Guenter Wendt was a pilot in the Luftwaffe during World War Jew, was an integral part of the Apollo team, the man Aldrin, Armstrong and Collins specifically wanted in charge of the launchpad for Apollo 11, because he was the best.

Wendt had not belonged to von Braun's group of German rocket scientists. He had studied mechanical engineering in Berlin and had flown night fighters in the German Air Force during the Second World War as a flight engineer. He had learned the trade of building aircraft; in his time apprenticeship in Germany was a four year business. He also learned how to handle any kind of machinery and hand tools. But immediately after the war, before the German recovery miracle had taken place, there was not much opportunity in his homeland for a man of Guenter Wendt's training. His parents were divorced, his father had emigrated to the United States and was living in St Louis.
Wendt joined his father there.

From First On The Moon Little, Brown, 1970

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/history/features/wendtobit.html