Posted on 02/01/2003 3:02:30 PM PST by areafiftyone
One of seven Columbia astronauts killed when the space shuttle blew up over Texas Saturday morning was a role model and an ideal candidate for the space program, said those who knew him as a flight instructor.
Plattsburgh-born Lt. Col. Michael Anderson was teaching pilots how to fly refueling aircraft in 1994 at the now-closed Plattsburgh Air Force Base when NASA chose him as one of only a handful of black astronauts.
"He was ideally suited for it," said Rich Cantwell, chief of military justice at the base during the years Anderson was there and now the district attorney in Clinton County.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
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