Homer hickam biography
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Homer Hickam
American author and engineer (born 1943)
Homer Hadley Hickam Jr. (born February 19, 1943) is an American author, Vietnam War veteran, and a former NASA engineer who trained the first Japanese astronauts. His 1998 memoirRocket 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, his 2015 best-selling Carrying Albert Home: The Somewhat True Story of a Man, his Wife, and her Alligator and in 2021 the sequel to Rocket Boys titled Don't Blow Yourself Up: The Further Adventures and Travails of the Rocket Boy of October Sky. His books have been translated into many languages.
Early life and education
[edit]Homer H. Hickam Jr. is the second son of Homer Sr. and Elsie Gardener Hickam (née Lavender).[1][2] He was born and
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MISSION UPDATES
Originally published on: Mar 17, 2021
Raised in Coalwood, West Virginia, Homer Hickam Jr. began his love of space at an early age. Along with his friends, they named themselves the “Big Creek Missile Agency.” Yet to the town, they were known as “The Rocket Boys,” which became the title of one of Hickam’s best sellers. Although building rockets was a childhood pastime, the excitement of space exploration never left Hickam’s heart.
After going to college at Virginia Tech for an industrial engineering degree, Hickam volunteered to travel to Vietnam as an army engineer. Once his six years with the army were up, Hickam started working with the military’s Aviation and Missile department as an army civilian. It was during this time that he began to learn programming for computers. NASA hired Hickam in 1981 not for his engineering degree, but because he knew how to program computers. As an employee located in their Space Lab corporate office, Hickam automated thei
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About Homer
Homer H. Hickam, Jr. was born on February 19, 1943, the second son of Homer and Elsie Hickam, and was raised in Coalwood, West Virginia. He graduated from Big Creek High School in 1960 and from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech) in 1964 with a BS degree in Industrial Engineering. A U.S. Army veteran, Mr. Hickam served as a First Lieutenant in the Fourth Infantry Division in Vietnam in 1967-1968 where he won the Army Commendation and Bronze Star medals. He served six years on active duty, leaving the service with the rank of Captain.
Hickam has been a writer since 1969 after his return from Vietnam. At first, he mostly wrote about his scuba diving adventures for a variety of different magazines. Then, after diving on many of the wrecks involved, he branched off into writing about the battle against the U-boats along the American east coast during World War II. This resulted in his first book, Torpedo Junction (1989), a military history best-seller pub