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Curated playlist

Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States)

  • Pete ConradPete Conrad's first words on the Moon were a joke he had bet $500 on.
  • George H. W. BushAfter being shot down in 1944, George H. W. Bush asked why he alone had been spared. Both of his crewmates died.
  • Jim LovellJim Lovell flew to the Moon twice and never set foot on it. His second trip, Apollo 13, nearly ended in disaster.
  • Clark GableA Warner Bros. executive once rejected Clark Gable because his ears were too big. He said Gable looked like an ape.
  • James StewartJames Stewart gave his Oscar to his father for the shop window.
  • Donn F. EiseleDonn Eisele was in a hospital on January 27, 1966, exactly a year before the Apollo 1 fire.
  • James McDivittOn Gemini 4, James McDivitt had to force a jammed hatch latch back into place with his fingers.
  • Gene CernanGene Cernan wrote his daughter's initials in the lunar dust before leaving the Moon. He was the last person there.
  • Gus GrissomDoctors nearly cut Gus Grissom from astronaut selection because he had hay fever.
  • Buzz AldrinBuzz Aldrin's first words on the Moon were "Beautiful view." Years later he was selling used cars.
  • Alan ShepardAn inner ear disease grounded astronaut Alan Shepard for years before he walked on the Moon.
  • John Young (astronaut)John Young walked on the Moon and later commanded the first Space Shuttle mission. He is the only person to do both.
  • Frank BormanA stranger's telegram told Apollo 8's Frank Borman, "You saved 1968." He commanded the first crew to orbit the Moon.
  • David ScottDavid Scott dropped a hammer and a feather on the Moon. The Apollo 15 commander did it on live television.
  • Wally SchirraAstronaut Wally Schirra refused Mission Control's request to wear helmets.
  • Amelia EarhartAmelia Earhart climbed out of a single-engine airplane in a pasture in Northern Ireland, and a farm hand asked the obvious question. “Have you flown far?” he said. She answered, “From America.” The woman in the pasture was Amelia Earhart,…
  • Michael Collins (astronaut)Michael Collins orbited the Moon thirty times and never set foot on it.
  • Douglas MacArthurDouglas MacArthur came up with his own field marshal title. Philippine President Quezon conferred it in 1936.
  • Allen Lawrence PopeAllen Lawrence Pope was carrying about 30 incriminating documents when Indonesian forces took him prisoner in May 1958. One of them was his own flight log. The papers turned a covert operation into a diplomatic crisis, and they deepened…
  • Deke SlaytonOne heart test grounded astronaut Deke Slayton in 1962. He then picked the crews who flew to the Moon.
  • Samuel C. PhillipsSamuel C. Phillips froze the Minuteman missile's design knowing its range was 1,000 miles short.
  • Charles LindberghCharles Lindbergh stared at a huge field of glowing lights near Paris in May 1927 and took it for a giant industrial complex. He had just flown alone across the Atlantic, and the airfield he was hunting was not on his map. All he knew was…
  • Richard F. Gordon Jr.Richard Gordon orbited the Moon 45 times on Apollo 12 but never walked on it.
  • Scott Kelly (astronaut)Scott Kelly, an American astronaut and naval aviator, rode a Soyuz TMA-16M rocket off the pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:42 in the afternoon, Eastern time, on the 27th of March 2015. Most space travelers expect to come…
  • Dan CaineJohn Daniel "Razin" Caine is an American general, born in 1968, who became chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2025. His appointment broke three precedents at once. No earlier chairman had reached the job without first holding…
  • Richard E. ByrdRichard E. Byrd, an American naval officer, spent 13 minutes circling a patch of Arctic sky on the 9th of May 1926. Then he turned for home. By his own account, he had just reached the North Pole. The round trip took 15 hours and 57…
  • Thomas P. StaffordApollo 10's lunar module spun out of control after Thomas Stafford flew it within nine miles of the Moon.

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