Pioneer Astronaut. As a veteran WW II Air Force Pilot, he was a member of the original first seven selected as a Mercury Astronaut in April 1959. On May 15 and 16, 1963, he piloted the “Faith 7” spacecraft on a 22 orbit mission which concluded the operational phase of Project Mercury. During the 34 hours and 20 minutes of flight, Faith 7 attained an apogee of 166 statue miles and a speed of 17,546 miles per hour and traveled 546,167 statue miles. He served as command pilot of the 8 day 120 revolution Gemini 5 mission which began on August 21, 1965. It was on this flight that he and pilot Charles Conrad established a new space endurance record by traveling a distance of 3,312,993 miles in an elapsed time of 190 hours and 56 minutes. He also became the first man to make a second orbital flight and thus won for the United States the lead in man-hours in space by accumulating a total of 225 hours and 15 minutes. He served as backup command pilot for Gemini 12 and as backup commander for Apollo X. He retired from the Air Force and NASA as a Colonel in 1970, with a total of 222 hours logged in space. (bio by: John “J-Cat” Griffith)