Photo Index 1

Yes I served with CPT David Rodriguez who is now GEN David Rodriguez in command of AFRICOM. I went to school with Vince Brooks [USFK], Tony Thomas [SOCOM] and Joe Votel [CENTCOM] who are all 4-star generals now PO3 Ellsworth Allen Westgate

I served with LT Jeff Ashby as enlisted airman carrying his stuff to and from the A7E in 1979 , launching and recovering a few time not all the time. Mr. Ashby was happy go lucky fella always very upbeat and positive. I just assumed he was another over zealous pilot glad to be buzzing around. It was 25 plus years later I found out that Mr. Ashby became a Space shuttle commander and launched the Chandra Telescope into space. Amazing to reflect back and say " Mr. Ashby" is defiantly same then as he was when they launched into space, a true American Hero.
STORY
Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center / Full Story on Mr. Ashby
14 years ago: July 23, 1999, STS-93 launched from Kennedy Space Center.
STS-93 was the first mission in space shuttle history to be commanded by a woman, Eileen Collins

This flight deployed the Chandra X-ray Observatory, which has imaged the spectacular, glowing remains of exploded stars, and taken spectra showing the dispersal of elements. Chandra has observed the region around the supermassive black hole in the center of our Milky Way, and found black holes across the Universe. Chandra has traced the separation of dark matter from normal matter in the collision of galaxies in a cluster and is contributing to both dark matter and dark energy studies.

STS-93 Crew: Eileen Collins, Jeff Ashby, Steve Hawley, Catherine Coleman and Michel Tognini.