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

Biography

Lt. Cdr Roger B Chaffee was born 15 February 1935 in Grand Rapids, Ottawa County, Michigan, United States to Donald Lynn Chaffee (1910-1998) and Blanche May Mosher (1912-1996) and died 27 January 1967 Cape Canaveral, Brevard County, Florida, United States of unspecified causes. He married Martha Louise Horn (c1935) 24 August 1957 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

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.

Marriage and Family

Chaffee married Martha Louise Horn in Oklahoma City on August 24, 1957; they had met on a blind date in September 1955. Martha was a homemaker. The couple had two children, Sheryl Lyn (born in 1958) and Stephen (born in 1961).



Children


Offspring of Lt. Cdr Roger B Chaffee and Martha Louise Horn (c1935)
Name Birth Death Joined with
Sheryl Lyn Chaffee (1958)
Stephen Chaffee (1961)




Siblings


Offspring of Donald Lynn Chaffee (1910-1998) and Blanche May Mosher (1912-1996)
Name Birth Death Joined with
Donna Chaffee (1933)
Roger Bruce Chaffee (1935-1967) 15 February 1935 Grand Rapids, Ottawa County, Michigan, United States 27 January 1967 Cape Canaveral, Brevard County, Florida, United States Martha Louise Horn (c1935)


References


Residences

Footnotes (including sources)

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