In this picture, taken during the AFCEA-USNI West`96 Convention in San Diego during January, 1996, Wally Schirra and I shake hands.     Wally is one of the World's first astronauts.     Moreover, he is the only astronaut to fly in all three of the pioneering US space programs--Mercury (Sigma 7), Gemini 6, and Apollo 7.

Wally named Sigma and flew it into space during October 1962.     During his return to Earth he was picked up by the U.S.S. Kearsarge, where I had served as a helicopter crewmember the year before.   During his December, 1965 flight in Gemini 7, he took a harmonica and bells into space and played "Jingle Bells" during the flight.   Wally retired from the US Navy shortly after his October, 1968 Apollo 7 flight.   If your interests in the early space program lean toward noteworthy anecdotes with minimal technical detail, then you must read his recently published book, Schirra's Space (1995), published by the US Naval Institute Press.

Here is a link to the Original Seven Astronauts who were: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard, and Deke Slayton.   You also may be interested in NASA's Days of Air and Space Calendar.