Thomas Heggen was born December 23, 1919, in Fort Dodge, Iowa, the son of Thomas O. Heggen, a business owner, and Mina Amelia Paulson. In 1935, after the business failed during the depression, the family moved to Oklahoma. Heggen attended Oklahoma City University, Oklahoma A&M University, and the University of Minnesota. In 1941, he graduated with a degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota. In December that same year, Heggen was working in New York City as an editor for Reader's Digest when the United States entered World War II. He joined the U.S. Navy a few days later and was sent to an officers' training program at Notre Dame, after which he joined the tanker USS Salinas, which operated in the North Atlantic. After a six-month stay in the hospital with a serious hand injury, sustained during a fight with an officer, Heggen was assigned to...