From Tajikistan To The Moon

FROM TAJIKISTAN TO THE MOON is an inspirational true story. It reveals my history and struggles from an unique Soviet perspective. It is a story of war, anti-Semitism, survival, perseverance, good fortune and success, which could have happened only in America. A solemn promise I made to my mother during the darkest days of the war prompted me to write this memoir. Without warning, my childhood was shattered and my family plunged into the madness and savagery of World War II. We were bombed out of slumber at 4:00 am on June 22, 1941, eight hours before Soviet foreign minister Molotov announced that Russia was attacked by the Nazis and we were at war. For six weeks, running through fields, sleeping on the hard cold ground, dodging bullets and surviving on whatever food we could forage, my parents and I barely kept ahead of the German line. Somehow, my parents and I survived. Left behind in the rubble were eleven members of our family who were captured and brutally murdered. As a ten-year-old boy, I learned the terror of bombings, the sounds of flying bullets, the pain of near starvation, the torment of hunger and the omnipresence of death. FROM TAJIKISTAN TO THE MOON is of historic significance as I am the last of a generation to have lived through the horrific, never to be forgotten events of World War II. I bear testimony to my life as a young boy caught up in the ugly subhuman existence of a war refugee, a displaced person, separated by unseen borders of discrimination and war, who managed to live a full and rewarding life. I am also proud of my contributions to the Apollo and Surveyor lunar exploration programs and the development of scientific and defense satellites to keep America safe. I am married and we have four children and seven grandchildren. Now retired, we live in a large house in Southern California. I have certainly reached the American dream, yet I never forget where I came from.

FROM TAJIKISTAN TO THE MOON is an inspirational true story. It reveals my history and struggles from an unique Soviet perspective. It is a story of war, anti-Semitism, survival, perseverance, good fortune and success, which could have happened only in America. A solemn promise I made to my mother during the darkest days of the war prompted me to write this memoir. Without warning, my childhood was shattered and my family plunged into the madness and savagery of World War II. We were bombed out of slumber at 4:00 am on June 22, 1941, eight hours before Soviet foreign minister Molotov announced that Russia was attacked by the Nazis and we were at war. For six weeks, running through fields, sleeping on the hard cold ground, dodging bullets and surviving on whatever food we could forage, my parents and I barely kept ahead of the German line. Somehow, my parents and I survived. Left behind in the rubble were eleven members of our family who were captured and brutally murdered. As a ten-year-old boy, I learned the terror of bombings, the sounds of flying bullets, the pain of near starvation, the torment of hunger and the omnipresence of death. FROM TAJIKISTAN TO THE MOON is of historic significance as I am the last of a generation to have lived through the horrific, never to be forgotten events of World War II. I bear testimony to my life as a young boy caught up in the ugly subhuman existence of a war refugee, a displaced person, separated by unseen borders of discrimination and war, who managed to live a full and rewarding life. I am also proud of my contributions to the Apollo and Surveyor lunar exploration programs and the development of scientific and defense satellites to keep America safe. I am married and we have four children and seven grandchildren. Now retired, we live in a large house in Southern California. I have certainly reached the American dream, yet I never forget where I came from.

ROBERT FRIMTZIS – Author, Speaker, Retired Engineering Manager, and Contributor to America’s Space and Defense Programs At the age of ten Robert’s peaceful town, in what is now Moldova was destroyed by the Nazis and he survived the ravages of World War II by escaping to Tajikistan. Hunger forced him to quit school and get his first full time job at the age of twelve. To escape from Soviet anti-Semitism and get to America Robert crossed many borders illegally. At nineteen he reached America where he earned a Bachelor’s degree from CCNY and a Master’s from Columbia University in electrical engineering. In various management positions Frimtzis contributed to the successes of the Apollo and Surveyor lunar explorations, defense satellites and the Gamma Ray Observatory spacecraft. He also founded RFA Associates, a software engineering company. Robert is currently retired and lives with his wife of over fifty years in Rancho Santa Fe, California. They have four children and seven grandchildren. Robert Frimtzis’ memoir, FROM TAJIKISTAN TO THE MOON, is an inspirational story of the spellbinding events of the war and his escape. It brings to life Robert’s flight to freedom and ultimate success in America. Against all odds a boy from Beltz survived the Nazi bombs, escaped from Russia, trekked through half of Europe, and to top it all off, contributed to Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon and the development of defense satellites to keep America safe.