A Typical American

We are all immigrants—unless one is a member of one of the Native-American tribes that were all but decimated in the 1800’s.

The man in the picture is no exception. This is Al Bruckner, who was born in Germany in 1925 and grew up during the terror of Nazi government. He was drafted into military service during World War II and was wounded three times. We, along with our allies, wanted this man dead, and we did our level best to achieve that end. Fortunately, we did not succeed.

Al Bruckner was captured and endured time as a prisoner of war under the British. Upon his release after the war, he pursued an education and went on to earn a PhD at the University of Erlangen in Bavaria. Shortly thereafter, emigration to the USA gave him a new life.

He proved his worth to the United State quickly. By 1961 he was in a position of great responsibility in our space program: the superintendent of range operations (SRO) with the Mercury Program at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

In that position, where an error in judgment could have led to a national catastrophe, he coordinated range assets during the countdown of our first manned flight into space. He had the responsibility of a go/no-go decision on the Mercury Redstone launch, which carried Alan Shepard into sub-orbital space. Al went on to work on subsequent manned spaceflight programs.

As vice president of the Bendix Company’s Launch Support Division, he worked on the Apollo moon-launch program. When the Apollo program ended, he then became vice president of Lockheed Space Operations Company, which worked on the Space Shuttle.

Think about the statement his life makes about the insanity of war, the opportunity that our society affords to immigrants, and how fate and politics affect not only one person’s life, but affects the future of all of us.

Just imagine what effect all the wars have had on humanity by depriving us of many men like the one you see here? What if the Allied soldiers had been more accurate in their aim?

What if a less competent man had been at the console the day Alan Shepard’s mission was launched? In less than 18 years after we were intent on killing him, Al Bruckner was entrusted with the responsibility of a special man’s life, along with the pride of our entire nation.

Does America still offer the support and opportunity that helped this man repay us for our confidence in him? Can a gifted future immigrant still become a “typical” American?