Donald Kent Slayton was a U.S. Air Force pilot, aeronautical engineer, and test pilot. He was selected as one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts. Slayton flew in Europe and the Pacific during World War II. He went on to become NASA’s first Chief of the Astronaut Office and Director of Flight Crew Operations. He died from a brain tumor on June 13, 1993, aged 69.
About Deke Slayton in brief
Donald Kent Slayton was a U.S. Air Force pilot, aeronautical engineer, and test pilot. He was selected as one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts. Slayton flew in Europe and the Pacific during World War II. He went on to become NASA’s first Chief of the Astronaut Office and Director of Flight Crew Operations, responsible for NASA crew assignments. He died from a brain tumor on June 13, 1993, aged 69. He is survived by his wife, two children, and a stepson. He also leaves behind a daughter and a son-in-law, both of whom he raised on a farm near Leon, Wisconsin, in the United States. He had a son, Charles Slayton, who died in a car crash in 2008. He has a daughter, Victoria, who is a former Miss Wisconsin. He leaves behind his son, Donald Slayton Jr., who is also a pilot, and his daughter, Victoria Slayton III, who was a Miss Wisconsin contestant in the 2010 Miss Universe pageant. He will also be buried in Leon, where he grew up with his family. He served in the U. S. Army Air Forces during the Second World War. He left the Army after the war, and later joined the Minnesota Air National Guard. He worked for Boeing as an aeronautic engineer. He later worked for NASA until 1982, and helped develop the Space Shuttle. He retired from NASA in 1986. He never flew in space again, but was the docking module pilot of the 1975 Apollo–Soyuz Test Project.
He flew in the B-25 Mitchell, his last choice for aircraft, until he was medically cleared to fly again in 1972. In 1959, he applied to, and was selected for, the Mercury Seven. In 1962, he was grounded in 1962 by atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm, but returned to flight in March 1972. He continued to work at NASA until he retired in 1986, and died in 1993, at the age of 69. His son, Donald Slayton II, was a pilot for the Air Force and served in Afghanistan and the Middle East during the First Gulf War. His wife, Victoria, is the daughter of former Air Force officer, Charles Kent Slayon, who served in World War I and the Second Gulf War, and is the mother of two sons, Charles Slayton IV, and Victoria Slayton II. He lived with his wife and two daughters, David Slayton and Victoria Adelia Slayton. He passed away on June 12, 2013, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at age 69. For confidential support call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or visit http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/. For confidential. support on suicide matters call the Samaritans on 08457 90 90 90 or visit a local Samaritans branch or click here. For support in the UK, visit the Samaritans.
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