Word: schirras
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...astronaut's wife needs a sense of humor to weather the high risks of her husband's job. explained Rene Carpenter to the National Council of Women. For example, she said, take Jo Schirra, 38, whose husband Walter recently returned home safely after orbiting the earth six times. At one point in the program an admiral thoughtfully reassured the spacemen's wives that if by any chance the parachute failed and the capsule sank, an explosive signal device would automatically detonate, thus alerting recovery forces. "Oh?" said Jo. "So they'll know where to drop...
...Schirra spent time on carriers and at naval shore bases. When the Korean war got going, he was assigned to an Arkansas National Guard squadron as an exchange pilot. His flying mates remember him as "a gung-ho, heads-up, by-the-book Annapolis man." but they forgave him because he was such a good pilot. He flew 90 missions, mostly ground strafing and low-level bombing. His missions got him credit for 1½ MIGs, a Distinguished Flying Cross and two Air Medals. He also buzzed a U.S. camp, blew down lines of tents and was hotly reprimanded...
After Korea. Schirra went through the Navy's test-pilot school and then was assigned to the Naval Air Test Center at Patuxent. Md. For a flyer this was longhaired stuff, and fine for Schirra's desire to emphasize the engineering side of aeronautics. His work was checking out the hottest new aircraft, and sometimes playing games with antiaircraft missiles. When he first heard about the Mercury man-in-space program, he put it out of his mind as visionary, but later realized that space flight is the logical next step in aviation, and went after...
...Artillery Shell. During Schirra's astronaut training, he built up a reputation as a dedicated, no-nonsense student of the just-born art of space flight. He has kept his sense of humor and some of his youthful mischievousness. but he never lets either affect his job. He hates heroics, and has avoided publicity stunts as much as possible. His last month TV outburst against making "show biz" out of the astronauts (TIME. Sept. 21) underlined a long and strongly held feeling...
...Schirra's wife and two children (Wally III. 12. and Suzanne. 5) have taken his shift to space in stride, followed last week's flight almost as calmly as Schirra performed it. But Wally's aviation-oriented parents are a bit dubious about their son's new calling. "He's not flying now," says Walt Sr. "He's just riding inside an artillery shell...