Wow. Astronaut I imagine.
I have my father’s copy of 1953 lucky Bag. Lovell’s picture is in it
Almost.
My father was a Navy test pilot graduate of Annapolis who made the last group of candidates before the final selection of the original seven Mercury class. He was disqualified for a minor medical condition (which actually ended up killing him later in life). NASA leadership liked what he brought, though, and asked him to join the Astronaut Corps as a trainer. He trained Mercury and Gemini crews on emergency flight procedures. One of those team members was Lovell, who used his training during the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission.
Deke Slayton had my father’s status reclassified for the Apollo program, but that ended before my father could fly. He retired from the Navy as a Captain at the end of that program and left NASA.
He knew and trained all of the astronauts of that era, and was friends with many. He was very close to Gus Grissom, and we’ve had Neil Armstrong to our house for dinner. As a kid, I was starstruck by being so close to all of that.
His greatest disappointment was that he never flew into space. My oldest son now works in the space program, and a few years ago, he was able to get my father’s name inscribed on the leg of the Mars lander.
He may have never left our atmosphere, but he finally got to have a presence where he wanted to be.