Notable 2017 Military Obituaries

[waltky]

Navy SEAL Vet and TV Host/star of "Future Weapons" dies of brain cancer...

Navy SEAL Vet and TV Host Dies At 51 From Brain Cancer
Jan 04, 2017 | This article by Brian O’Rourke originally appeared on Task & Purpose, a digital news and culture publication dedicated to military and veterans issues.

Richard “Mack” Machowicz, star of "Future Weapons" & a former SEAL scout/sniper, died after a year-long battle with brain cancer. Richard “Mack” Machowicz described himself as a “difficult, intense personality.” That’s why the former Navy SEAL wound up becoming a Zen Buddhist. The goal, he said, was to learn to “access a part of myself, to care about [others], that I never was able to before.” Machowicz, the host of Discovery Channel’s “Future Weapons,” died January 2, 2017, of stage IV glioblastoma, according to his friend and SEAL teammate Craig Sawyer, who first shared news of Machowicz’s illness in an Oct. 5, 2015, Facebook post. According to his Discovery Channel biography, Machowicz spent ten years in the Navy, and was Leading Petty Officer of Land, Mountain and Arctic Warfare with the SEAL training cadre.

But Machowicz, who was born in 1965, was best known as a television host, a job he clearly loved. The former scout/sniper hosted multiple reality-television series, including Spike TV’s “Deadliest Warrior,” which led to his becoming a playable character in the video game “Deadliest Warrior: Legends.” He hosted and appeared in programs on the Military Channel, the History Channel, and Bravo. On the Discovery Channel’s “Future Weapons,” Machowicz got to play with some of the newest cutting-edge weapons systems. On the episode “Top Guns” he grinned as he got to test the then-new Barrett M468 carbine, which fired a larger caliber round than the standard M4.

He followed that up with a look at the M777 howitzer, and then took a ride in an F/A-18 Super Hornet off the USS Eisenhower (CVN-68). In 2000, Machowicz wrote the self help book, “Unleash the Warrior Within,” in which he offered lessons for applying the principles of combat to everyday challenges. More recently, Machowicz founded “Not Dead Can’t Quit!,” a networking and self-help website inspired by his book. His personal life seems to have stood in contrast to the television version of himself. Machowicz had a tattoo on his right arm, a Buddhist expression, “Always in heart, always in mind.”

Even as he explored the culture and techniques of military might and warrior accomplishments, he underwent five years’ training as a Buddhist priest, seeking to apply the toughness and intensity of his military training to his inner life. “What I want to do is actually be a loving, responsible, caring human being,” he said in a Discovery Channel video. “I wrote [the tattoo] on my arm so that … I would eventually look at it and remind myself to get my act together.” Machowicz is survived by his wife Mandy and two daughters.

Navy SEAL Vet and TV Host Dies At 51 From Brain Cancer | Military.com

 

[yiostheoy]

John Glenn, US Marine.

 

[The Great Goose]

Glen Beck

Veteran of the Shitlording wars. Run over by the Trump train.

 

[whitehall]

Do we only care about "notable" Military Obits or can anyone qualify? Off duty Navy Seal P.O. 1st class Devon Grube died in a kayak accident in the Chesapeake Bay Dec. 29.

 

[waltky]

The woman who broke the news of World War Two dies at 105...

Obituary: Clare Hollingworth
Tue, 10 Jan 2017 - Celebrated war correspondent who broke the news of Germany's invasion of Poland.

Clare Hollingworth was the war correspondent who broke the news that German troops were poised to invade Poland at the start of World War Two. She went on to report on conflicts across the world but it was that moment that defined her career. She was by no means the first female war reporter, but her depth of technical, tactical and strategic insight set her apart. And, even as she approached her 11th decade, she still kept her passport by her bed in case she should be called to another assignment.

Clare Hollingworth was born in Leicester on 10 October 1911 and spent most of her childhood on a farm. What should have been idyllic years were overshadowed by World War One. "I remember the German bombers flying over the farm we lived in to bomb Loughborough," she reminisced. "And the next day we got Polly the pony and took the trap into Loughborough to see the damage they had done. " She had set her heart on a writing career early on, much to the exasperation of her mother. "She didn't believe anything journalists wrote and thought they were only fit for the tradesmen's entrance."

After school she attended a domestic science college in Leicester, which instilled in her a lifelong hatred of housework. More interesting to her by far were the battlefield tours that her father arranged to sites as diverse as Naseby, Poitiers and Agincourt. Eschewing the prospect of life as a country squire's wife, Hollingworth became a secretary at the League of Nations Union before studying at London University's School of Slavonic Studies and the University of Zagreb.

Tension

 

[waltky]

Gene Cernan, last astronaut to walk on the moon passes away...

Gene Cernan, last astronaut to walk on the moon, dies at 82
Jan. 16, 2017 — Astronaut Gene Cernan traced his only child's initials in the dust of the lunar surface. Then he climbed into the lunar module for the ride home, becoming the last person to walk on the moon.

It was a moment that defined the Apollo 17 commander in both the public eye and his own. "Those steps up that ladder, they were tough to make," Cernan recalled in a 2007 oral history. "I didn't want to go up. I wanted to stay a while." His family said his devotion to lunar exploration never waned, even in the final year of his life. Cernan died Monday at age 82 at a Houston hospital following ongoing heath issues, family spokeswoman Melissa Wren told The Associated Press. "Even at the age of 82, Gene was passionate about sharing his desire to see the continued human exploration of space and encouraged our nation's leaders and young people to not let him remain the last man to walk on the Moon," his family wrote in a statement released by NASA.

On Dec. 14, 1972, Cernan became the last of only a dozen men to walk on the moon. Cernan called it "perhaps the brightest moment of my life. ... It's like you would want to freeze that moment and take it home with you. But you can't." Decades later, Cernan tried to ensure he wasn't the last person to walk on the moon, testifying before Congress to push for a return. But as the years went by he realized he wouldn't live to witness someone follow in his footsteps — still visible on the moon more than 40 years later. "Neil (Armstrong, who died in 2012) and I aren't going to see those next young Americans who walk on the moon. And God help us if they're not Americans," Cernan testified before Congress in 2011. "When I leave this planet, I want to know where we are headed as a nation. That's my big goal."

US Navy Commander and Astronaut for the upcoming Apollo 17, Eugene Cernan, is pictured in his space suit. NASA announced that former astronaut Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, died Monday, Jan. 16, 2017, surrounded by his family. He was 82.​

Cernan died less than six weeks after another American space hero, John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962. Their flights weren't the first or last of the Mercury and Apollo eras. Yet to the public they were the bookends of America's space age glory. Cernan guided the lander, named Challenger, into a lunar valley called Taurus-Littrow, with Harrison "Jack" Schmitt at his side on Dec. 11, 1972. He recalled the silence after the lunar lander's engine shut down. "That's where you experience the most quiet moment a human being can experience in his lifetime," Cernan said in 2007. "There's no vibration. There's no noise. The ground quit talking. Your partner is mesmerized. He can't say anything. "The dust is gone. It's a realization, a reality, all of a sudden you have just landed in another world on another body out there (somewhere in the) universe, and what you are seeing is being seen by human beings — human eyes — for the first time."

Three days earlier, Cernan, Schmitt and Ronald Evans had blasted off atop a Saturn rocket in the first manned nighttime launch from Kennedy Space Center. Evans remained behind as pilot of the command module that orbited the moon while the other two landed on the moon's surface. Cernan and Schmitt, a geologist, spent more than three days on the moon, including more than 22 hours outside the lander, and collected 249 pounds of lunar samples. "In that whole three days, I don't think there's anything that became routine," Cernan recalled. "But if I had to focus on one thing ... it was just to look back at the overwhelming and overpowering beauty of this Earth." "To go a quarter of a million miles away into space and have to take time out to sleep and rest ... I wished I could have stayed awake for 75 hours straight. I knew when I left I'd never have a chance to come back."

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[waltky]

Old soldier fades away...

World War II Hero, Medal of Honor Recipient Arthur Jackson Dies at 92
16 Jun 2017 | Art Jackson, who singlehandedly destroyed a dozen enemy pillboxes and killed 50 Japanese soldiers during a fierce battle on the Pacific island of Peleliu, died Wednesday at the Boise VA Medical Center.

Nine Marines, including Jackson, were presented the Medal of Honor for their roles in the battle. Fighting for control of the island lasted for two months, beginning in September 1944. The Japanese, entrenched in caves, killed 1,800 American soldiers and injured 8,000 more. Decades after his service, Jackson visited military cemeteries and spoke about fallen soldiers as a way to keep their memories alive. "The First Lady and I are saddened by the loss of a great and iconic American hero, Medal of Honor recipient Art Jackson," Idaho Gov. Butch Otter wrote on his Facebook page. "As an unforgettable member of the Greatest Generation passes into history, we wish the Jackson family all the comfort that our prayers can provide and all the respect that Art's life and valor deserve. Well done Marine. Semper Fi."

Family friend Rocci Johnson, who earlier confirmed Jackson's death, praised Jackson for his devotion to his country. "Art Jackson was a true American hero. He was from the Greatest Generation. If it wasn't for men and women like him, it would be a very different world," Johnson said. "We owe a lot to his dedication and hope that his legacy will serve as an example for all of those who are currently fighting for freedom."

Arthur J. Jackson tours the bridge of the amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu. Jackson was awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery at the Battle of Peleliu during World War II, for which the ship was named.​

The Boise Police Department sent condolences to Jackson's family. Former Chief Mike Masterson met Jackson during his time as chief and several other officers befriended Jackson and maintained a friendship with his family. "It is with great sadness that members of the Boise Police Department hear the news that Medal of Honor recipient Arthur Jackson recently passed away at the Boise VA," the department wrote in a statement. Services, including military honors, are pending. Flags at state offices throughout Idaho will be lowered to half-staff on the day of Jackson's internment, said Mark Warbis, a spokesman for the governor.

Jackson saved his platoon from almost certain destruction. A book about the battle described him as "a one-man Marine Corps." His Medal of Honor citation credits him with single-handedly confronting enemy barrages and contributing to "the complete annihilation of the enemy in the southern sector of the island." Despite a barrage of gunfire, Jackson charged a large pillbox, as the concrete guard posts were known. He threw white phosphorus grenades to provide cover, set off munitions charges that destroyed the pillbox and killed the 35 soldiers inside. Jackson kept advancing and picked off one enemy position after another.

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[waltky]

Army Veteran Who Wrote Wounded Warrior Creed Passes Away...

Army Veteran Who Wrote Wounded Warrior Creed Dies
8 Aug 2017 | A paralyzed veteran who wrote the official Wounded Warrior Creed adopted by the Marine Corps has died.

Retired Army Sgt. Joseph "Joey" Smith, a career military man who also served in the Marines, died Sunday at Kindred Hospital in Greensboro, following a massive stroke he suffered in May. Smith, who lived in Thomasville, was 46. "Joe was a patriot more than anything, and he loved his country," said Smith's ex-wife, Debbi, a former High Pointer who remained friends with Smith after their divorce earlier this year. "He said to me many times that even though he was hurt, he would go back to Afghanistan to serve, even in his wheelchair. He was a very proud American, he was proud of his country and he was proud that he could serve."

In 2005, during Smith's fourth deployment in Afghanistan, he suffered a spinal-cord injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down. While hospitalized and watching the struggles of his fellow injured soldiers -- not to mention struggling to find purpose in his own life -- Smith penned the inspirational words that the Marine Corps later would adopt as its own "Creed of the Wounded Warrior." "Though I am wounded," he wrote, "I will always be a warrior. I will never give up, nor quit in the face of adversity. I will do my best in all that I do and achieve. I will not allow my injuries to limit me, and most of all, I will never forget my fallen comrades or leave a fellow injured warrior behind."

Retired Army Sgt. Joseph C. Smith​

The creed and what it represented meant a lot to Smith, his ex-wife said. "That was something he was very proud of," she said. "A lot of the wounded warriors said he was very inspirational to them." Smith lived up to the creed, too, competing for several years in the Warrior Games, an annual, Olympic-style sports competition for wounded or ill military personnel and veterans. He won a gold medal in the air rifle competition, and competed in other sports such as swimming and archery.

He and his then-wife settled in Thomasville in 2011, when they moved into a new, handicap-accessible house provided through Homes For Our Troops, a nonprofit organization that builds houses for severely injured veterans. The approximately 2,400-square-foot house gave Smith a level of independence he would not have had otherwise. As of Monday afternoon, funeral plans for Smith were not yet complete, but Debbi Smith said a celebration-of-life service will be held, and Smith likely will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. "He deserves that," she said. "He earned it."

Army Veteran Who Wrote Wounded Warrior Creed Dies | Military.com

 

[waltky]

Member of Navajo Code Talkers Dies at Age 94...

Tribe: Navajo Code Talker Dies at Age 94 in New Mexico
10 Oct 2017 — A Navajo code talker who used the Navajo language to outsmart the Japanese in World War II has died in New Mexico, Navajo Nation officials said.

David Patterson Sr. died Sunday in Rio Rancho at age 94 from pneumonia and complications from subdural hematoma. Although Patterson didn't talk much about his service, one of his sons said his father was proud of being a Navajo Code Talker. "He attended as many Code Talker events as he could," Pat Patterson said. "It was only when his health started to decline that he didn't attend as many."

A member of the Navajo Code Talkers views a performance by Marine Corps Band New Orleans during a parade for National Navajo Code Talkers Day​

Patterson served in the Marine Corps from 1943 to 1945 and was the recipient of the Silver Congressional Medal of Honor in 2001. After his military service, Patterson became a social worker and worked for the tribe's Division of Social Services until retiring in 1987. He raised his family in Oklahoma, California and Shiprock, New Mexico, and is survived by six children.

Pat Patterson told the Farmington Daily-Times that his father moved to Rio Rancho in 2012 to live with his youngest son. Funeral services are pending and will be held at Christ The King Catholic Church in Shiprock, New Mexico. Patterson will be buried on the military side of the Shiprock Cemetery.

Tribe: Navajo Code Talker Dies at Age 94 in New Mexico | Military.com

 

[waltky]

Commander of 1st Flight of Space Shuttle Challenger Dies...

Commander of 1st Flight of Space Shuttle Challenger Dies
24 Oct 2017 — Paul Weitz, a retired NASA astronaut who also piloted the Skylab in the early 1970s, has died. He was 85.

Weitz died at his retirement home in Flagstaff, Arizona, on Monday, said Laura Cutchens of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation. No cause of death was given. A NASA biography says Weitz was among the class of 19 astronauts who were chosen in April 1966. He served as command module pilot on the first crew of the orbiting space laboratory known as Skylab during a 28-day mission in 1973. Weitz also commanded the first launch of the shuttle Challenger in April 1983. The five-day mission took off from the Kennedy space Center in Florida and landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The Challenger was destroyed and seven crew members killed during its 10th launch on January 28, 1986.

In this June 30, 1982, photo, the new space shuttle Challenger sits behind the four astronauts that will fly it during turnover ceremonies at Rockwell International's final assembly site in Palmdale, Calif. From left: Dr. Story Musgrave, pilot Karol J. Bobko, mission specialist Donald H. Peterson and commander Paul J. Weitz. Weitz, a retired NASA astronaut who commanded the first flight of the space shuttle Challenger and flew on Skylab in the early 1970s, has died at 85. Weitz died at his retirement home in Flagstaff on Oct. 23, 2017, said Laura Cutchens of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation.​

In all, he logged 793 hours in space and retired as deputy director of the Johnson Space Center in May 1994. Weitz was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, on July 25, 1932, and graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a degree in aeronautical engineering in 1954, according to NASA. He then joined the Navy, serving on a destroyer before being chosen for flight training and earning his wings as a Naval Aviator in September 1956. He served in various naval squadrons, including service in Vietnam, before joining the Astronaut Corps. According to the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, Weitz returned to the Navy after his mission on Skylab mission and retired as a captain in July 1976 after serving 22 years. He then came out of retirement to re-join NASA. "Paul Weitz's name will always be synonymous with the space shuttle Challenger. But he also will be remembered for defying the laws of gravity - and age," said Curtis Brown, board chairman of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation and an astronaut and veteran of six space flights. "Before it became commonplace to come out of retirement, Paul was a pioneer. He proved 51 was just a number."

The foundation is supported by astronauts from the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Space Shuttle and Space Station programs and annually provides scholarships for 45 students.

Commander of 1st Flight of Space Shuttle Challenger Dies | Military.com

See also:

Paul Weitz, commander of 1st flight of space shuttle Challenger, dies
Oct. 24, 2017 — Paul Weitz, a retired NASA astronaut who commanded the first flight of the space shuttle Challenger and also piloted the Skylab in the early 1970s, has died. He was 85.

Weitz died at his retirement home in Flagstaff on Monday, said Laura Cutchens of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation. No cause of death was given. A NASA biography says Weitz was among the class of 19 astronauts who were chosen in April 1966. He served as command module pilot on the first crew of the orbiting space laboratory known as Skylab during a 28-day mission in 1973.

Weitz also commanded the first launch of the shuttle Challenger in April 1983. The five-day mission took off from the Kennedy space Center in Florida and landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The Challenger was destroyed and seven crew members killed during its 10th launch on Jan. 28, 1986. In all, he logged 793 hours in space and retired as deputy director of the Johnson Space Center in May 1994.

Weitz was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, on July 25, 1932, and graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a degree in aeronautical engineering in 1954, according to NASA. He then joined the Navy, serving on a destroyer before being chosen for flight training and earning his wings as a Naval Aviator in September 1956. He served in various naval squadrons, including service in Vietnam, before joining the Astronaut Corps. According to the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, Weitz returned to the Navy after his mission on Skylab mission and retired as a captain in July 1976 after serving 22 years.

He then came out of retirement to re-join NASA. "Paul Weitz's name will always be synonymous with the space shuttle Challenger. But he also will be remembered for defying the laws of gravity - and age," said Curtis Brown, board chairman of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation and an astronaut and veteran of six space flights. "Before it became commonplace to come out of retirement, Paul was a pioneer. He proved 51 was just a number." The foundation is supported by astronauts from the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Space Shuttle and Space Station programs and annually provides scholarships for 45 students.

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news...nder-space-shuttle-challenger-dies/794507001/

 

[waltky]

Apollo 12 Astronaut Richard Gordon Dies at 88...

Apollo 12 Astronaut Richard Gordon Dies
November 07, 2017 - U.S. astronaut Richard Gordon, who flew around the moon but never got a chance to walk on the surface, has died. He was 88.

Richard "Dick'' Gordon Jr. was a test pilot chosen in NASA's third group of astronauts in 1963. He flew on Gemini 11 in 1966, walking in space twice. During the Apollo 12 mission in November 1969, Gordon circled the moon in the command module Yankee Clipper while Alan Bean and Charles Conrad landed and walked on the lunar surface. "Dick will be fondly remembered as one of our nation's boldest flyers, a man who added to our own nation's capabilities by challenging his own. He will be missed,'' acting NASA administrator Robert Lightfoot said in a statement Tuesday.

astronaut Richard Gordon Jr. Gordon, one of a dozen men who flew around the moon but didn't land there, has died​

Apollo 12 marked the first moon landing to touch down in a designated spot. Gordon voiced few regrets at not having walked on the moon, anticipating another chance later in the program. He was, in fact, slated to command the Apollo 18 mission that would land on the moon, but it was cut for budget reasons.

Only 12 of 24 astronauts who went to the moon walked on the lunar surface. In a 1997 NASA oral history, Gordon said people would often ask if he felt alone while his two partners walked on the moon. "I said, 'Hell no, if you knew those guys, you'd be happy to be alone.''' Gordon died Monday at his home in California. No cause of death was given.

Apollo 12 Astronaut Richard Gordon Dies

 

[waltky]

Vietnam War Medal of Honor Recipient Wesley Fox Dies at 86...

Vietnam War Medal of Honor Recipient Wesley Fox Dies at 86
1 Dec 2017 | WASHINGTON -- Marine Corps Col. Wesley Fox, who received the Medal of Honor for successfully leading his company through an enemy attack during the Vietnam War and retired decades later at the mandatory age of 62, died the evening of Nov. 24 in Blacksburg, Va. He was 86. The Congressional Medal of Honor Society confirmed his death Monday but did not provide a cause.

As a boy growing up in rural northern Virginia and watching his older cousins leave to fight in World War II, Fox always planned to join the military, he said in an interview preserved by the Library of Congress. He left his family farm near Herndon and enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1950 at the start of the Korean War. Fox served as a young corporal in Korea and later, as a first lieutenant, led a company in Vietnam that would suffer 75 percent casualties during a three-month operation. The unit, Company A, 9th Marines, was among the troops fighting in Operation Dewey Canyon, the last major Marine offensive during the Vietnam War.

The company came under intense gunfire from the North Vietnamese on Feb. 22, 1969, which Fox remembered as a foggy, rainy day in the jungle of the northern A Shau Valley. Realizing they wouldn't be able to move the injured men and retreat, Fox led an assault against the larger enemy force. Though Fox was wounded, he refused medical attention and successfully directed the responding attack, coordinated air support, and then supervised the medical evacuation of injured and dead Marines. "His indomitable courage, inspiring initiative and unwavering devotion to duty in the face of grave personal danger inspired his Marines to such aggressive action that they overcame all enemy resistance and destroyed a large bunker complex," read Fox's citation for the Medal of Honor.

Retired Marine Corps Col. Wesley L. Fox, a Vietnam War Medal of Honor recipient, rides in the National Memorial Day Parade in Washington, D.C.​

Former President Richard Nixon presented the Medal of Honor, the military's highest award for valor, to Fox on March 2, 1971. Fox and six soldiers received the distinction in a group ceremony at the White House. In the interview for the Library of Congress's Veterans History Project, Fox reflected on the attack and recalled one brief moment when he had to motivate his men: "I had the opportunity to look 'em in the eyeballs and say, 'This is what we do.'" "Why did my Marines go forward? Cause they knew that's what I wanted of 'em," Fox said. "They knew we were moving to the sounds of the enemy's guns, and until somebody told 'em something clearly, differently, a Marine isn't going to lose his focus. I had some great Marines." Fox went on to serve 43 years in the Marine Corps and left only when he hit the mandatory retirement age of 62 in 1993. He worked his way up through every enlisted rank from private to colonel. For eight years after that, he worked as a deputy commandant of cadets for the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets and continued to speak about his military service to students and civic leaders. Fox is survived by his wife, Dottie Lu, and other family. In an announcement Monday, the Marine Corps called Fox a "legend" and a "true Marine's Marine."

Fox, who always wanted to join the military, told the Veterans History Project interviewer that he had no regrets about choosing a career in the Marine Corps. "To tell you how proud I am to wear the Marine uniform, my first four years as a Marine I didn't own one stitch of civilian clothes -- everything I did was in a Marine uniform," Fox said. "I'd go home on leave, working in the hay fields or whatever, I wore my Marine utilities. Go in town to see the movies, I wore Marine dress." Fox was also proud to wear the Medal of Honor, he said. "I'm pleased and proud to wear it for the Marine Corps and for what my Marines did on that particular fight," Fox told the interviewer. "I feel a little bit of an emptiness in knowing that there were others deserved in that fight that were not awarded."

Vietnam War Medal of Honor Recipient Wesley Fox Dies at 86

 

[waltky]

NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless goes out of this world for the last time...

NASA Astronaut, 1st to Fly Untethered in Space, Dies at 80
December 22, 2017 — NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless, the first person to fly freely and untethered in space, has died. He was 80.

He was famously photographed in 1984 flying with a hefty spacewalker's jetpack, alone in the cosmic blackness above a blue Earth. He traveled more than 300 feet away from the space shuttle Challenger during the spacewalk. “The iconic photo of Bruce soaring effortlessly in space has inspired generations of Americans to believe that there is no limit to the human potential,” Sen. John McCain said in a statement. The Arizona Republican and McCandless were classmates at the U.S. Naval Academy. NASA’s Johnson Space Center said Friday that McCandless died Thursday in California. No cause of death was given.

McCandless said he wasn’t nervous about the historic spacewalk. “I was grossly over-trained. I was just anxious to get out there and fly. I felt very comfortable ... It got so cold my teeth were chattering and I was shivering, but that was a very minor thing,” he told the Daily Camera in Boulder, Colorado, in 2006. During that flight, McCandless and fellow astronaut Robert L. Stewart pioneered the use of NASA’s backpack device that allowed astronauts walking in space to propel themselves from the shuttle. Stewart became the second person to fly untethered two hours after McCandless. “I’d been told of the quiet vacuum you experience in space, but with three radio links saying, ‘How’s your oxygen holding out?’ ‘Stay away from the engines!’ ‘When's my turn?’ it wasn’t that peaceful,” McCandless wrote in the Guardian in 2015.

In this Feb. 12, 1984 photo made available by NASA, astronaut Bruce McCandless uses a nitrogen jet-propelled backpack, a Manned Manuevering Unit, outside the space shuttle Challenger.​

But he also wrote: ”It was a wonderful feeling, a mix of personal elation and professional pride: it had taken many years to get to that point.” McCandless was later part of the 1990 shuttle crew that delivered the Hubble Space Telescope to orbit. He also served as the Mission Control capsule communicator in Houston as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon in 1969. During his spacewalk, “My wife was at mission control, and there was quite a bit of apprehension,” McCandless wrote. “I wanted to say something similar to Neil when he landed on the moon, so I said, ‘It may have been a small step for Neil, but it's a heck of a big leap for me.’ That loosened the tension a bit.”

Born in Boston, McCandless graduated from Woodrow Wilson Senior High School in Long Beach, California. He graduated from the Naval Academy and earned master’s degrees in electrical engineering and business administration. He was a naval aviator who participated in the Cuban blockade in the 1962 missile crisis. McCandless was selected for astronaut training during the Gemini program, and he was a backup pilot for the first manned Skylab mission in 1973. After leaving NASA, McCandless worked for Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Colorado. “Bruce served his country with humility and dignity, and encouraged all of us to reach new heights,” McCain said. Survivors include his wife, Ellen Shields McCandless of Conifer, Colorado, two children and two grandchildren.

NASA Astronaut, 1st to Fly Untethered in Space, Dies at 80

 

[boedicca]

My Dad.

Notable to my family.

 

[waltky]

Survivor of World War II Bataan Death March lived to be 100...

Survivor of World War II Bataan Death March Dies at 100
27 Dec 2017 | The Bay Area man symbolized the thousands of unheralded Filipinos who fought alongside U.S. forces during WWII.

A San Francisco Bay Area man who survived the infamous 1942 Bataan Death March and symbolized the thousands of unheralded Filipinos who fought alongside American forces during World War II has died. He was 100. Ramon Regalado died Dec. 16 in El Cerrito, California, said Cecilia I. Gaerlan, executive director of the Bataan Legacy Historical Society, which has fought to honor Regalado and others. She did not have a cause of death. "He really embodied the qualities of the greatest generation and love for country," she said.

Regalado was born in 1917 in the Philippines. He was a machine gun operator with the Philippine Scouts under U.S. Army Forces when troops were forced to surrender in 1942 to the Japanese after a grueling three-month battle. The prisoners were forced to march some 65 miles (105 kilometer) to a camp. Many died during the Bataan Death March, killed by Japanese soldiers or simply unable to make the trek. The majority of the troops were Filipino. Regalado survived and slipped away with two others — all of them sick with malaria.

In this photo taken April 6, 2017, Bataan Death March survivor Ramon Regalado looks over a map showing where he marched with Cecilia Gaerlan outside his home in El Cerrito, Calif.​

They encountered a farmer who cared for them, but only Regalado lived. Afterward, he joined a guerrilla resistance movement against the Japanese and later moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to work as a civilian for the U.S. military. In his later years, he gave countless interviews to promote the wartime heroics of Filipinos, who were promised benefits and U.S. citizenship but saw those promises disappear after the war ended. More than 250,000 Filipino soldiers served with U.S. troops in World War II, including more than 57,000 who died.

The veterans have won back some concessions, including lump-sum payments as part of the 2009 economic stimulus package. In an October ceremony in Washington, D.C., remaining Filipino veterans of World War II were awarded the coveted Congressional Gold Medal, the nation's highest civilian award. Gaerlan said Regalado did not make the trip due to poor health, but he received his medal in December in an intensive care unit in Richmond, California. He is survived by his wife Marcelina, five children and many grandchildren.

Survivor of World War II Bataan Death March Dies at 100