from the Kennedy Space Center. I fell in love with the space program, and moved to Titusville. I went to work at KSC and worked my way up from a planner and estimator to Duty Officer in the Launch Control Center.

When we didn''t have a bird on the pad there was only one person ahead of me, and that was the Support Test Manager in NASA. I dreamed of being that person often.

One night the phone rand and the STM said, "Lou I have to be out of the office for a few minutes, can you take charge?" I said yes. So for fifteen minutes I was the top man at KSC — a dream come true  I retired after thirty years.