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Thread: Notable 2017 Military Obituaries

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    Unhappy Notable 2017 Military Obituaries

    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.

    http://www.military.com/off-duty/tel...in-cancer.html

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    He left the world a better place...

    Former Panama dictator Manuel Noriega dies at 83
    Tue May 30, 2017 | Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, who spied for the CIA before his drug trafficking and brutal regime sparked a U.S. invasion in 1989, has died aged 83.
    President Juan Carlos Varela announced Noriega's death on Twitter late on Monday, and said his passing marked the closing of a chapter in Panama's history. Noriega, who ruled Panama from 1983 to 1989, spied for the Central Intelligence Agency until the United States invaded and toppled his corrupt government, ending a criminal career that saw him working with drug traffickers like Pablo Escobar. Noriega was initially sentenced in the United States in 1992 but was serving a sentence for murder in Panama when he died.


    Manuel Noriega, 77, Panama's former strongman, poses for a photograph in this picture received by Reuters in Panama City December 14, 2011.

    The wily military ruler of the Central American nation made world headlines as his relationship with Washington soured, culminating in the United States sending nearly 28,000 troops to seize Panama City and capture him in a house-to-house hunt. Noriega spent the rest of his life in custody between the United States, France and Panama for crimes ranging from murder to racketeering and drug-running. The former dictator had undergone an operation in March to remove a brain tumor but suffered a hemorrhage and had been in a coma since a second surgical intervention.

    A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Noriega died at around 11 p.m. local time after his condition suddenly worsened. With the knowledge of U.S. officials, Noriega formed "the hemisphere's first narcokleptocracy," a U.S. Senate subcommittee report said, calling him, "the best example in recent U.S. foreign policy of how a foreign leader is able to manipulate the United States to the detriment of our own interests." After his capture, Noriega tried to turn the tables on the United States, saying it had worked hand in glove with him.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-pa...-idUSKBN18Q0BG

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    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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    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."

    http://www.military.com/daily-news/2...reed-dies.html

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    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.

    http://www.military.com/daily-news/2...ew-mexico.html

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    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."

    https://www.military.com/daily-news/...x-dies-86.html

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    WWII Navajo Code Talker George B. Willie Sr. Dies in Arizona...

    Navajo Code Talker George B. Willie Sr. Dies in Arizona
    5 Dec 2017 — A Navajo Code Talker who used his native language to outsmart the Japanese in World War II has died in Arizona.
    Navajo Nation officials say George B. Willie Sr. died Tuesday at age 92. Tribal officials say Willie lived in the community of Leupp, Arizona. He served in the Marine Corps with the Second Marine Division from 1943 to 1946.


    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 in Window Rock, Ariz., Aug. 14, 2017.

    According to his family, Willie served in the Battle of Okinawa, delivering and receiving coded messages using the Navajo language. He and other Navajos followed in the footsteps of the original 29 who developed the code and received the Congressional Silver Medal in 2001.

    Willie is survived by his wife Emma, 10 children and several grandchildren. A celebration of life is scheduled Dec. 8 at the Presbyterian Church in Leupp.

    https://www.military.com/daily-news/...s-arizona.html
    See also:

    9 Things Every American Should Know About the Navajo Code Talkers
    Navajo code talkers, once unable to even talk about the role they played in World War II, are now lauded as heroes.
    How much do you know about these brave men? Let's take a closer look at the veterans and their accomplishments and honor their part in WWII:

    1. While the Navajo Code Talkers are most famous from World War II, the military used indigenous language as a means for code during World War I. Then, members of the Choctaw nation wrote and transcribed messages to help the war effort after their commanding officers overheard them speaking Choctaw. France bestowed the entire Choctaw Nation the Chevalier de l’Order National du Merite in gratitude for the vital work the men did.

    2. The idea of using Navajo as a way to create unbreakable codes against the Axis Powers -- Nazi Germany, Japan, and Italy -- in WWII came from a veteran of WWI. Phillip Johnson, the white son of a Christian missionary, had grown up on a Navajo Reservation and had learned the language in his youth. It is possible that he came across the idea of indigenous languages being used as code during his service in WWI. After Pearl Harbor, he proposed using Navajo, specifically, as a code to the Marines.
    3. There were 29 original code talkers. By the end of the war, there were more than 400. Native Americans from at least 14 other nations and tribes were among those 400, working to keep the Axis from breaking encrypted, vitally important information.

    4. During the time they served, Native Americans were subject to many racist and unconscionable policies in the United States. Some states actively worked to bar Native Americans from voting by using similar tactics that were used to keep African Americans from the polls. In fact, their right to vote wasn’t secured until the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

    5. Code talkers volunteered and were drafted
    Last edited by waltky; 12-11-2017 at 02:50 PM.

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    Another WWII Code Talker passes...


    Navajo Code Talker Teddy Draper Sr. Dies in Arizona at 96
    December 15, 2017 — A Navajo Code Talker who used his native language to outsmart the Japanese in World War II has died in Arizona.
    Navajo Nation officials say Teddy Draper Sr. died Thursday at age 96 in the small city of Prescott. Tribal officials say Draper lived in Chinle, Arizona. Draper and other Navajos followed in the footsteps of the original 29 who developed the code.




    Navajo Code Talkers from left, Albert Smith, Teddy Draper Sr. and Samuel Tso read the names of their brothers-in-arms written on a pillar dedicated to them during the filming of a documentary about them in Gallup, New Mexico



    He was part of the 5th Marine Division, fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima and received a Purple Heart as well as a Congressional Silver Medal. Funeral plans were pending and a list of Draper's survivors wasn't immediately available Thursday. Draper's death came nine days after another Navajo Code Talker, George B. Willie Sr., died in Arizona at age 92.


    https://www.voanews.com/a/navajo-cod...a/4165777.html

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    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.

    https://www.voanews.com/a/nasa-astro...0/4176261.html

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    Capt. McCandless came from long line of patriotic men...


    1st Untethered Spacewalker Was Son, Grandson of MoH Recipients
    28 Dec 2017 | Retired Navy Capt. Bruce McCandless II, the first astronaut to take an untethered "spacewalk" and the son and grandson of Medal of Honor recipients, died last week at age 80 in California.
    "Our thoughts and prayers go out to Bruce's family," acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot said in a statement on McCandless, who died Dec. 21 at the Los Angeles County University of Southern California Medical Center. The cause of death was not immediately disclosed. "He will always be known for his iconic photo flying the MMU," Lightfoot said of McCandless' 1984 ride into the cosmic void from the Space Shuttle Challenger using a Manned Maneuvering Unit -- the NASA jetpack. McCandless, a naval aviator who flew missions off the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise during the Cuban missile crisis, had a remarkable Navy heritage. His father, the late Rear Adm. Bruce McCandless, received what was then known as the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions on Dec. 12-13, 1942, in the Battle of Savo Island near Guadalcanal in the Pacific in World War II.


    Rear Adm. McCandless, then a communications officer aboard the New Orleans-class cruiser USS San Francisco, was knocked unconscious by shell fire from superior forces of the Imperial Japanese Fleet that killed or wounded his commanders on the bridge. When he came to, McCandless took charge. He "boldly continued to engage the enemy and to lead our column of following vessels to a great victory," his medal citation said. McCandless paternal grandfather, Commodore [later Rear Admiral] Byron McCandless received the Navy Cross in World War I, and his maternal grandfather, Navy Capt. Willis Winter Bradley was the first recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor in World War I, NASA said. On July 23, 1917, aboard the cruiser USS Pittsburgh, then-Lt. Bradley was blown back by an accidental gunpowder explosion. Bradley recovered, crawled into the burning compartment and put out the flames that threatened to set off more powder explosions and possibly sink the ship.



    This 1982 photo shows astronaut Bruce McCandless II, wearing a Shuttle Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Suit with Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) in Houston


    Rear Adm. Bruce McCandless, Byron McCandless and Willis Winter Bradley were all graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy, as was astronaut Bruce McCandless, who was a classmate of Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. In a statement on McCandless' passing, McCain called him "a brilliant aviator and astronaut who dedicated his life to serving the country he loved. Bruce and I were both members of the Class of 1958 at the United States Naval Academy." "As an undistinguished graduate of that class, I always looked up to Bruce -- not only for his incredible intellect, but also for his character and integrity, which embodied the highest values of the United States Navy," McCain said. "Bruce is perhaps best known for carrying out the first untethered spacewalk," McCain said. "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."


    Before he made the untethered Extravehicular Activity, or EVA, as a mission specialist aboard Challenger, McCandless had been a mission control capsule communicator [CAPCOM] for the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon in 1969. McCandless later said in the back of his mind as he ventured out on Feb. 8, 1984, from Challenger was the historic quote from Neil Armstrong as he stepped onto the Moon: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." "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 heckuva' big leap for me,'" McCandless said. "That loosened the tension a bit" for those involved in the mission, he said. In a 2006 interview with the Daily Camera of Boulder, Colorado, McCandless played down his accomplishment. "I was grossly overtrained," he said. "I was just anxious to get out there and fly. I was very comfortable" but "it got so cold my teeth were chattering and I was shivering, but that was a very minor thing."



    This Feb. 7, 1984 photo made available by NASA shows astronaut Bruce McCandless II, participating in a spacewalk a few meters away from the cabin of the Earth-orbiting space shuttle Challenger.


    McCandless traveled more than 300 feet from the shuttle, and the photo of him in his white NASA suit in the blackness of space with the blue planet Earth as a backdrop became a sensation. Aboard the shuttle Discovery in 1990, McCandless was part of the crew that launched the Hubble Space Telescope. All told, McCandless logged more than 312 hours in space, including four hours of spacewalks. After leaving NASA, he worked for Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Space Systems division in Colorado. Services for McCandless have been planned for Jan. 16 at the Naval Academy's Main Chapel in Annapolis, Maryland, followed by burial at the Naval Academy Cemetery.


    https://www.military.com/daily-news/...ecipients.html

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