Can you imagine if James Monroe, the lieutenant in charge of the cannon with General George Washington’s troops that crossed the Delaware River in December 1776, hadn’t been rescued by a medic when he suffered life-threatening wounds in the Battle of Trenton? If he hadn’t survived to become the fifth President of the United States of America we wouldn’t have the Monroe Doctrine.

But there was a medic there, and he was well suited to come to the rescue of James Monroe. Monroe survived the wounds and went on to make history.

I don’t know why that particular story came to my mind, except it happened in a terribly cold winter at just about Christmas Eve. Someone was watching out for him, and our nation.

This came into my mind as I read about another event in American history. This one without a good ending!

“2001 A Space Odyssey” was a 1968 science fiction film written by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clark. You may have seen it. The film was very popular. I remember it well.

In the movie, the talking supercomputer, HAL 9000, contacted NASA to report a malfunction. The computer said: “Houston, we’ve got a problem.” Now fast forward to April 13, 1970. I remember watching TV when the news of the ill-fated Apollo 13 reported “Houston, we’ve had a problem.” It was eerie that the music in the background of the movie “2001 A Space Odyssey” was playing for the crew of that spaceship. The music was “Thus Spake Zarathustra.”

While that music was playing, Commander Jim Lovell contacted Mission Control in Houston to report a dreaded malfunction, as an oxygen tank in the service module exploded.

Those who have a fear of the number 13, triskaidekaphobia, should have warned that this particular space flight was in trouble from the beginning. You see, Apollo 13, this space module, was launched at 13:13 Houston time, and the explosion occurred on April 13!

Aren’t you glad that George Washington didn’t have that problem?