When man first arrived on the moon, Jim Rentfrow got the news before Neil Armstrong's calm voice told an incredulous world that "The Eagle has landed." Rentfrow was the systems lead engineer of the California tracking station relaying communications from the astronauts to Houston and back again. A Doppler signaling device on the lunar module had sensed the touchdown, and Rentfrow was among the first men, on Earth - perhaps the first,, he isn't sure when his colleagues, noticed it - to see the signal readout change and herald a new chapter in the story of mankind. The signal was verified quickly by Neil Armstrong's words," says Rentfrow, 65, who is retired now and lives in Sullivan. "This put me in the position of hearing they,were down moments before it was transmitted to Houston and the rest of the world on July 20, 1969." Rentfrow's personal trajectory to a key role in the supreme moment of human endeavor is the all American story- A poor farm boy growing up near Windsor, he couldn't afford college and joined the Army in 1955. Uncle Sam discovered a mind as quick as a Saturn V rocket and sent him through all kinds of schooling before he emerged as a radar instructor. He got out of the Army in 1958 and would work on,various defense-related communications and radar projects - some of it very hush-hush before being head hunted in 1966 for the Apollo program. "I went to work for Bendix Field Engineering Corporation,". explains Rentfrow. "They managed the tracking network for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and that included all the manned space flights." Rentfrow wound up being in charge of the system that kept the astronauts in touch with Earth. His electronics also relayed instructions to the spaceship computers, telling them what to do and when. One loss in communication, one missed piece of engine-burn data, had those guys hurtling out of Earth's atmosphere at 23,000 mph would have. been. lost in space. "The moon landing, Armstrong's 'One small step,' sent chills up your spine,". he said. "But you were so tense, on your toes the whole time. There was no room for error." But when there was an error - the explosion on Apollo 13 in April 1970 Rentfrow found a new kind of chill running down his back. Mission commander Jim Lovell's quoted message "O'K, Houston, we've had a problem. here," could easily go down as the cosmic understatement of all time. While the three-man crew turned the lunar module into a space life raft for the desperate journey home, Rentfrow headed the team struggling to maintain vital voice and computer links with module antennas never meant for the job. "If we had lost them and not been able to find them again, that would have been it- those folks would have been gone," says Rentfrow. "But we never did lose that bird. Getting those fellas home is perhaps the highest point of my career even above the moon landing." He stayed right through the end of the Apollo program - nine total moonshots, six successful landings- and was so stressed after it was over in the early 70's, he had to spend a a week in the hospital. A modest man, he has only recently started telling his incredible story, thanks to the prodding of his second wife, Jane. In September, he gave a lecture to the Moultrie County Historical and Genealogical Society and, for Christmas, presented his six children and 14 grandchildren with an 18 page booklet detailing his experiences.