#VeteranOfTheDay Air Force Veteran Frederick D. Gregory - VAntage Point

“I was a ‘Star Trek’ freak,” Gregory said in a 2004 interview, “and the communications officer, Lt. Uhura, [played by] Nichelle Nichols, showed up on TV in a blue flight suit… she pointed at me and she said, ‘I want you to join the astronaut program.’”
Gregory did just that. NASA selected him for the astronaut corps in 1978, becoming one of the first African American astronauts in American history, alongside Guion Bluford and Ronald McNair. As an astronaut, Gregory filled a variety of roles at NASA, including flight data file manager, lead capsule communicator, chief of operational safety and chief of astronaut training. Gregory was the first African American to pilot an American spacecraft.
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Great share to help close out Black History Month MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D.