2 Quotes & Sayings By Walter M Schirra
Walter M. Schirra was born May 17, 1926, in Brooklyn, New York. His flying career began at age 16, when he obtained his private pilot certificate. He enlisted in the U.S
Navy after Pearl Harbor and trained as an aerial gunner on long-range patrol bombers. In early 1944 he was assigned to a Navy squadron that patrolled the Aleutian Islands from Adak, Alaska, to Attu, a remote island group at the extreme western end of the Aleutian chain. In June 1945 he flew a bomber escort mission from Torokina Airfield in the Marshall Islands to Okinawa during the closing weeks of World War II.
He left active duty in 1946 and went to work for Pan American Airways as a flight engineer as well as flying as a commercial pilot for Pan Am over the next four years. In 1948 he joined NASA as a research test pilot and became the first civilian to fly into space when he was selected as one of two astronauts on Gemini VI. He retired from NASA in 1966 after serving as an astronaut for twelve years and producing 34 space flights.
He is retired and lives with his wife Nancy in Las Cruces, New Mexico.