Audio by NMUSAF PA | National Museum of the U.S. Air Force | 12.05.2013
Stand near the Gemini spacecraft. Cleveland native Jim Lovell served in the U.S. Navy and as a NASA astronaut with the Gemini and Apollo programs. On Dec. 4, 1965, Lovell and Frank Borman were launched into space on the history-making Gemini 7 mission. The flight lasted 330 hours, 35 minutes and included the first rendezvous of two manned maneuverable spacecraft. The Gemini 12 mission,......
Audio by NMUSAF PA | National Museum of the U.S. Air Force | 12.05.2013
Stand near the John Glenn exhibit. John H. Glenn Jr. was born in Cambridge and grew up in New Concord. In his long aviation career, he flew with the U.S. Marines and the U.S. Air Force, set a speed record and shot down enemy aircraft. But he is best known as the first American to orbit the earth and, later in life, as the oldest person to fly in space. During the Korean War, Glenn was......
Audio by NMUSAF PA | National Museum of the U.S. Air Force | 12.05.2013
Walk through the Cold War Gallery and stand near the Apollo 15 Command Module at the entrance to the Missile and Space Gallery. Wapakoneta native Neil Armstrong took his first airplane ride in a Ford Tri-Motor at the age of 6. As a young boy, he developed an interest in aviation and astronomy and earned his private pilot’s license when he was 16, before he learned to drive an automobile.......
Audio by NMUSAF PA | National Museum of the U.S. Air Force | 12.05.2013
Walk past the Bob Hope exhibit and through the connecting link. Turn left and go to the Combat Search and Rescue exhibit in the Southeast Asia War Gallery. Pararescueman William H. Pitsenbarger, who was born in Piqua wanted to quit high school to join the U.S. Army Special Forces’ Green Berets. His parents convinced him to stay in school, and after graduating in 1962, Pitsenbarger joined......
Audio by NMUSAF PA | National Museum of the U.S. Air Force | 12.05.2013
Move to the front of the B-17. Curtis LeMay has been called the “father of modern strategic bombing” and is one of America’s most famous air commanders. The Columbus native attended The Ohio State University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. In 1928, he entered the Armed Services as a flying cadet. LeMay participated in the first mass flight of B-17......
Audio by NMUSAF PA | National Museum of the U.S. Air Force | 12.05.2013
Move to the Tuskegee Airmen exhibit. During World War II, the U.S. military was racially segregated. Reflecting American society and law at the time, most black soldiers and sailors were restricted to labor battalions and other support positions. An experiment in the U.S. Army Air Forces, however, showed that given equal opportunity and training, African-Americans could fly in, command and......
Audio by NMUSAF PA | National Museum of the U.S. Air Force | 12.05.2013
Go through the Holocaust Exhibit and into the World War II Gallery and to the nose of the B-25 Mitchell. On April 18, 1942, 80 men achieved the unimaginable when they took off from the aircraft carrier the USS Hornet on a top secret mission to bomb Tokyo, Japan. Led by Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle, these men came to be known as the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders. Although the Tokyo Raid caused only......
Audio by NMUSAF PA | National Museum of the U.S. Air Force | 12.05.2013
Next to the Hawker Hurricane is the Eagle Squadrons exhibit. In front is a glass case that contains information on another Ohio aviator. Piqua native Dominic “Don” Gentile learned to fly in high school. He tried to enlist in the Air Corps after graduation but was refused because he lacked the required two years of college. Desperate to fly, he turned to the Royal Air Force in England......
