15 Facts About Clifton Williams

Clifton Williams was the fourth astronaut from NASA's Astronaut Group 3 to have died, the first two having been killed in separate T-38 flights, and the third in the Apollo 1 fire earlier that year.

Clifton Williams became a Naval Aviator in 1956 and joined the Fleet Marine Force.

Clifton Williams had a younger brother, Richard, born in 1935.

Clifton Williams was active in the Boy Scouts of America, where he achieved its second-highest rank, Life Scout.

Clifton Williams attended Murphy High School in Mobile, graduating in 1949.

Clifton Williams became a naval aviator in August 1956, and served with operational tactical jet squadrons of the Fleet Marine Force.

Clifton Williams then attended the US Naval Test Pilot School at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland.

On October 18,1963, Major Clifton Williams was named by NASA as one of its third group of astronauts, along with thirteen others.

Clifton Williams served as the backup pilot for Gemini 10, which took place in July 1966.

Later that year, Pete Conrad chose Clifton Williams to be the Lunar Module Pilot on the mission for which Conrad was commander, which would serve as the back-up Apollo 9 crew, and later become Apollo 12.

Clifton Williams was the first bachelor astronaut, which changed when he married Jane Elizabeth "Beth" Lansche, a former waterskiing performer at the Cypress Gardens theme park in Florida.

On October 5,1967, Clifton Williams was flying from Cape Canaveral back to Houston, with a stop in Mobile to visit his father who was dying of cancer.

Clifton Williams ejected at an altitude of 1,500 feet, but the aircraft was traveling too fast and too low for the seat to land safely.

Clifton Williams was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.

Clifton Williams' name appears on NASA's Space Mirror Memorial at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.