'Celebration Of His Life' To Take Place May 21st In San Diego

Captain Walter M. Schirra, Jr., USN (Ret.) national hero and one of America’s original seven Mercury Astronauts will be memorialized during a private ceremony at the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery on May 21st.  Schirra was the only astronaut to fly in NASA’s Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programs.

Full military honors will be provided for Captain Schirra and his family by the U.S. Navy.  Chaplain Brad Alberson, a Navy Episcopal Chaplain will oversee the Memorial, and several close friends are to speak.  Following the Memorial, there will be a private “Celebration of his Life” at the San Diego Air & Space Museum of which the Space Flight Gallery is named in Captain Schirra’s honor.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations to the San Diego Air & Space Museum, the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, the Society of Experimental Test Pilots or the San Diego Zoo.

The Schirra family also has requested no media coverage of the Memorial or the Celebration of his Life.

Captain Schirra is survived by his wife Jo, a resident of Rancho Santa Fe, his daughter Suzanne of Vail and Walter Schirra III of San Francisco.

FMI: www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/schirra-wm.html