From the earliest days of spaceflight, human space travelers have come from military backgrounds, and indeed from backgrounds with combat experience. Mostly, as would be expected, air combat.
However, I’ve been wondering for awhile…how many are there with ground combat experience? Infantry, armor, artillery, etc.?
I know, in fact, of at least one—Christopher Cassidy. A decorated Navy SEAL, who served in Afghanistan following 9/11.
I would suspect there’s at least a couple of others, but this is from a group of literally hundreds of people spanning almost sixty years. A nice problem to have, really, for a manned spaceflight enthusiast, but still a tedious one to pick through.
So…'anyone have any tips for Grunts in Space?