Roger Bruce Chaffee (1935-1967)


 * Apollo 1 Astronaut - Launch Pad Casualty
 * US Naval Aviator
 * Veteran of Cuban Missile Crisis
 * Eagle Scout

Biography
Roger Bruce Chaffee was an American naval officer and naval aviator, aeronautical engineer, and NASA astronaut in the Apollo program.

Chaffee was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he became an Eagle Scout. He graduated from Central High School in 1953, and accepted a Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) scholarship. He began his college education at Illinois Institute of Technology, where he was also involved in the fraternity Phi Kappa Sigma. He transferred to Purdue University in the autumn of 1954, where he continued his involvement in Phi Kappa Sigma and obtained his private pilot's license.

After graduating from Purdue in 1957, Chaffee completed his Navy pre-commissioning training, and was commissioned as an ensign. He began pilot training at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, flying a variety of planes including the T-34, T-28, and A3D. He became quality and safety control officer for Heavy Photographic Squadron 62 (VAP-62). His time in this unit included taking crucial photos of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis, for which he was awarded the Air Medal. He was promoted to lieutenant commander on February 1, 1966.

Along with thirteen other pilots, Chaffee was selected to be an astronaut as part of NASA Astronaut Group 3 in 1963. He served as capsule communicator (CAPCOM) for the Gemini 3 and Gemini 4 missions, and received his first spaceflight assignment in 1966. In 1967, he died in a fire along with fellow astronauts Virgil "Gus" Grissom and Ed White during a pre-launch test for the Apollo 1 mission at what was then the Cape Kennedy Air Force Station Launch Complex 34, Florida. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and a second Air Medal.