Navy guys as President

[Oh-ryan]

This is the actual breakdown of the military backgrounds of all the NASA astronauts:

USAF Pilot: 81
USAF Nav: 1
USAF Flight Surgeon/Engineer: 13

USN Pilot: 69
USN NFO: 8
USN Flight Surgeon: 5

USMC Pilot: 22
USMC NFO: 1

USCG Pilot: 2

US Army Pilot: 14

Note that there are many currently active astronauts with no military background at all. There are also a handful of them with military history that is completely unrelated to flying (e.g. meteorologist, diver, SEAL, etc).

Holy cow! 14 Army pilots were/are astronauts? Does the USAF brass know about this??? How could they let that happen? The shuttle is fixed wing afterall.

 

[Rez O. Lewshun]

That is allot of Navy Wings of Gold!

 

[Mud Eagle]

That is allot of Navy Wings of Gold!

Yup...just a few more and it will be as many as the USAF and Army flyers.

 

[Rez O. Lewshun]

What do USMC and USCG pilots wear?

 

[Mud Eagle]

What do USMC and USCG pilots wear?

Yeah, no kidding.

And if you add them in with the Navy pilots...it's still not as many as the USAF and Army guys.

 

[Be 23]

Note that there are two kinds of astronauts, the pilots and the 'mission specialists' AKA loadmasters. All of the Army, USCG, flight surgeons, NAVs and NFOs are mission specialists. Almost all of the pure civilians are mission specialists.

The organization is like a Navy auxiliary. Naval aviators (including jarheads) have a disproportionate influence on the place. They use a ball/bar to land the shuttle. Mission control staff has 'all hands' meetings. Overheard at Ellington as a NASA gulfstream came up ground, "NASA XXX, off the duty, taxi to my line."

 

[hoover]

Easy to answer. Navy guys are better than othe guys.

 

[bssthound]

Easy to answer. Navy guys are better than othe guys.

Ahhhhh, the voice of experience . . . . . . . .

 

[BLUE BAYOU]

I have to say that after more than a couple of decades worth of airline flying the Navy guys were hands down the best group of ex-military types to fly with by far, except for the occasional ex-Marine (part of the Navy, I know) types who were almost to a man so crazy-fun to be around that a guy would just have to be hating life not to have a good time.

Navy guys had a definate leadership quality about them that was missing in pilots from other branches of the military. They instilled a spirit of cooperation among the entire crew that often was refreshing, and seemed to understand the advantanges of real team work in getting a difficult job done. They were also very good stick and rudder types, along with good judgement and a practical approach to problem solving. I would say that what I consistently saw reflected very favorably on both the Navy's selection process and its training.

I don't want to go into what I experienced from pilots from the other branches, I simply wanted to pay a well deserved compliment to a great group of top knotch aviators.

Thanks to all of you.

Riiiiiiight! I believe Col Savage was the screen name for an exceptional Army-Air Force leader in the movie 12 O'Clock High. Additionally, one of the best stick/rudder pilots in the world was Chuck Yeager-- another Army-Air Force pilot.

Having flown with Navy pilots in my Air Force career I can honestly say the Air Force by far has the best training courses and facilities compared with the Navy. Hands down, I tip my cap to those who can land on a 400 feet pitching deck with 3 wires to catch their tailhooks-- but I still think the Air Force has better initial and recurrent training...

As for management styles, I still tell those I fly with that the best 3 years of my Air Force career was flying with the Navy! The Air Force remains way too anal retentive in its management of its flying forces.

As for Navy Politicians, I don't believe theres been any stellar ones-- Cunningham was mentioned but isn't he in jail for corruption too?

 

[Col Reb]

As for Navy Politicians, I don't believe theres been any stellar ones-- Cunningham was mentioned but isn't he in jail for corruption too?

Although he's not as well known, I've always admired Jeremiah Denton (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremiah_Denton),former US Senator from Alabama.

I'm not sure what Cunningham was (or was not) thinking...Sell off your integrity and character for a few bucks. That was definitely a disappointment.

We really don't have to count Carter do we???

 

[CatfishVT9]

Not too long after Cunningham was nailed for corruption, I attended a buddy's retirement ceremony at the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola. I purposely searched for any reference to him in the Hall of Fame area with the intent of complaining if he was there (he was in the past). No reference to him at all now. It's as if he never existed, which is a fitting "dis-honor".

 

[727C47]

I'll dip my oar in,being a rifle toting, pistol toting,steel hemeted grunt back in the old Corps,best stick,best captain I ever flew with back in my round engine apprenticeship was a WW2 ,Army Air Corps vet who was 64 at the time and flew the DC3 with hands of velvet,ran a great cockpit too. In my 727 days,my favorite skipper was an ex P3 guy, who ran an awesome cockpit,and knew the 3 holer like he was there at its inception, so there you have it, a tie ! It always comes down to the individual.