113 Facts About Frank Borman

Frank Frederick Borman II was born on March 14,1928 and is a retired United States Air Force colonel, aeronautical engineer, NASA astronaut, test pilot, and businessman.

Frank Borman was the commander of Apollo 8, the first mission to fly around the Moon, and together with crewmates Jim Lovell and William Anders, became the first of 24 humans to do so, for which he was awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

Four days before he graduated with the West Point Class of 1950, in which he was ranked eighth out of 670, Borman was commissioned in the USAF.

Frank Borman earned a Master of Science degree at Caltech in 1957, and then became an assistant professor of thermodynamics and fluid mechanics at West Point.

Frank Borman was selected as a NASA astronaut with the second group, known as the Next Nine, in 1962.

Frank Borman served on the NASA review board which investigated the Apollo 1 fire, and then flew to the Moon with Apollo 8 in December 1968.

Frank Borman became chief executive officer of Eastern in 1975, and chairman of the board in 1976.

Frank Borman moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico, where he ran a Ford dealership with his son, Fred.

Frank Frederick Borman II was born on March 14,1928, at 2162 West 11th Avenue in Gary, Indiana, the only child of Edwin Otto Borman and his wife Marjorie Ann Borman, who named him after his paternal grandfather.

Frank Borman's father bought a lease on a Mobil service station.

Frank Borman attended Sam Hughes Elementary School in Tucson, where he played soccer and baseball.

Frank Borman then went to Mansfeld Junior High School, where he tried out for the football team.

Frank Borman was not good enough, so he formed his own team with some local boys, sponsored by a local jewelry store.

Frank Borman earned some money with a newspaper route, delivering copies of the Arizona Daily Star.

Frank Borman played quarterback on the junior varsity team, and then became the second-string quarterback on the varsity team.

Frank Borman started dating Susan Bugbee, a sophomore at his school.

Frank Borman's first ride in an airplane had been when he was five years old.

Frank Borman learned to fly at the age of 15, taking lessons with a female instructor, Bobbie Kroll, at Gilpin Field.

Frank Borman was helping a friend build model planes, when his friend's father asked him about his plans for the future.

Frank Borman told him that he wanted to go to college and study aeronautical engineering, but his parents did not have the money to send him to an out-of-state university, and neither the University of Arizona nor Arizona State University offered top-notch courses in aeronautical engineering at that time.

Frank Borman took the West Point entrance examination, but since his chances of a West Point appointment were slim, he took the Army physical, and passed both.

Frank Borman entered West Point on July 1,1946, with the Class of 1950.

Frank Borman tried out for the plebe football team; his skills were insufficient but head coach Earl Blaik took him on as an assistant manager.

Frank Borman chose to be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force on June 2,1950.

Frank Borman graduated with his Bachelor of Science degree on June 6,1950, ranked eighth in his class of 670.

Frank Borman drove back to Tucson with his parents in his brand-new Oldsmobile 88 for the traditional sixty-day furlough after graduation.

Frank Borman had split up with Susan while he was at West Point, but had since reconsidered.

Frank Borman had earned a dental hygiene degree at the University of Pennsylvania, and was planning to commence a liberal arts degree at the University of Arizona.

Frank Borman persuaded her to see him again, and proposed to her.

Frank Borman accepted, and they were married on July 20,1950, at St Philip's in the Hills Episcopal Church in Tucson.

The top students in the class had the privilege of choosing which branch of flying they would pursue; Frank Borman elected to become a fighter pilot.

Frank Borman was therefore sent to Williams Air Force Base, near Phoenix, in February 1951 for advanced training, initially in the North American T-28 Trojan, and then the F-80 jet fighter.

Frank Borman was assigned to the 44th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, which was based at Clark Air Base, and commanded by Major Charles McGee, a veteran fighter pilot.

Frank Borman persuaded McGee to take him for flights in a T-6, and then a Lockheed T-33, the trainer version of the Shooting Star.

Frank Borman's second son, Edwin Sloan, was born at Clark in July 1952.

Frank Borman returned to the United States, where he became a jet instrument flight instructor at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia, mainly in the T-33.

Frank Borman received his Master of Science degree in aeronautical engineering in June 1957, and then became an assistant professor of thermodynamics and fluid mechanics at West Point, where he served until 1960.

Frank Borman found he enjoyed teaching, and was still able to fly a T-33 from Stewart Air Force Base on weekends.

In June 1960, Frank Borman was selected for Class 60-C at the USAF Experimental Flight Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California, and became a test pilot.

On graduation, Frank Borman was accepted as one of five students in the first class at the Aerospace Research Pilot School, a postgraduate school for test pilots to prepare them to become astronauts.

Frank Borman moved with his family to Houston, Texas, where the Manned Spacecraft Center was still being established, and signed his first home construction contract, for $26,500.

Frank Borman's assignment was the Titan II booster used by Project Gemini, although he had no experience in that area.

Frank Borman's responsibility included the Emergency Detection System developed for an abort situation.

Frank Borman agreed with Wernher von Braun that reliance would have to be placed on automated systems in situations where human reaction time would not be fast enough.

When Shepard was grounded in October 1963, Grissom and Frank Borman became the prime crew of Gemini 3.

Frank Borman was one of four members of his group chosen to command their first missions, the others being McDivitt, Neil Armstrong, and Elliot See, although See was killed in a jet crash three months before his mission.

Prime and backup crews trained for the mission together, and Frank Borman found the experience as a backup valuable, amounting to a dress rehearsal of their own mission.

Frank Borman was at the Kennedy Space Center to observe the launch of Gemini 6, and heard two McDonnell officials, spacecraft chief Walter Burke and his deputy, John Yardley, discuss the possibility of using Gemini7 as a rendezvous target.

Frank Borman rejected the idea of docking the two spacecraft, but otherwise thought the idea had merit.

At one point Schirra held up a sign in the window for Frank Borman to read that said: "Beat Army".

Frank Borman began hoping that something would go wrong and excuse an early return.

Frank Borman had never been on an aircraft carrier before, and was awed by its size.

Frank Borman was awarded the NASA Exceptional Service Medal for this mission, and was promoted to colonel.

Frank Borman was given the assignment of backup for the second mission, an Earth-orbital mission without a lunar module.

Frank Borman was given Charles Bassett for a senior pilot and Bill Anders as the pilot ; Bassett was expected to fly on Gemini 9, but he died in the air crash that killed See.

Frank Borman was then given Stafford as senior pilot and Collins as pilot.

The second mission was scrubbed, but Frank Borman's remained unchanged, although now it was to be the third mission, and he had no backup responsibility.

Frank Borman was chosen as the only astronaut to serve on the nine-member review board.

Frank Borman inspected the burnt-out command module and verified the positions of the switches and circuit breakers.

Frank Borman's testimony helped convince Congress that Apollo would be safe to fly again.

Robert Gilruth, the director of the MSC, offered the position to Frank Borman, who turned it down.

The job was given to Gilruth's deputy, George Low; Frank Borman accepted a temporary posting to the North American Aviation plant in Downey, California, where the command modules were made, to oversee the implementation of the recommendations of the AS-204 Accident Review Board.

Frank Borman was forced to confront one of the root causes of the disaster: the natural tension between getting the job done on time and building the spacecraft as well as possible.

Frank Borman argued with test pilot Scott Crossfield, who was in charge of safety engineering at North American, over the design of an effective emergency oxygen system.

Frank Borman refused to accept the design because it did not protect the crew from noxious fumes.

Frank Borman informed management at North American that he could not work with Crossfield, and Crossfield eventually left the company.

Frank Borman was replaced by Lovell in July 1968, reuniting Borman with his Gemini7 crewmate.

When Frank Borman was asked the same question, he answered "yes" without any hesitation.

Frank Borman vomited twice and had a bout of diarrhea; this left the spacecraft full of small globules of vomit and feces, which the crew cleaned up as best they could.

Frank Borman did not want anyone to know about his medical problems, but Lovell and Anders wanted to inform Mission Control.

The Apollo8 crew and Mission Control medical personnel concluded that there was little to worry about and that Frank Borman's illness was either a 24-hour flu, as Frank Borman thought, or an adverse reaction to a sleeping pill.

Frank Borman had consulted with Simon Bourgin, who worked at the United States Information Agency, and had accompanied Frank Borman and Lovell on a goodwill tour of the Far East after the Gemini7 mission.

Frank Borman had argued for this; a daylight landing would have required orbiting the Moon at least twelve times, and Frank Borman did not think this was necessary.

Frank Borman was accompanied by Bourgin and Nicholas Ruwe, the assistant chief of protocol at the State Department.

Frank Borman met with Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip and a teenage Princess Anne at Buckingham Palace in the UK, with President Charles de Gaulle in France, Pope Paul VI in Rome, and King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola of Belgium.

Space journalist Andrew Chaikin claims that, following the death of Gus Grissom, Frank Borman became Slayton's choice to command the first Moon landing attempt.

Long before Apollo8 lifted off, Frank Borman had decided that it would be his last flight, and that he would retire in 1970.

Nixon initially had prepared a long speech to read to the astronauts on the Moon during a phone call, but Frank Borman persuaded him to keep his words brief and non-partisan.

Frank Borman convinced the President to omit the playing of the "Star Spangled Banner", which would have required the astronauts to waste two and a half minutes of their time on the surface standing still.

In June 1970, Frank Borman retired from NASA and the US Air Force as a colonel.

Frank Borman was appointed to head a special commission to investigate and report to the Secretary of the Army.

In early 1969, Frank Borman became a special advisor to Eastern Air Lines.

Frank Borman joined Eastern Air Lines on July 1,1970, and moved to Miami.

Frank Borman took a helicopter, which was able to land in the darkness 150 yards from the crash site, and waded waist-deep through the murky swamp, helping rescue crash victims and load survivors into rescue helicopters.

Frank Borman was promoted to Executive Vice President-General Operations Manager and was elected to Eastern's board of directors in July 1974.

In May 1975, Frank Borman was elected president and chief operating officer by the board.

Frank Borman was named chief executive officer of Eastern in December 1975, and became chairman of the board in December 1976.

Frank Borman disliked aspects of American corporate culture, such as plush offices, luxury Cadillac and Mercedes company cars and a Lockheed JetStar corporate jet for executives, while firing or furloughing employees.

Frank Borman drove to work in a second-hand Chevrolet Camaro with an engine he rebuilt himself.

Frank Borman sold the Jetstar, and, as at North American, banned drinking on company time, which he considered included lunchtime.

Frank Borman negotiated an agreement with the Air Line Pilots Association for a 22 percent pay cut, while the International Association of Machinists and the Transport Workers Union accepted an 18 percent cut.

Frank Borman laid off 1,000 flight attendants and cut the pay of 6,000 more by over 20 percent.

Frank Borman slashed the pay of executives and middle managers by 20 to 25 percent.

Frank Borman attempted to negotiate further cuts with the unions, threatening bankruptcy.

Frank Borman served on the South African Board of Inquiry into the 1986 aircraft crash that killed Mozambican president Samora Machel.

Frank Borman was a member of the boards of directors of Home Depot, National Geographic, Outboard Marine Corporation, Automotive Financial Group, Thermo Instrument Systems and American Superconductor.

Frank Borman was CEO of Patlex Corporation, a small company that held patents in lasers, from July 1988 to August 1996.

In 1998, Frank Borman purchased a cattle ranch in the Bighorn Mountains of southern Montana, running 4,000 head of cattle on 160,000 acres.

Frank Borman is a member of the Society of Antique Modelers.

Frank Borman is eleven days older than his Apollo8 crewmate, Jim Lovell.

Frank Borman gave the commencement address to the University of Arizona's 2008 graduating class, and was reunited with Lovell and Anders for celebrations of the 50th anniversary of Apollo8 in December 2018 at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, where the spacecraft in which they orbited the Moon is on display.

On October 1,1978, Frank Borman was awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor for his command of Apollo 8.

Frank Borman, who built model airplanes throughout much of his life, was awarded the Academy of Model Aeronautics Distinguished Service Award in 1968.

Frank Borman received the honor for the science and exploration category.

Frank Borman was awarded the Society of Experimental Test Pilots James H Doolittle Award in 1976, the Tony Jannus Award in 1986, the Airport Operators Council International Downes Award in 1990, and the NASA Ambassador of Exploration Award in 2012.

Frank Borman has been awarded honorary doctorates from Whittier College, the University of Arizona, South Dakota School of Mines, Illinois Wesleyan University, the University of Pittsburgh, Indiana University, Arizona State University, Clarkson University, Hope College, and the Air University.

Frank Borman was one of ten Gemini astronauts inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1982.

In 1990, Frank Borman was selected for the Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame's inaugural class.

Frank Borman was among the second class that was inducted into the US Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1993.

In From the Earth to the Moon, a 1998 HBO miniseries, Frank Borman was played by David Andrews.

Frank Borman was interviewed in the 2008 Discovery Channel documentary When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions, and appeared in the 2005 documentary Race to the Moon, which was shown as part of the PBS American Experience series.

Frank Borman was featured on Episode 655 of the radio program This American Life titled "The Not-So-Great Unknown", airing on August 24,2018; his interview with David Kestenbaum in Act One of the episode titled "So Over the Moon" centered on his unconventional outlook towards space travel.

Frank Borman's face was used on the cover of Led Zeppelin's second album.