Beamed Up!

LOS ANGELES - James Doohan, the burly chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise in the original "Star Trek" TV series and movies who responded to the command "Beam me up, Scotty," died Wednesday. He was 85.
[...]
The Canadians crossed a minefield laid for tanks; the soldiers weren't heavy enough to detonate the bombs. At 11:30 that night, he was machine-gunned, taking six hits: one that took off his middle right finger (he managed to hide the missing finger on screen), four in his leg and one in the chest. Fortunately the chest bullet was stopped by his silver cigarette case.

I didn't know he made the D-Day landing at Normandy. The whole "cigarette case stopped the bullet" thing is so clichéd, but it really happened to him. Amazing.

Being a geeky engineer myself, I'd have to cite Scotty as an early influence. I loved Star Trek, and I really liked the cool gizmos.

I'm sure Gorak welcomed him home....