SAN DIEGO —FOX- Walter M. “Wally” Schirra Jr., who as one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts combined the Right Stuff _ textbook-perfect flying ability and steely nerves _ with a pronounced rebellious streak, died Thursday at 84.
He was the only astronaut to fly in all three of NASA’s original manned spaceflight programs: Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. Although he never walked on the moon, Schirra laid some of the groundwork that made the lunar landings possible and won the space race for the United States.
I’ve written about his exploits in the past, most particularly the ones that I watched on the flickering black and white television at the elementary school where I was several hundred other children watching that same TV, saw history being made.
As the Bard said, I fear we shall not see his like again.
You know, maybe that’s part of the problem, here. Schirra, whatever else he may have been, earned himself the title of “American hero”, though his actions. One of the things that I tried to suggest in my every week links to McQ’s Project Hero postintgs, was that we have heroes among us, already, that we refuse to recognize.
The point I’m trying to make here, (and perhaps this post isn’t the place to do it, but I don’t think Schirra would mind) is that perhaps the reason we don’t have much in the way of heroic actions amongst the general population, is because the actions of a hero, are no longer held high. No longer looked upon with respect. Schirra was from the time that heroism was held high. He justifiably received respect for his deeds. His heroism.
Where is his like, today?
Tags: BitsBlog, The bell tolls