The Whittaker Saga

As Michael is closing in on graduation and his law degree, Carl has finally managed to persuade his parents to allow him to enlist early. After North Vietnam launches the Easter Offensive in March he is even more adamant he needs to go and no arguments for either of his parents are enough to persuade him to stay. So even though his birthday is almost six months off, Thomas and Betty finally gives in and sign his papers. The day after, Carl returns home in his new uniform. Thomas and Betty tries to show support, but they are both heartbroken and terrified. Carl tries to comfort his mother, assuring her that he'll be fine. Susan is less sad, more angry and has no problem telling her brother that he's being an idiot before storming off and banging the door shut behind her.  While wishing his sister could find it in herself to say goodbye properly, Carl settles for hugging his baby brother before heading off to the base for some training before shipping off. He wishes he could say ...

While tensions are high at Thomas and Betty's, Arthur and his family are preparing for a birthday party. 1970 and 71 has been intense. The failure of Apollo 13 meant all current projects had to be reviewed and reexamined with upgraded emergency response protocols and extensive failure-mode simulations, while the fact that the Soviet launched the first space station, and then successfully docked with it a few months later, meant a double down on the attempts to create something similar. Over all of Edwards, focus shifted, from getting to the moon (now that they had) to being able to stay up in space for longer, and then land - rather than splash down - on reentry making them reusable. Projects such as M2-F3 and X-24A, focusing on what was called "lifting body technology" (being able to glide and land) meant Arthur spent his days pouring over wind tunnel data, telemetry, and prepping for post-flight debriefs with pilots. At home, however, the girls were getting bigger, wild...