Table of Contents
Author's Note ix
Prologue: The River xiii
Part I Gene
1 Midwestern 3
2 Rocket Man 12
3 Korat 21
4 The Boys in the Back 29
5 The Time of Useful Consciousness 36
6 Ernie Banks 43
7 Blueghost 39 48
8 Tucson 62
9 Blowtorch Jockeys 68
Part II Dark Knights
10 Joker 77
11 Yesterday's Frat Boy 86
12 "Their Glowing Trajectories" 93
13 Tiny Tim 100
14 Futility 106
15 "I Know We're Going to Die" 111
16 Low Bird 117
17 The Division 124
Part III The Swanee
18 The Real John Wayne 129
19 The Hurricane Lover 135
20 When the Moon Goes over the Mountain 140
21 The First at Tucson National 152
22 Dark Encounter 159
23 The Grove 165
24 Clark 173
25 Places Like the Moon 179
26 Zeroed In 183
27 Esther Williams 188
28 "Some Kind of Rescue" 200
29 The Sampan 207
30 Journey's End 214
31 "Lay That Man Down" 222
32 Beyond a Normal Call of Duty 232
33 The Returns 242
34 "As Comrades" 247
Acknowledgments 258
Appendix A Chronology 259
Appendix B Walker and Potts 262
Notes 273
Index 298