OAKLAND MILLS - Car horns were honking.

The crowd of family and friends surrounding Craig Lauver was cheering, whistling and clapping.

They were sharing high fives.

Everyone was smiling - especially Craig.

"I liked it," he said.

A simple statement and, although his words were barely audible, his small smile actually said it all.

Lou Gehrig's Disease will take this 41-year-old man's life, but it was not be able to take away from him the thrill of seeing his six-foot rocket soar into the Juniata County sky last Sunday afternoon.

He sat in his wheelchair covered with a blanket, but surrounded by the real warmth of family and friends who shared his dream.

The rocket was Craig's creation. He was truly the "rocket scientist" and his friends and family were his hands, doing what he told them to do since he could not do it himself.

To which Craig's wife, Michelle, quipped, "Craig is the only one who can get away with telling them all what to do and how to do it."

She sat by his side most of the time, listening intently to what he was saying and passing the information on to the others.

That's what this traumatic disease is all about.

"Your mind becomes trapped in a body that won't work," explained Craig's brother, Nelson Lauver. "It's an incredibly cruel disease - an incredibly unfair disease."

Craig, the father of three was a construction worker who had built his own log house.

"And bang!" Nelson said, adding that it was a sad day when Craig was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig's Disease a few years ago.

"Things we used to complain about seem so trivial now," Nelson added.

At Sunday's launch site, Craig struggled to talk and they all struggled to hear what he is trying to tell them. But then again, to this man's family and friends, the struggle was all worth it. In fact, on Sunday afternoon, there was no struggle, there were no complaints.

There was this special camaraderie that, after the countdown, successful blastoff some 2,000 feet into the blue sky above the cornfield and all the cheers, had to result in simple smiles, moments of silence and some tears, too.

"That was neat. I was really impressed with that," said Craig's 23-year-old son, Chad Lauver, who then added, "I'm so glad he got to see it go up."

They set out to accomplish a dream for a friend, a husband, a father - and they did.

"That was pretty cool, wasn't it?" asked Zane Lauver, Craig's 5-year-old son, a student at Juniata Mennonite School.

Yes, it was.

Also on hand to witness this historic flight was Craig's 14-year-old daughter, Jenny, who attends Middleburg High School.

Ask anyone who was in that cornfield on Dave and Marie Graybill's farm in Oakland Mills or watching from their cars parked along the road - some staying for hours as Craig and his friends worked through a few setbacks.

The countdown came shortly before 3 p.m. for a blastoff that had been tentatively set for noon.

Throughout the morning, they set off some smaller rockets, one of which resulted in a dramatic explosion and added to the suspense later on when Craig's 7-pound, 70-some-inch rocket with five engines became the center of attention.

When they thought it was ready to go, they brought it to Craig's wheelchair for final inspection. He immediately told them it wouldn't work. The ignition wires needed to get into the rocket more so they would be sure to set off the engines. They said they wouldn't fit. He said it won't fly the way it was. A conference around the wheelchair, with Craig's friends listening intently to the suggestions he had to give, resulted in a little trimming here and little trimming there - and a few hours later, they got Craig's go-ahead.

"We had to build up the suspense," said Chad, smiling.

Why rockets?

"Everyone can help him with them and everyone likes them, especially him," Michelle answered, deciphering Craig's response.

"I believe that the Lord has given me rockets to enjoy and to keep me sharp while I go through ALS," Craig wrote in a recent email message. "Then, by sharing them with others, I am giving back to Him. There has always been the right help at just the right time."

Craig can correspond with email messages and would love to hear from others interested in his hobby. His email address is mclauver@tricountyi.net.

As children growing up together in the McAlisterville area, Craig and his friends all had an interest in rockets - you know, the kind that come in kits.

Then, in the spring of 1999, Craig was diagnosed with ALS, which is more commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig's Disease after baseball's famous Hall-of-Famer.

With a body that won't work, but a brilliant mind, Craig became interested in rockets all over again. So did his friends.

Jeff Walters, now a truck driver, talked about how they built rockets as kids.

"But none this big!" he said, adding, "When he became ill we all took a little more interest in his hobby."

This past spring, he and his friends - including Terry Lauver, a cousin, in addition to Jack Tusing, Jeff Walters, Scott Beardslee and Denny Casey - rented a specially equipped van and traveled to the Pittsburgh area so Craig could participate in Tripoli Rocketry Association-sponsored launches and become certified in high-powered rockets.

"He had to build a rocket and have a successful launch," explained Chad, who works at Susquehanna Valley Construction.

Grace Covenant Church in Juniata County, where Craig goes, provided a special golf cart for Craig to use there.

Nelson praised the "team effort," reiterating how "his friends did all the work for him - they were his hands."

That accomplished, they returned to Juniata County, where Craig's cousin, Dane Lauver, and his wife, Lori, spent some 250 hours actually creating Craig's biggest rocket since late spring.

"If you add in Craig's thought time on these things," Lori added, "the hours increase tremendously. He master-minded this."

They are the leaders of the 4-H rocketry club, too. Dane is manager of the Juniata County Conservation District and Lori works at the Whitaker Center for Science and Arts in Harrisburg.

"They did a wonderful job," Michelle added.

"His friends have jumped through all kinds of hoops for him," his brother added.

The rocket - black and white, with a gray nose and the words U.S. Air Force on the side with a few red and white stripes and a white star on blue circle, as painted by Barry Strawser - needed Federal Aviation Administration permission to be launched this past weekend.

It had the potential to soar into "small aircraft altitude," said Terry, a pilot.

A few small planes, probably from the nearby Mifflintown Airport, passed by throughout the morning, as well as two fighter jets.

Terry explained that small rockets use an A, B, C or D motor, but "any motor above a G" requires permission of the FAA to be launched "because of the power of the engine and the potential altitude." Craig's biggest rocket used an H (N is the highest, according to Craig).

No one was aware of a rocket as big as this ever being launched in Juniata County.

Craig used his computer to simulate the launch and predicted his rocket would reach 1,800 feet on Sunday - he thought afterward it might have surpassed that by a couple hundred feet.

They were all pleased with result.

"That was picture-perfect," said Terry.

"That was great!" came from Dane.

"That was pretty cool," said Nelson.

"Wonderful!" cheered Michelle.

Although his dream has now come true, Craig still isn't giving in to this fatal disease.

He has incredible hope that he will be cured and, therefore, plans to be put on a ventilator when the time comes that breathing on his own becomes too difficult to do.

"I have told my doctors that I believe they will be taking me off of the vent instead of turning it off," he said.

With the help of Bill Womer, a fellow member of Grace Covenant Church in Juniata County, Craig answered some additional questions at his home in Evendale, Juniata County this week.

"No one gave me the prognosis, but I knew the outcome. I knew that ALS was a fatal disease with a gradual and steady decline in mobility and muscle function," he said.

But he still has hope.

"Yes, I do have hope for my healing because I have a promise from God. The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever and that in the books of 3 John 2 and Acts 10: 38, God's will for us is to be healthy and whole. Jesus never turned away from anyone who asked for healing. He healed them all.

"I am thankful for where I am, not for having ALS, but through ALS, I've come to know the Lord's saving grace. I am blessed every morning that I wake up with brand new mercy and loving kindness that only my Heavenly Father can give."

He hopes others will come to know the Lord's saving grace through his story, too.

Asked if there is something he would like to tell his friends, he answered, simply:

"I love them."