Wally Schirra

Schirra's father, Walter M. Schirra Sr. (1893–1973), who was born in Philadelphia, joined the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War I, and flew bombing and reconnaissance missions over Germany.

After the war, he performed as a barnstormer at county fairs in New Jersey.

Schirra's mother, Florence Shillito Schirra (Leach; 1898–1982), went along on her husband's barnstorming tours and performed wing walking stunts.

Schirra Jr. grew up in Oradell, New Jersey, where he attended elementary school and was a First Class Scout in Boy Scout Troop 36.

Walter Marty Schirra Jr. (, March 12, 1923 – May 3, 2007) was an American naval aviator, test pilot, and NASA astronaut.

Schirra was born on March 12, 1923, in Hackensack, New Jersey, to a family of aviators.

His paternal grandparents were from Bavaria and Switzerland, and originally of Sardinian ancestry (more specifically from Ghilarza).

He graduated from Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood, New Jersey, in June 1940 and enrolled in the Newark College of Engineering (now New Jersey Institute of Technology, NJIT), where he was involved in the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) and the Sigma Pi fraternity.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Schirra decided to apply to a service academy.

His father encouraged him to apply to West Point, but he decided to enroll in the United States Naval Academy instead.

Before becoming an astronaut, Schirra graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1945, and served at sea during World War II.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1945 after only three years instead of four, as the Naval Academy had a wartime accelerated curriculum.

After graduating from the Naval Academy, Schirra was commissioned as an ensign in the United States Navy on June 6, 1945.

He served during the final months of World War II aboard the large cruiser USS Alaska (CB-1).

Following the Japanese surrender, he returned to the U.S., where the Alaska was decommissioned.

He was subsequently stationed to Qingdao and assigned to the amphibious command ship USS Estes (AGC-12).

Following his return from China, he began training as a Naval Aviator at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida.

In 1948, he became a naval aviator, served as a fighter pilot and flew 90 combat missions in the Korean War, and then in 1958 he graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School.

After he completed training, Schirra received his naval aviator wings in 1948 and joined Fighter Squadron 71 (VF-71) at Quonset Point, Rhode Island.

In VF-71, Schirra flew the F8F Bearcat.

After several years of flying the F8F, he attended jet transition training with the F-80 Shooting Star in preparation for his squadron's transition to the jet-powered F9F Panther.

Schirra was deployed to the Mediterranean aboard the aircraft carrier USS Midway (CV-41) at the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950.

He applied for an exchange program with the U.S. Air Force to gain combat experience, was selected for the program, and trained to fly on the F-84 Thunderjet.

After a deployment to Asia aboard the aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-16) and aviation safety training with the University of Southern California (USC), he was accepted to the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in 1958.

In 1959, he became one of the original seven astronauts chosen for Project Mercury, which was the United States' first effort to put humans into space.

On October 3, 1962, he flew the six-orbit, nine-hour, Mercury-Atlas 8 mission, in a spacecraft he nicknamed Sigma 7, becoming the fifth American and ninth human to travel into space.

In December 1965, as part of the two-man Gemini program, he achieved the first space rendezvous, station-keeping his Gemini 6A spacecraft within 1 ft of the sister Gemini 7 spacecraft.

In October 1968, he commanded Apollo 7, an 11-day low Earth orbit shakedown test of the three-man Apollo Command/Service Module and the first crewed launch for the Apollo program.

Schirra retired from the Navy in 1969 with the rank of captain.

Schirra was the first astronaut to go into space three times, and the only astronaut to have flown into space in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs.

In total, he logged 295 hours and 15 minutes in space.

After Apollo 7, he retired as a captain from the U.S. Navy as well as from NASA, subsequently becoming a consultant to CBS News in the network's coverage of following Apollo flights.

Schirra joined Walter Cronkite as co-anchor for all seven of NASA's Moon landing missions.

Schirra was initially deployed with the 154th Fighter-Bomber Squadron to Itazuke Air Force Base in Japan, from where he flew missions into South Korea.

As U.S. troops advanced north, the squadron was reassigned to a base in Daegu.

In the eight-month deployment, Schirra flew 90 combat missions and downed two MiG-15s.

After completing his tour in Korea, Schirra became a test pilot at Naval Ordnance Test Station China Lake, California (NOTS).

At China Lake, he tested various weapons systems, including becoming the first pilot to fly with and fire the Sidewinder missile.

He was assigned to Miramar Naval Air Station to test the newest Navy jet fighter, the F7U Cutlass.

He was subsequently assigned to NAS Moffett to begin transition training to the Cutlass, and subsequently the F3H Demon.