Escape from the Iris Village

About the Book

This work is broken into my life phases. The first is my very early life in Chillicothe, Texas through high school in Colorado City, Texas. The second includes my time in the U.S Marine Corps when I met my wife Sally. The third is a period at Texas A&M University while Sally and I were raising a family. The fourth and last phase covers more recent adventures. I did not start writing poetry until after Jack Turner's funeral in Phoenix, Arizona, so all of the poems are memories of events and times.

About the Author

My birth certificate name is Jimmie Charles Rhea Forehand and I was born in a town named Chillicothe in north-west Texas about half way between Wichita Falls and Amarillo.  I was a farm and general laborer until I joined the U. S. Marine Corps. I used the G. I. Bill to pay for college. I stayed with Texas A&M for a B. A., M. S., and Ph.D. I taught Calculus in the Math Dept. and FORTRAN in the Computer Science Dept. I was Computer Manager for the City of Miami, Communications Analyst in Saudi Arabia, Strategic Defense Initiative Analyst in Colorado Springs and Electronics Engineer on the International Space Station for NASA in Houston. Along the way I married a wonderful woman and we raised 5 children. I am now retired from NASA. I wrote my first poem after attending the funeral of my brother-in-law F. A. Turner in the National Cemetery in Phoenix.  The first poem started the desire to tell more of my old stories in poem form. I have had cancer and a heart attack and I have opinions on nearly everything.