hours with virtually no sleep to finish on time. We received a rare commendation and bonus from NASA for superior performance ahead of schedule and below budget.” Gordon Cooper--one of those seven original astronauts—had piloted the longest and final Mercury space flight in 1963, becoming the first American to sleep in orbit. “He gave me a rare souvenir,” George reminds me, “a dehydrated oatmeal cookie the size of a large dice that he had on a space mission. During a family dinner, | passed around the cookie for everyone to see. Dad was hard of hearing and didn’ t hear the story, so he popped the space cookie into his mouth, and it was gone before | could get any words out of my mouth. It was pure grief when it happened, but funny now.” As | write this in 2014, George is 85, and if a movie were to be made about him, he’ d like to be portrayed by Matt Damon. In October 1988, he was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer and given three years to live, but his daughter Devra, a naturopath, convinced him to meet with a macrobiotic counselor, and overnight he changed his diet and lifestyle. Now it’ s twenty-six years later. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015438