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Walter Marty Schirra, Jr. (born March 12, 1923 in
Hackensack, New Jersey) was one of the original
The_Mercury_Seven | Mercury 7 astronauts chosen
for the Mercury program | Project Mercury,
America's first effort to put men in space. He was
the only man to fly in America's first three space
programs: Mercury program|Mercury, Gemini
program|Gemini and Apollo program|Apollo and has
logged a total of 295 hours and 15 minutes in
space.

The family name Schirra is originary from the
Valle Onsernone, in Canton Ticino, the Italian
part of Switzerland. 

Wally Schirra was born into an aviation family. 
Schirra's father, Walter M. Schirra, Sr., went to
Canada during World War I and became an Flying
ace|ace with the Royal Air Force|RAF.  He later
became a Barnstorming|barnstormer.  Wally's
mother, Florence Leach Schirra, went along on her
husband's barnstorming tours and performed wing
walking stunts.  By the time he was 15, Wally was
flying his father's airplane.

Wally graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1945
and spent the final months of World War II as an
officer aboard the cruiser USS Alaska (CB-1)|USS
Alaska. After the war ended, he trained as a pilot
at NAS Pensacola and joined a aircraft
carrier|carrier aviation squadron.

Upon the outbreak of the Korean War, Schirra was
dispatched to South Korea as an exchange pilot on
loan to the US Air Force. He served as a flight
leader with the 136th Bomb Wing, and then as
operations officer with the 154th Fighter Bomber
Squadron.  He flew 90 combat missions between 1951
and 1952, mostly in F-84s.  Schirra was credited
with shooting downing one MiG-15 and damaging two
others.  Schirra received the Distinguished Flying
Cross (U.S.)|Distinguished Flying Cross and the
Air Medal with an oak leaf cluster for his service
in Korea.

After his tour in Korea, Schirra served as a test
pilot.  He tested weapons systems such as the 
AIM-9 Sidewinder|Sidewinder missile and the F7U
Cutlass|F7U-3 Cutlass jet fighter.  After spending
time as a flight instructor and carrier based
aviator, he later returned to his test pilot
duties and helped proof the F-4 Phantom II|F-4H
fighter fighter for naval service. 

On April 2, 1959, Schirra was chosen as one of the
original seven American astronauts.  He entered
Project Mercury and was assigned the specialty
area involving life support systems. 

On October 3, 1962, Schirra became the fifth
American in space, 
piloting the Mercury 8 (Sigma 7) on a six-orbit
mission lasting 9 hours, 13 minutes, and 11
seconds. The capsule attained a velocity of 17,557
miles per hour and an altitude of 175 statute
miles, and landed within four miles of the main
Pacific Ocean recovery ship.

On December 15, 1965, Schirra flew into space a
second time in Gemini 6A with Tom_Stafford,
rendezvousing with astronauts Frank Borman and Jim
Lovell|James Lovell, Jr. in Gemini 7.  This was
the first rendezvous of two manned spacecraft in
earth orbit.  The two vehicles, however, were not
capable of actually docking. Gemini 6 landed in
the Atlantic Ocean the next day, while Gemini 7
continued on to a then record-setting 14-day
mission.

On October 11, 1968, Schirra flew into space a
final time as commander of Apollo 7, the first
manned flight in the Apollo program after a fatal
fire during tests of Apollo 1. The three-man crew,
including Donn Eisele and Walter Cunningham, spent
eleven days in earth orbit, performed rendezvous
exercises with the upper stage of the Saturn 1-B
launch vehicle that rocketed them into space and
provided the first television pictures from inside
a U.S. manned spacecraft.

During the Apollo 7 mission, Schirra caught what
was perhaps the most famous Common cold|cold in
NASA history.  He took Actifed to relieve his
symptoms upon the advice of the flight surgeon. 
Years later, he would become a spokesman for
Actifed and would appear in television commercials
advertising the product. 

He is currently a semi-retired consultant and
lives in Rancho Santa Fe, California.

During his time in college, Schirra was a member
of Sigma Pi Fraternity, headquartered in
Vincennes, Indiana.

== References ==
*Wally Schirra & Richard N. Billings, "Schirra's
Space", 1995 ISBN 1-55750-792-9
*Robert Godwin "Sigma 7: The NASA Mission
Reports", 2003 ISBN  1-894959-01-9
*Robert Godwin "Gemini 6: The NASA Mission
Reports", 2000 ISBN 1-896522-61-0
*Robert Godwin "Apollo 7: The NASA Mission
Reports", 2000 ISBN 1-896522-64-5