Houston Kraft Quotes

if the primary way we’ve been taught Kindness looks a lot like confetti, then we will continue to treat it like the dollar-store party poppers that are momentarily exciting, but ultimately cheap. Short-lived. Cute, but usually inconsequential. Confetti almost always leaves behind a mess that someone else will have to clean up. And what a mess we are in. We certainly are not beyond hope—there are incredible people all around us doing wonderous things rooted in generosity, selflessness, and compassion.

Gemini 4 helped create a media misapprehension that I was a Marine. Jim Maloney, a reporter for the Houston Post, a morning newspaper, always covered my late night press conferences. Since the Gemini 4 mission was the first flown from Houston and the first with three flight directors, he wrote an article on Kraft, Hodge, and myself. Adding some color he described me as “an ex-fighter pilot who you would trust with your life. Stocky, crew-cut and blond, Kranz is a bloodthirsty model for a Marine Corps recruiting poster.” The next evening after the press conference I corrected him, “Jim, you got it wrong in your article. I’m Air Force, not a Marine.” He corrected me, saying, “I didn’t say you were a Marine. I said you looked like a poster boy for the Marines!