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Countdown for Cindy
Flash! Mercy spaceship 58V successfully landed on the moon carries Lieutenant Cindy McGee, aerospace force nurse -- first American woman in space!
MOON NURSE!
Of course, Cindy was thrilled to be chosen for this great space adventure. But, once on the moon, she found it took more than being physically and mentally qualified. As the men at Moon Station, isolated from women for many months, reacted in their separate ways to the pretty, red-haired girl, Cindy knew she would need to be more than a highly-trained professional nurse - she would have to be a sensitive and understanding woman.
----
To write this book, Eloise Engle visited strategic NASA and Air Force installations. "This fictional story," she says, "is not an empty dream. Woman are serving in vital capacities in our Space Program and have passed tests given for astronauts."
MOON NURSE!
Of course, Cindy was thrilled to be chosen for this great space adventure. But, once on the moon, she found it took more than being physically and mentally qualified. As the men at Moon Station, isolated from women for many months, reacted in their separate ways to the pretty, red-haired girl, Cindy knew she would need to be more than a highly-trained professional nurse - she would have to be a sensitive and understanding woman.
----
To write this book, Eloise Engle visited strategic NASA and Air Force installations. "This fictional story," she says, "is not an empty dream. Woman are serving in vital capacities in our Space Program and have passed tests given for astronauts."
122 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1962
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 1, 2016
I don't recall many details about this book, but I know I read it multiple times as a young teen. Set in the future, Cindy is an Aerospace Force Nurse and she is chosen to go to the moon colony to check the health of the colonists. It was really cool - I may have to reread it!
****************
While cataloging my books, I ran across this one and just had to reread it. The book is written in the early 1960s, but is set in some nebulous, unstated future. There is actually not a lot of detail about the tech of the future, except things dealing with space exploration. Communication is limited to radio and satellite. There is no mention of personal communication devices such as cell phones.
The heroine is Cindy McGee, a nurse in the Aerospace Force Nurse Corps. She has been selected, mostly because of her diminutive size (she's a petite 95-pound redhead), to go to the lunar colony to treat 3 astronauts who were injured during a fall off a cliff. There are 3 crewmembers: Turk Hunter, the pilot, Dr. Lufkin, an experienced space medical doctor, and Cindy herself. The lunar colony is about what one would expect; it consists of numerous domes connected by covered walkways. There are also a number of underground structures.
One of the things I found interesting is that psychological issues resulting from space isolation were considered personality issues rather than medical issues. I think we have a much healthier viewpoint today in considering mental and physical health more holistically.
Also, the ideas about women were very definitely those of the 1950s/60s. I found it interesting that Ms. Engle's view of the future hadn't evolved much in regard to women's rights. Again, I think we have improved considerably in the 50+ years since the book was published.
Cindy is a bit idealized as a character. She is portrayed as perhaps a bit immature, which I think is contrary to such a highly educated character. However, I think she would have been very relatable to teenage girls of the 1960s.
Finally, the book was aimed at teenage girls, and contains a romance. Turk is actually a charming character, fairly enlightened as to women's rights in comparison to some of the other characters. Appropriately, the book doesn't specify that a marriage and HEA will follow; rather, Turk and Cindy find themselves in love and it is left to the reader's imagination as to how their relationship will develop.
I loved this book as a teen and would have given it 5 stars. As an adult, I would only give it 3. So, I shall split the difference and give it 4 stars.
****************
While cataloging my books, I ran across this one and just had to reread it. The book is written in the early 1960s, but is set in some nebulous, unstated future. There is actually not a lot of detail about the tech of the future, except things dealing with space exploration. Communication is limited to radio and satellite. There is no mention of personal communication devices such as cell phones.
The heroine is Cindy McGee, a nurse in the Aerospace Force Nurse Corps. She has been selected, mostly because of her diminutive size (she's a petite 95-pound redhead), to go to the lunar colony to treat 3 astronauts who were injured during a fall off a cliff. There are 3 crewmembers: Turk Hunter, the pilot, Dr. Lufkin, an experienced space medical doctor, and Cindy herself. The lunar colony is about what one would expect; it consists of numerous domes connected by covered walkways. There are also a number of underground structures.
One of the things I found interesting is that psychological issues resulting from space isolation were considered personality issues rather than medical issues. I think we have a much healthier viewpoint today in considering mental and physical health more holistically.
Also, the ideas about women were very definitely those of the 1950s/60s. I found it interesting that Ms. Engle's view of the future hadn't evolved much in regard to women's rights. Again, I think we have improved considerably in the 50+ years since the book was published.
Cindy is a bit idealized as a character. She is portrayed as perhaps a bit immature, which I think is contrary to such a highly educated character. However, I think she would have been very relatable to teenage girls of the 1960s.
Finally, the book was aimed at teenage girls, and contains a romance. Turk is actually a charming character, fairly enlightened as to women's rights in comparison to some of the other characters. Appropriately, the book doesn't specify that a marriage and HEA will follow; rather, Turk and Cindy find themselves in love and it is left to the reader's imagination as to how their relationship will develop.
I loved this book as a teen and would have given it 5 stars. As an adult, I would only give it 3. So, I shall split the difference and give it 4 stars.
August 17, 2025
https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/countdown-for-cindy-by-eloise-engle/
It’s a curiosity. I have identified the author as Eloise Katherine Engle nee Hopper (1923-1993), who was born in Seattle and died in Alexandria, across the river from DC; in the introduction she identifies her husband as Captain Paul R. Engle (MC) USN. The intro concludes:
"I could not have dreamed of writing a space book for girls without the help of Major James F. Sunderman and the Air Force Book program."
She also wrote several books on military history, and a couple of other novels, some of them with her second husband Lauri Paananen, who was Finnish.
Anyway, the story itself was originally published in American Girl, the magazine of the Girl Scouts of the USA, in 1961, and expanded for book publication in 1962. It has a brief but gushing preface from Dolores O’Hara, the Lieutenant Nurse for the Mercury astronauts. It’s set at an unspecified date in the near-ish future, where no women have yet flown into space (though in our own timeline, that particular barrier was broken as early as 1963) and yet there are several dozen male astronauts living on a base on the Moon.
Our protagonist, gallant Cindy McGee, is a nurse for the astronaut corps, and is sent to the Moon to deal with several astronauts injured in an accident because she weighs only 95 pounds, much to the annoyance of her female colleagues who are better pilots. She shows that she is good at nursing in space despite occasional moments of feminine panic. They celebrate Christmas on the Moon, and some of the chaps are mean to her. In the second last chapter there is a bizarre incident where aliens appear on the lunar base, look around and then erase everyone’s memories of their visit before going home. And she realises that she is in love with the astronaut who flew her to the moon and back, manly Turk Hunter [sic].
There are numerous fallacies of detail (mercilessly catalogued by Ian Sales here), but for me the striking thing about the book is its lack of ambition for Cindy and for women. Nursing is the only profession that can get you into space; being a good pilot is not enough. The hierarchy is thoroughly male and likely to stay that way. For a book published in the 1960s, the attitudes are very 1950s. (Cindy’s weight is specified as early as half way down the first page.)
I couldn’t honestly recommend it.
It’s a curiosity. I have identified the author as Eloise Katherine Engle nee Hopper (1923-1993), who was born in Seattle and died in Alexandria, across the river from DC; in the introduction she identifies her husband as Captain Paul R. Engle (MC) USN. The intro concludes:
"I could not have dreamed of writing a space book for girls without the help of Major James F. Sunderman and the Air Force Book program."
She also wrote several books on military history, and a couple of other novels, some of them with her second husband Lauri Paananen, who was Finnish.
Anyway, the story itself was originally published in American Girl, the magazine of the Girl Scouts of the USA, in 1961, and expanded for book publication in 1962. It has a brief but gushing preface from Dolores O’Hara, the Lieutenant Nurse for the Mercury astronauts. It’s set at an unspecified date in the near-ish future, where no women have yet flown into space (though in our own timeline, that particular barrier was broken as early as 1963) and yet there are several dozen male astronauts living on a base on the Moon.
Our protagonist, gallant Cindy McGee, is a nurse for the astronaut corps, and is sent to the Moon to deal with several astronauts injured in an accident because she weighs only 95 pounds, much to the annoyance of her female colleagues who are better pilots. She shows that she is good at nursing in space despite occasional moments of feminine panic. They celebrate Christmas on the Moon, and some of the chaps are mean to her. In the second last chapter there is a bizarre incident where aliens appear on the lunar base, look around and then erase everyone’s memories of their visit before going home. And she realises that she is in love with the astronaut who flew her to the moon and back, manly Turk Hunter [sic].
There are numerous fallacies of detail (mercilessly catalogued by Ian Sales here), but for me the striking thing about the book is its lack of ambition for Cindy and for women. Nursing is the only profession that can get you into space; being a good pilot is not enough. The hierarchy is thoroughly male and likely to stay that way. For a book published in the 1960s, the attitudes are very 1950s. (Cindy’s weight is specified as early as half way down the first page.)
I couldn’t honestly recommend it.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews