Product details
- ISBN 9781612499765
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 01 Dec 2024
- Publisher: Purdue University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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Pioneering Purdue contributions include more than one hundred faculty working on the Manhattan Project, learning how to better cool machine gun barrels, and making radar practical - all during World War II - as well as the transition from vacuum tubes to semiconductors, Dorothy Stratton advancing the role of women in the military, the founding of the National Society of Black Engineers, the first School of Engineering Education, the first university airport, and, most famously, Neil Armstrong, a US Navy officer and Purdue alumnus, and the first human to set foot on the moon.
Today Purdue is at the forefront of drones, hypersonics, energetics, artificial intelligence, space exploration, cybersecurity, semiconductors, and much more. In fact, approximately one-third of US spaceflights have included a Boilermaker astronaut, and many of those alumni served in the military. This large number of astronauts partially stems from a Purdue Air Force Academy program to provide advanced degrees to graduating officers.
A Spirit of Service tells the stories of men and women who lived this history, from ROTC students to a Medal of Honor recipient, from soldiers at the front during the Great War to a man who witnessed the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, from a pilot who led thousands of planes in bombing missions over Germany during World War II to military astronauts, from trailblazing female officers and pilots to twenty-first-century teachers and researchers who are creating the future. This volume records the stories of Purdue men and women whose patriotism, leadership, and heroism have preserved life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for generations of Americans - past, present, and future.
