Who has met who concerning Astronauts

[vash]

i went deer hunting with an astronaut. nice fella.

i cannot remember his name. i may call my brother for it..

but anyways...he was so embarrassed, because he forgot the speed of sound..in mph. really embarrassed. didnt help that we ribbed him about it forever.

[vash]

i remember..his name was john. very very nice guy. we never did get a deer. i think his dad did.

[Joeaksa]

Jeez Mike,

You trying to keep me busy the entire day?? First the astronauts and now this!

Most of the old test pilots I know or have flown with are the "old school" era.

Are you a pilot Mike? If you are maybe I can help you a bit... there is a group of pilots called the QB's. I cannot say much more about them on an open forum but if you are a member (have been for 35 years) thats where a lot of them get together with friends for a drink and dinner. They have "hangars" in every major city in America and in many smaller places as well.

Was at a QB dinner in Ft. Worth years ago and sat with a gent at one of the tables. His name kept reminding me of something and finally once home got on the internet and looked it up. He was the first "Ace" in the jet era, shooting down 5 airplanes in the beginning of the Korean War in a F-9 Panther. You just do not normally run into people like this other than get-togethers like this.

Was at a national get together back in the mid-80's and sat down at a table for dinner. Seated across from me was Gen. Jimmy Doolittle. Really nice guy, kinda quiet but more than willing to talk and friendly.

Was at a San Diego event and found a table and a seat next to an older gent. He had several boxes and a couple of briefcases with him. We all had dinner then they introduced him to the group. Turns out that he was something like the 3 flight test pilot on the ME-262 in Germany during the war. He opened up his boxes and passed his personal logbooks around from the war, showing his test flights on the -262 and so on. He was "snatched" after the war by the Allies and ended up going to work for Consolidated Aircraft in San Diego. Funny thing was that six months later I ended up moving to Berlin Germany flying out of Tempelhof Air Base. Wish I was still in touch with him.

Ok, last one as I could go on and on all day on this subject. I am still in touch with Tony LeVier's personal sect at Lockheed. I knew Tony for years as several of my family worked/work for Lockheed and worked on many of the "black" programs. I have his autograph on several photos of him and the planes that he was the test pilot on for Lockheed. His sect and I became friends and we stayed in touch after Tony passed. She still lives in SoCal and last time I talked with her was as feisty as ever...

Mike, let me know if you are a pilot. If you have soloed I can get you into one of these meetings and show/tell you a bit more. If interested pls email (not PM, my box is almost full) me and we can go from there.

Joe A

PS you really do not want to meet Yeager. He is a JERK and no one in the aviation community really likes him. Its all about $$ to him and if you do not worship the ground he walks on he will not give you the time of day. On the other hand Gen. Bob Contreras, the man who flew the B-29 who dropped Yeager is a wonderful and friendly guy. He just came over to Phoenix and spent some time with us. Also Scotty Crossfield is the same, just down to earth nice guy....

[azasadny]

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr Walter Schirra at Camp Pendleton, CA when I was in the Navy. A very gracious gentleman....

[Rapewta]

I worked for Aerojet, Rancho Cordova for 11 years and on occasion we would have motivational speakers stop by and take Q&A's.
A couple were astronauts. Sorry, I don't recall their names but they were young, still on active duty.
Very impressive people.
I remember how great I felt to be sitting a few feet from some space travelers.
I had the oppertunity to ask them anything I wanted to but kept my mouth shut.

[KNS]

I could be wrong but I don't believe there were any F9F Panther aces in the Korean war. In fact, the only Navy ace during that war flew a Corsair(!).

Bob Cardenas was name of the pilot of the B-29 that dropped Yeager.

I used to work for a guy that was a QB, great bunch of guys!

[GH85Carrera]

According to Wikipedia, almost all were in a F86 Sabre. They only list one non Air Force Ace and he was USMC. Of course that is just Wikipedia.

[KNS]

James Jabara was the first Jet ace of the war, died in 1966.

[BernieP]

When I was in the cup scouts our scoutmaster worked for NASA. He arranged for our troop to meet all of the original Mercury seven guys. A very long time ago.

Bernie P

[mikeesik]

Originally Posted by BernieP

When I was in the cup scouts our scoutmaster worked for NASA. He arranged for our troop to meet all of the original Mercury seven guys. A very long time ago.

Bernie P

........A....N.....D !!!!!!!!?????????????????????????????????????
please.

[BernieP]

It was just a meet and greet and I was only about 8 years old. All of the guys were great and answered our questions no matter how silly. I read everything I could find about about the space program after that.

Bernie P

[mikeesik]

Hello.
Where did you meet?
Any pics. by the parents?
Any remembrances of the Astronauts.
Any autographed pics.
..anything?
So great.

[BernieP]

Sorry, no pics it was all very low key and I didn't think to get anything signed. I was a little kid and my parents didn't go. These guys weren't celebs yet.

Bernie P

[mikeesik]

Thanks.
It is great to just hear that you met them.
Thanks for sharing.

[Por_sha911]

There are several astronauts who brag about meeting me but I hate it when they make such a big deal about it.

[dar636]

I visited Bill Anders (Apollo 8) at his hangar in the San Juans, father of a friend of a friend of mine. Great guy for a couple of drop in dopey pilots who just wanted to walk around the hangar and drool on his stuff. He showed us all his memorabilia in the attached office. Cool stuff it was too.

In 1980-82 I worked at FSI in Mojave CA and we had test pilots from all the services. Great beer calls on Friday afternoons. The whole org would shut down early Friday afternoon and tip a few in the hangar. As one of the frequent last standing it always boiled down to maintainers (me) and operations (pilots) cleaning up.

Spent 15 years in flight test at Boeing, more generally good people, ladies too including my (now) wife. The few D.H.'s were mostly entertaining to the rest as they set the bar higher and higher when proving thier heads were still up and locked.

Now I work with pilots in the industry and FAA/CAA's around the world. Last summer I was supporting an Alaska company certifying a synthetic vision system for corporate aircraft in Denver. One evening four of us were sitting in the hotel bar eating the free garbage, showing each other pictures of our airplanes on our iphones and laughing about what losers we were acting like in the eyes of our significant others.

It was another great night!

[Heel n Toe]

My wife and I met Robert Duvall at a movie premiere... does that count? Probably not... it was the premiere of The Great Santini, not Deep Impact.



There have been three from SC... Charles Bolden, Charles Duke, and Ron McNair... I wish I could say I've met even one of them, but I haven't.

[mikeesik]

A lot of interesting people with interesting lives and experiences.
Thanks for sharing.

[Mothy]

My son went on Rotary Exchange to USA for a year - stayed in Rome NY.

Turned out that with his first host family the dad was an ex NASA test pilot and was involved in a lot of the training of Apollo and Shuttle crew. He met his wife during this period - she was Jim Lovell's assistant.

Needless to say, the memorabilia in their home office was quite impressive!

Tim

[Wilhelm]

Met Gordo Cooper at the Camarillo CA Airshow. Must have been 2003 ?? He died in 2004 and I know he died not long after I met him. He was like the "Grand Marshal" of the airshow that year. He was well past his prime of course but it was cool to actually meet one of the "Original Seven". I still remember well the Mercury days. But you know, I just cant seem to remember what I had for lunch today.