Robert applied for active service in the military when World War II broke out, but he was rejected due to his previous medical conditions of tuberculosis and myopia (nearsightedness).
Robert's concern for the consequences of the nuclear age caused him and his wife to search for a place to live that would not be a likely target for the Russians to target with a nuclear weapon.
Robert's technical knowledge and background made him uniquely qualified to write science fiction and gave him the ability to go into detail about scientific side of the stories that he wrote.
Robert: (to L. Ron Hubbard, before he founded Scientology) You can't do anything right - probably not even such a simple thing as starting a new religion.