Astronaut Possibilities?

[SgtUSMC]

I could have sworn that there was a Major General somewhere up in my chain of command a while back who had one of these astronaut badges in his alphas picture, unless I was just smoking crack. Do aviators stay on active duty while serving with NASA and then come back to the fleet ever? It seems to me that John Glen came back from Korea as a Major and was famous doing those game shows and whatnot but then did NASA and retired as a Lt. Col., unless of course I am just smoking too much crack. See below link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronaut_Wings

 

[HeyJoe]

General Bolden

I could have sworn that there was a Major General somewhere up in my chain of command a while back who had one of these astronaut badges in his alphas picture, unless I was just smoking crack. Do aviators stay on active duty while serving with NASA and then come back to the fleet ever? It seems to me that John Glen came back from Korea as a Major and was famous doing those game shows and whatnot but then did NASA and retired as a Lt. Col., unless of course I am just smoking too much crack. See below link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronaut_Wings

That would be MGEN Bolden who flew 4 Shuttle mssions and came back to the Corps afterwards: http://www.usmc.mil/genbios2.nsf/0/81BE83E89B03DDC88525680B000CC9F0?opendocument

 

[SgtUSMC]

Hot damn! Now that's a resume (just pretend there is an accent aigu above the E).

S/F

 

[HeyJoe]

Hot damn! Now that's a resume (just pretend there is an accent aigu above the E).

S/F

He's the real deal all right.

 

[Ex Rigger]

I've heard him give speeches to the NROTC unit at A&M twice, he's a good speaker and a great American.

 

[HH-60H]

He's the real deal all right.

He was DepDant at the Academy in the early 90's, and then went on to be a MAW CO at Miramar. Awesome guy. I saw him at the Navy Club in Seoul during an exercise a few years ago. I think he is retired now.

 

[Crowbar]

General Bolden was supposed to be Deputy Administrator of NASA after being the 3rd MAW CG.
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/news/pressrel/2002/02-009.html
I don't remember the circumstances but he never took the position.
Heard him speak a few times while I was at Miramar. Definitely not a boring person.

 

[Brett327]

General Bolden was supposed to be Deputy Administrator of NASA after being the 3rd MAW CG.
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/news/pressrel/2002/02-009.html
I don't remember the circumstances but he never took the position.
Heard him speak a few times while I was at Miramar. Definitely not a boring person.

Probably didn't want an Administrator and his deputy to have rhyming last names.

Interestingly, the site I found that pic had Golden labled as "Jew of the day."

Brett

 

[Crowbar]

Found a couple of links. It's been a few years since it happened so I couldn't remember the details.

http://www.nasawatch.com:16080/archives/2002/12/

Scroll down to 13 March 2002 for this:

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=435

Resign his commission? Isn't that a little extreme? Given the context is that supposed to just be synonymous with "retire"?

 

[A6-EA6]

You're right, the "resign his commission" part just means retirement. Military astronauts stay on active duty the entire time they are with NASA (unless they resign) and are paid as such. They also compete with the rest of the Service for promotion with their peers and, in the case of the USN, they have a very good shot at O-6 even though they have been out of the "real" Navy for many years. Rightly so, they had to be pretty good to get in the door in the first place and they are in leadership roles managing programs in NASA.

I don't know of any Navy Astronauts that came back into the USN, the only one I know of was MGEN Bolden mentioned above. Most guys seem to retire from the military and leave NASA at the same time.

 

[HeyJoe]

You're right, the "resign his commission" part just means retirement. Military astronauts stay on active duty the entire time they are with NASA (unless they resign) and are paid as such. They also compete with the rest of the Service for promotion with their peers and, in the case of the USN, they have a very good shot at O-6 even though they have been out of the "real" Navy for many years. Rightly so, they had to be pretty good to get in the door in the first place and they are in leadership roles managing programs in NASA.

I don't know of any Navy Astronauts that came back into the USN, the only one I know of was MGEN Bolden mentioned above. Most guys seem to retire from the military and leave NASA at the same time.

Bill Sheperd, another great American and "real deal" returned to Navy Special Warfare as an O-6 to lend his tech expertise to the community he started out in. His hard saying (now a NASA legend) was in answer to a NASA interviewer when asked what he did better than anyone else. His answer: "kill people with a knife". The NASA interviewer said "well, we haven't heard that answer before". He got 3 shuttle rides and then went to Russia to work in their space program in order to command the first space station. He was awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor (seldom given nowadays).

Great speaker, really smart dude and superb pilot who owns and flies a Great Lakes biplane (father and grandfather were aviators).

Official bio at: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/shepherd.html

 

[eddie]

Bill Sheperd, another great American and "real deal" returned to Navy Special Warfare as an O-6 to lend his tech expertise to the community he started out in. His hard saying (now a NASA legend) was in answer to a NASA interviewer when asked what he did better than anyone else. His answer: "kill people with a knife". The NASA interviewer said "well, we haven't heard that answer before". He got 3 shuttle rides and then went to Russia to work in their space program in order to command the first space station. He was awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor (seldom given nowadays).

Great speaker, really smart dude and superb pilot who owns and flies a Great Lakes biplane (father and grandfather were aviators).

Official bio at: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/shepherd.html

Was he a shuttle pilot, or a mission commander?

 

[HeyJoe]

Was he a shuttle pilot, or a mission commander?

He was not a pilot, but has private rating/tickets now. He didn't have the eyes out of USNA to go aviation so he opted to go to BUD/S and was a SEAL for 12 years, but got a masters from MIT that helped him make the cut for space program. He logged over 159 days in space as Commander of the Expedition-1 crew on the International Space Station (October 31, 2000 to March 21, 2001) and during three flights as a mission specialist on STS-27 (December 2-6, 1988), STS-41 (October 6-10, 1990) and STS-52 (October 22 to November 1, 1992).

 

[A4sForever]

Mike Smith .... my division leader when I first reported to the squadron.
A true gentleman and Naval Officer. A natural Pilot --- STS-51-L space shuttle Challenger Pilot .... RIP, Brother Mike.


Mike (far left) April/May '72 CUBI Pt.


About.com website:

Michael J. Smith (Captain, USN) graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1967 and subsequently attended the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School at Monterey, California. He completed Navy aviation jet training at Kingsville, Texas, receiving his aviator wings in May 1969. He was then assigned to the Advanced Jet Training Command (VT-21) where he served as an instructor from May 1969 to March 1971. During the 2-year period that followed, he flew A-6 Intruders and completed a Vietnam cruise while assigned to Attack Squadron 52 aboard the USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63). In 1974, he completed U.S. Navy Test Pilot School and was assigned to the Strike Aircraft Test Directorate at Patuxent River, Maryland, to work on the A-6E TRAM and CRUISE missile guidance systems. He returned to the U.S. Navy Test Pilot School in 1976 and completed an 18-month tour as an instructor. From Patuxent River, he was assigned to Attack Squadron 75 where he served as maintenance and operations officer while completing two Mediterranean deployments aboard the USS Saratoga. He flew 28 different types of civilian and military aircraft, logging 4,867.7 hours of flying time.

Mike received the Defense Distinguished Service Medal (posthumous), Navy Distinguished Flying Cross, 3 Air Medals, 13 Strike Flight Air Medals, the Navy Commendation Medal with "V", the Navy Unit Citation, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Silver Star.

 

[AllAmerican75]

Man A4s, you've sure have been around the block a few times.