The accident happened on the anniversary of my grandfather's birthday. My grandfather, George H. Scheer, Jr., was part of the reason I wanted to be an astronaut at an early age. He was a science fiction writer in the 1930s, and later, according to his obituary, "Technical advisor for the electronic warfare division of the Air Force Avionics laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base," though what he actually did for the US government is still shrouded in secrecy. My grandfather's short stories, including Beam Transmission, Another Dimension, The Crystaline Salvation, and The Last Ice, were published in Amazing Stories. He invented a matter transporter for the 1934 story, Beam Transmission.