Free Republic

Last week, Wally Schirra, Jr., a member of a shrinking and nearly extinct daredevil brotherhood, died of a heart attack. Schirra was the only astronaut to fly in all three of NASA’s original manned spaceflight programs: Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. Of the original Mercury Seven, only Scott Carpenter and John Glenn are still alive. As a matter of fact, John Glenn was still cheating death as late as last year. Last summer, John Glenn and his wife were injured in a traffic accident near Columbus. The astronaut and former Ohio senator now holds two historical distinctions: He was the first...