Learning Center Our Enshrinees

Edward “Ed” Higgens White II

• Appointed to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point where he graduated in 1952.
• Assigned to the 22nd Fighter Day Squadron at Bitburg Air Base, Germany where he spent three and a half years flying the F-86 and F-100 fighter aircraft.
• Attended the Air Force Test Pilot Program at Edwards Air Force Base for advanced aviation training. He was then transferred to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base as a weightlessness and extended flight training captain.
• Was one of nine astronauts selected by NASA for Project Gemini.
• Served as Pilot for the Gemini 4 flight, a four-day mission from June 3 to 7, 1965. During this flight, he was the first American to make a spacewalk.
• Selected as Senior Pilot for the first Apollo mission on March 21, 1966.