Edward Higgins White, II - West Point, New York
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 41° 23.972 W 073° 57.965
18T E 586427 N 4583626
Grave of American astronaut and first American to walk in space.
Waymark Code: WM4DHK
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 08/09/2008
Views: 73
"Edward Higgins White, II (Lt.Col , USAF) (November 14, 1930 – January 27, 1967) was a United States Air Force officer and a NASA astronaut. On June 3, 1965, he became the first American to conduct a spacewalk. White was killed during the Apollo 1 training accident and posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and was previously awarded the NASA Space Flight Medal for his Gemini 4 spaceflight.
He was born in San Antonio, Texas and earned a B.S. from the U.S. Military Academy in 1952, and an M.S. in aeronautical engineering from the University of Michigan in 1959. He attained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air Force and was a pilot of F-86 and F-100 fighter jets. White was an experimental test pilot for the Aeronautical Systems Division and logged more than 3,000 flight hours, including 2,200 in jet aircraft. He was married to Patricia Finegan White and had two children, Bonnie Lynn and Edward III.
He was chosen as part of second group of astronauts in 1962. Within an already elite group, White was considered a high-flyer by the NASA management. As pilot of Gemini 4, he was the first American to make a spacewalk (on June 3, 1965). During his EVA an extra thermal glove floated away from inside the Gemini spacecraft, which is now a piece of Space Debris. He was later a backup command pilot for Gemini 7.
White was also made Astronaut specialist for the flight control systems of the Apollo CSM. By the usual process of crew rotation in the Gemini program, White would have been in line for a second orbital flight as Command Pilot of Gemini 10 — making him the first of his group to be selected to fly twice — but instead was 1966 promoted to be command module pilot for the first fateful Apollo program flight AS-204.
He died with fellow astronauts "Gus" Grissom and Roger Chaffee in the Apollo 1 fire at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. He was buried with full military honors at West Point Cemetery and in 1997 was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. Grissom and Chaffee are both buried in Section 3 of Arlington National Cemetery." - Wikipedia
It should be noted that Lt Col White is buried in an area with many notable people. The grave to his immediate right is that of Major General George W. Goethals, the builder of the Panama Canal. To his left General Lucius D. Clay, military governor of the U.S. zone in Germany after World War II, to include the period of the Berlin Airlift, which he helped organize and sustain. In the row one row behind Col White's grave is General William Westmoreland, the Commander of US Forces in Vietnam.
Description:
American astronaut
First American to walk in space
Date of birth: 11/14/1930
Date of death: 01/27/1967
Area of notoriety: Exploration
Marker Type: Headstone
Setting: Outdoor
Visiting Hours/Restrictions: Dawn to dusk
Fee required?: No
Web site: [Web Link]
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