In response to the Cuban Missile Crisis I dove into research on nuclear weapons and warfare. I was only ten years old at the time but had learned to read very early in life, so at age 10 I was reading Herman Kahn's "On Thermonuclear War". Within a few years I was certain that I would be lucky to live through the 1980s. I chose not to go to college based on the idea that if I was going to have a relatively short life, I wanted to spend it doing anything but sitting under fluorescent lights in a classroom any longer than I was forced to do so. I left home the day I turned 18 and led a pretty wild life for several years. Always had nightmares of nuke explosions and never wanted or had children because I didn't want them to die along with all of us when the inevitable finally happened, as I was sure it would. Now, for the first time in over 50 years, I see a ray of hope that I will not live to see that last war on earth, and it's thanks to you.