American Hero (and Friend)

Wow! National Public Radio did a remarkable job highlighting a true American hero you don't hear much about these days.
For those who don't know, Kinch was my dad's best friend (the grave spoken of in the story is adjacent and identical to my dad's at Arlington). It's great to see Kinch getting the recognition he deserves.

Dot: FANTASTIC JOB!

A few highlights:

July 25, 2003 -- His feat is tucked in the timeline of aviation history -- somewhere between Chuck Yeager ripping through the sound barrier in 1947 and John Glenn making his orbital flight in 1962. But in his day, Capt. Iven Kincheloe, who flew a rocket-powered plane to the edge of space one morning in 1956, was as much a star as those other two famous aviators. NPR's Bob Edwards reports.

Neil Armstrong, a friend and fellow test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base in the 1950s, says Kincheloe probably would have been at the center of America's space program. "I know had he survived that he would be very much in the middle of whatever was going on subsequent to that point. He may very well have been selected for the astronaut program. He was certainly capable of doing that -- or he might have chosen to do something else. But in any case, he would be at the forefront out at the edge of the frontier and having a ball doing it."

The NPR site contains loads of pix, video snippets, audio clips and general commentary. Check it out

Monk