General James A. McDivitt (USAF – ret.), Gemini 4 and Apollo 9 astronaut.
When he joined the Air Force in 1951 as an aviation cadet after attending junior college, Mr. McDivitt had “never been in an airplane, never been off the ground,” as he recalled in an interview for NASA’s Johnson Space Center Oral History Project.
He went on to fly 145 fighter missions during the Korean War, became an Air Force test pilot, then was selected by NASA in September 1962 as one of nine astronauts for the Gemini program, the bridge between the original Mercury Seven astronauts and the Apollo missions leading to the moon landings.
Mr. McDivitt was in command of the Gemini 4 capsule, which orbited the earth for nearly 98 hours over four days in June 1965, a record for a two-person spaceflight.
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Mr. McDivitt’s second and last space mission came in March 1969, when he commanded the Apollo 9 flight, a 10-day orbiting of the earth by a three-person crew. Mr. McDivitt flew with Russell L. Schweickart in a pioneering test of the lunar module, the prototype of the space vehicle that carried Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon four months later. With David R. Scott piloting the Apollo 9 craft, the lunar module disengaged from it, orbited more than 100 miles away and then returned to it.
Official statement from NASA.
His numerous awards included two NASA Distinguished Service Medals and the NASA Exceptional Service Medal. For his service in the U.S. Air Force, he also was awarded two Air Force Distinguished Service Medals, four Distinguished Flying Crosses, five Air Medals, and U.S. Air Force Astronaut Wings. McDivitt also received the Chong Moo Medal from South Korea, the U.S. Air Force Systems Command Aerospace Primus Award, the Arnold Air Society JFK Trophy, the Sword of Loyola, and the Michigan Wolverine Frontiersman Award.
Mike Schank, from “American Movie”. (Hattip: Lawrence.)
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I was born in 1960, and so McDivitt and the other names of the NASA Astronauts are familiar to me, as at that time, we were all glued to our televisions every time there was a rocket launch, and the corresponding landing. It was a matter of national pride, in a time of the war in Vietnam that was not going that well.
And of course, I didn’t leave the television during the moon landing whenever there was any coverage of it. My twin brother on the other hand, was not nearly as into it as me. Somehow, I knew when things happening were going to be history making, such as the Watergate trials, with Sam Ervin, the television coverage of Bobby Kennedy and his shooting and other important issues of that period. Kent State loomed big as well, at a time when the protests against the war were just starting to get television coverage.
It makes on wonder if the youth of today realizes that history is being made even as they play their video games and post on twitter or facebook. In fact, with the advent of the internet, things are happening so fast, I don’t think that I would have been able to have kept up as a kid.
The moon landing and the rest of the Apollo program were just at the edge of my awareness at the time. I’m slightly younger than you.
“t makes on wonder if the youth of today realizes that history is being made even as they play their video games and post on twitter or facebook.”
This is a good point, and I think it deserves a longer answer when I have time to write it. I wonder if people ever realize history is being made as it happens.
Sure, there are times when you *know*: 9/11, Challenger, the 1993 AFC wild card game between the Bills and the Oilers. But I think a lot of the time, you only realize that history was made in retrospect.
*Only Yesterday* is a good book that I think relates to this.