Saturday, March 25, 2023

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Lovell was one of 50 members of his 783-strong graduating class initially selected for naval aviation training.[15] He went to flight training at Naval Air Station Pensacola from October 1952 to February 1954. He was designated a naval aviator on February 1, 1954, upon completion of pilot training, and was assigned to VC-3 at Moffett Field near San Francisco, California. From 1954 to 1956 he flew McDonnell F2H Banshee night fighters. This included a Western Pacific deployment aboard the aircraft carrier USS Shangri-La. Lovell eventually completed 107 carrier deck landings. Upon his return to shore duty, he was reassigned to provide pilot transition training for the North American FJ-4 Fury, McDonnell F3H Demon and Vought F8U Crusader.[16] In January 1958, Lovell entered a six-month test pilot training course at what was then the Naval Air Test Center (now the United States Naval Test Pilot School) at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, with Class 20,[17] which also included future astronauts Wally Schirra and Pete Conrad,[18] who gave Lovell the nickname "Shaky".[19] Lovell graduated at the top of the class.[18] Usually the top graduate was assigned to flight test on graduation, but the head of electronics test had complained about never getting the top graduate, so Lovell was assigned to electronics test, where he worked with radar sets.[18][20] Later that year, Lovell, Conrad, and Schirra were among 110 military test pilots selected as potential astronaut candidates for Project Mercury. Schirra went on to become one of the Mercury Seven, but Lovell was not selected because of a temporarily high bilirubin count.[21] In 1960, electronics test was merged with armaments test to become weapons test, and Lovell became the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II program manager.[22] During this time future astronaut John Young served under him. In 1961 Lovell received order



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