# Navy Seal, MD and now astronaut **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 18, 2020, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-seal-md-and-now-astronaut/846599 "2020-01-18T03:05:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-seal-md-and-now-astronaut/846599/1 "2020-01-18T03:05:40Z")
I wonder if anyone else has done all 3. He’s only 35. Also won a Silver Star. Plenty of MDs have been astronauts but were any Seals too?. > **[Jonny Kim](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonny_Kim)** > > Jonathan Yong Kim (born 5 February 1984), also called Jonny Kim, is an American US Navy lieutenant commander (and former SEAL), physician, and NASA astronaut. > Born and raised in California, Kim enlisted in the United States Navy in the early 2000s before earning a Silver Star and his commission. While a US sailor, Kim also received his Bachelor of Arts (summa cum laude) in mathematics, his Doctor of Medicine, and an acceptance to NASA Astronaut Group 22 in 2017. He completed his astronaut t... ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-seal-md-and-now-astronaut/846599/2 "2020-01-18T03:13:23Z")
Wow, his life sounds like a Mary Sue character from a hack writer. _(that’s high praise)._ Most astronauts are a cut above, but seriously. enlisted, Seal, combat medic, Harvard Medical School, to Astronaut all by the time he is 35. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-seal-md-and-now-astronaut/846599/3 "2020-01-18T03:18:25Z")
NASA had 18,000 people apply and 12 were chosen to be astronauts. 0.067% accepted ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-seal-md-and-now-astronaut/846599/4 "2020-01-18T03:19:30Z")
Well he was born twice(born 1983/1984), so “he” is clearly also a clone of himself and has two people to do all that stuff. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-seal-md-and-now-astronaut/846599/5 "2020-01-18T03:23:38Z")
Detailed article on him. > **[Jonny Kim Is The SEAL-Mathematician-Doctor-Astronaut We Desperately Need...](https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/31830/jonny-kim-is-the-seal-mathematician-doctor-astronaut-we-desperately-need-right-now)** > > With a resume that reads like fiction, it's pretty clear that this dude belongs in space. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-seal-md-and-now-astronaut/846599/6 "2020-01-18T03:28:21Z")
Got his BS in math in 3 years. It seems NASA does not list birth dates on their website but this astronaut has her birth date on Wikipedia. Maybe she put it there herself. [Christina Koch - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Koch) ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-seal-md-and-now-astronaut/846599/7 "2020-01-18T11:02:03Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Got his BS in math in 3 years. > > It seems NASA does not list birth dates on their website but this astronaut has her birth date on Wikipedia. Maybe she put it there herself. > > [Christina Koch - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Koch) I was curious, so I checked the history. They originally got her birthdate from a now-defunct dating website. But then some anonymous poster came in and said they “fixed birthdate.” It was changed back, but then another anonymous poster came in and changed it in every place it is listed on the whole page, and kept ever since. The dating site was removed the next month by someone pointing out that the site no longer existed and that it was unseemly to use a dating site as a source. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-seal-md-and-now-astronaut/846599/8 "2020-01-18T11:58:38Z")
The astronaut position will be the bottleneck. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-seal-md-and-now-astronaut/846599/9 "2020-01-18T13:31:13Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > The astronaut position will be the bottleneck. What do you mean? ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-seal-md-and-now-astronaut/846599/10 "2020-01-18T13:46:50Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > What do you mean? Presumably that there are a lot of MDs and quite a lot of Seals, but very few astronauts. So if you want to become an MD-Seal-astronaut, the astronaut part is the most difficult hurdle. As an aside, the Wiki article describes Jonny Kim as a “first-generation immigrant”, when he was born in the U.S. Is that normal usage? I would have interpreted first-generation to mean that he was born abroad. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-seal-md-and-now-astronaut/846599/11 "2020-01-18T13:50:05Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > … > > As an aside, the Wiki article describes Jonny Kim as a “first-generation immigrant”, when he was born in the U.S. Is that normal usage? I would have interpreted first-generation to mean that he was born abroad. It is used either way, but to me it means the children of immigrants. But I know it is also used for the actual immigrants. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-seal-md-and-now-astronaut/846599/12 "2020-01-18T13:59:29Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > It is used either way, but to me it means the children of immigrants. But I know it is also used for the actual immigrants. Yes, I now see that linking through on Wikipedia they note the variation in common usage. So I guess the term is essentially useless in distinguishing what it’s intended to distinguish. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-seal-md-and-now-astronaut/846599/13 "2020-01-18T14:03:15Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > Yes, I now see that linking through on Wikipedia they note the variation in common usage. So I guess the term is essentially useless in distinguishing what it’s intended to distinguish. I would argue it should only mean children of immigrants. The immigrants are not a generation but just immigrants. I consider myself 2nd Gen on the Italian side. My parents were born here. But as I said, I’ve seen the other usage. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-seal-md-and-now-astronaut/846599/14 "2020-01-18T14:11:11Z")
right now NASA has only 38 active astronauts. 18 others are listed but no longer go to space. There are some astronauts from other countries. Since 1959 NASA has trained around 500 astronauts but not all have gone to space. A very exclusive club. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-seal-md-and-now-astronaut/846599/15 "2020-01-18T14:32:15Z")
As Tom Lehrer said, _“It’s people like that who make you realize how little you’ve accomplished. Why, when Mozart was my age he’d been dead for three years.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-seal-md-and-now-astronaut/846599/16 "2020-01-18T14:46:39Z")
“Navy Seal, MD” is almost as strange a placename as [Head of Elk, MD](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elkton,_Maryland). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-seal-md-and-now-astronaut/846599/17 "2020-01-18T14:54:58Z")
Are we counting as an “astronaut” anyone who’s trained to go into space, or only someone who actually has gone into space? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-seal-md-and-now-astronaut/846599/18 "2020-01-18T15:39:04Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Are we counting as an “astronaut” anyone who’s trained to go into space, or only someone who actually has gone into space? **Astronaut** : a person who is trained to travel in a spacecraft. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-seal-md-and-now-astronaut/846599/19 "2020-01-18T16:13:58Z")
There have actually been at least two other Navy SEALs who went on to become astronauts (although admittedly, I don’t think either of them was also an M.D.): [William Shepherd](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shepherd) was a SEAL back in the 70s, then joined NASA and flew three Shuttle missions and was on the first crew on the International Space Station. He spent a total of over 159 days in space. [Christopher Cassidy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cassidy)’s Navy SEAL career included post-9/11 deployments to Afghanistan. Then as an astronaut, he had a Shuttle mission and was on an ISS crew, spending a total of nearly 182 days in space, including 6 spacewalks with over 31 hours of EVA time. I can’t help but think that guys like that must, paradoxically, find it very hard to get dates: **Guy:** Hey, how _you_ doin’? **Gal:** [_very friendly_] Hi, there! So, tell me all about yourself! **Guy:** Well, I was in the U.S. Navy, in the SEAL program, couple of deployments in Afghanistan and a couple more to the Med, but of course I can’t talk much about that. Then, I joined NASA and flew into space on a couple of Shuttle missions and spent some time on the International Space Station and… **Gal:** :dubious: Oh, uh, gosh, I just remembered, I need to…uh…wash my hair! _Buh-bye!_ (_to her friends_ Oh my God! You won’t _believe_ the line that guy over there just tried to give me…) ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-seal-md-and-now-astronaut/846599/20 "2020-01-18T16:16:40Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Wow, his life sounds like a Mary Sue character from a hack writer. _(that’s high praise)._ > > Most astronauts are a cut above, but seriously. enlisted, Seal, combat medic, Harvard Medical School, to Astronaut all by the time he is 35. Even the name “Jonny Kim” sounds like something a Hollywood type made up. I fully expect that when or if that guy ever flies into space, he and his fellow astronauts will be accidentally exposed to an unknown form of cosmic radiation, then he and the rest of the crew will become the Stupendous Six or the Spectacular Seven or whatever the hell, and go on to save the world by punching things really hard and/or shooting various rays from their eyeballs. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-seal-md-and-now-astronaut/846599.md?page=2)