Another of the Apollo crew leaves us before we can return to the Moon.
Godspeed, Wally.
Isn’t he the first to die of old age?
RIP, Cap’n.
I knew Wally Shirra and worked with him. He was the first project pilot for the Sidewinder missile development program along with the previously mentioned accomplishments.
One great guy.
You know, David, the only way you could get any cooler is if you were to tell us that you once dated Rita Hayworth.
No, but in the ballroom of the Hotel Martinez in Cannes, France I once asked Olymipic skating champion and movie star Sonja Henie, for a dance.
She declined with a nice smile.
Wiki’s calling it cancer, actually. He was 84.
I was born in the Space Age. I watched Walter Cronkite as he covered the Apollo missions – the only news I watched as a kid. I played with Estes rockets. I was on the Space Shuttle Support Team at Edwards. I have all of the Apollo mission patches, framed. Call me a geek, but I’ve always loved the space program. I hate hearing of the deaths of our early astronauts. Schirra had a hell of a ride. He lived more than most people. So long, Wally.
In the real world, most Naval officers live on coffee.
– Wally Schirra
It is official, David is too cool for school.
I could not be 1/100 this cool on the best day I have ever had.
I’m about 1/100 as cool*… I was named for Scott Carpenter, who went aloft about a month before I was born.
*Ok, I’m sure there were a LOT of babies named for astronauts in those days… maybe 1/1000 as cool.
A true American hero. Something we’re sadly lacking these days, unfortunately.
This leaves Carpenter and Glenn as the last of the Mercury 7.
I can vaguely remember the Apollo 7 crew calling themselves “the Wally, Walt and Don Show.”
These guys were the heroes of my generation. It always makes me sad when one of them dies. What a sense of pride he must’ve had to have been a part of such a great feat.