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Donn F. Eisele (June 23,1930 - December 2, 1987)
was born in Columbus, Ohio and served as a Colonel
in the United States Air Force|USAF, as well as an
astronaut with NASA.

==Education==

Graduated from West High School, Columbus, Ohio;
received a Bachelor of Science degree from the
United States Naval Academy in 1952 and a Master
of Science degree in Astronautics in 1960 from the
Air Force Institute of Technology,
Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.

==Organizations==

Member of Tau Beta Pi, National Engineering
Society.

==Special honors==

Received the NASA exceptional Service Metal, Air
Force Senior Pilot Astronaut Wings, Air Force
Distinguished Flying Cross (USA)|Distinguished
Flying Cross; co-recipient of the AIAA 1969 Haley
Astronautics Award; presented National Academy of
Television Arts and Sciences Special Trustees
Award in 1969.

== Experience ==
Eisele graduated from the United States Naval
Academy and chose a career in the Air Force. He is
also a graduate of the Air Force Aerospace
Research Pilot School at Edwards AFB, California.

He was a project engineer and experimental test
pilot at the Air Force Special Weapons Center at
Kirtland Air Force Base|Kirtland AFB, New Mexico.
In this capacity, he flew experimental test
flights in support of special weapons development
programs.

He logged more than 4,200 hours flying time —
3,600 hours in jet aircraft.

=== NASA experience ===

Eisele was one of the third group of astronauts
selected by NASA in October 1963.

On October 11, 1968, he occupied the command
module pilot seat for the eleven-day flight of
Apollo VII—the first manned flight test of the
third generation United States spacecraft. With
spacecraft commander Wally Schirra|Walter M.
Schirra, Jr., and lunar module pilot Walter
Cunningham, Eisele participated in and executed
maneuvers enabling the crew to perform exercises
in transposition and docking and lunar orbit
rendezvous with the S-IVB stage of their Saturn IB
launch vehicle; completed eight successful test
and maneuvering ignitions of the service module
propulsion engine; measured the accuracy of
performance of all spacecraft systems; and
provided the first effective television
transmissions of onboard crew activities.

Apollo 7 was placed in an Earth-orbit with an
apogee of 153.5 nautical miles (284.3 kilometers)
and perigee of 122.6 nautical miles (227.1 km);
and the 260-hour, four-and-a-half million mile
(7.25 Gm) shakedown flight was successfully
concluded on October 22, 1968, with splashdown
occurring in the Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic, some
eight miles (15 km) from the carrier ESSEX (only
three-tenths of a mile or 0.6 km from the
originally predicted aiming point).

He served as backup command module pilot for the
Apollo 10 flight.  But due to problems between
him, the rest of the Apollo 7 crew, and former
flight director Christopher Kraft, he was replaced
by Stuart Roosa as part of the original Apollo 13
prime crew--the crew that switched with James
Lovell's original Apollo 14 prime crew that lead
to the Apollo 13 Service Module incident in 1970,
and the triumphant return of Alan Shepherd into
space on Apollo 14.

Colonel Eisele logged 260 hours in space.

In July 1972, Colonel Eisele retired from the Air
Force and left the space program to become
Director of the U.S. Peace Corps in Thailand. Upon
Returning from Thailand, Eisele became Sales
Manager for Marion Power Shovel Company, a
division of Dresser Industries. Eisele handled
private and corporate accounts for the investment
firm of Oppenheimer & Company.

Donn died of a heart attack while on a business
trip to Tokyo, Japan. He is survived by his wife
Susan and their two children. Colonel Eisele had
four children from a previous marriage.

Source:
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/eisele-df.ht
ml

NASA