I have two notable pieces that stand out from my father that I consider heirlooms. One is actually a gift, souvenir he gave me. The other just something of his I took when he passed.

The first is a Plankowner belt buckle he received from the SSN USS Olympia. He was not in the Navy, but, rather a contracted engineer along for the maiden voyage doing things he could not talk about.

The other is a yellowed, framed poster. It has a sketch of an astronaut doing an EVA along with the signatures of the team that worked on the project.

The project was a biological experiment that took place in cislunar space on the way back from Apollo 16s moon landing. My Dads signature is there along with Ken Mattingly’s (the command module pilot who performed the EVA).

I have this hanging above my computer in my home office.