posted 01-29-2018 09:05 AM               

Sad to hear about passing of my NASA instructor and friend Mike Fox, his obituary reflects an amazing life, Godspeed.

In 1962, while serving in Hawaii, Mike became the first corpsman in the Navy to receive an in-field designation of Aviation Physiological Training Technician. This designation played a role in his being selected as one of five corpsmen to be assigned to NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) in Houston in 1965.

As a Chief Petty Officer (E-7), Mike was the senior corpsman of the group at NASA. From 1965-1968, Mike helped establish NASA's human test program. He was the first test subject on the MSC centrifuge and participated in more than 50 centrifuge tests. He still holds the record for 16 gs. He developed the first SCUBA training course for the astronaut corps, trained the astronauts in the use of SCUBA for water operations and served as a safety diver on numerous tests. He provided medical support both for pilot training in the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle (LLTV) and on the Retriever in support of Gemini recovery activities. Mike trained and provided support for the crews of Gemini 4 through Gemini 12 and Apollo 1...

From 1971-1978, having reached the rank of Master Chief, Mike was assigned to Hawaii where he represented the Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet. His duties included arranging for all required medical coverage during splashdown and recovery of Apollo 15, 16, 17 and the Apollo-Soyuz mission.

Mike retired from the Navy in April 1978 and returned to JSC's Manned Test Support Group (MTSG) as a contractor with Kelsey-Seybold. Mike assisted in the pre and post flight medical exams of the astronauts during the first ten shuttle recoveries. He provided both classroom and altitude chamber physiology training for the astronaut corps, pilots and other JSC personnel. In 1980 Mike designed and taught the JSC First Aid/CPR course for the astronaut corps. He continued to teach this course until his retirement in 2011. He trained every astronaut in the shuttle program, either through physiology or CPR training.

In 1999 Mike established an AED program at JSC. The initial 11 AED's at JSC grew to 86 that included White Sands test facility and Star City Russia. This program is credited with saving five lives and has served as the model for other NASA facilities. Mike was appointed the Manager of the Human Test Support Group in 1999 where he continued to work until his retirement in 2011 at the age of 78. During his NASA career, Mike received NASA's Exceptional Service Medal, the 1994 President's Special Citation from the Society of NASA Flight Surgeons, and he was the 2003 recipient of the Society of NASA Flight Surgeons' Honorary Member Award. Mike, his late wife Anne, his son Jeff, and his son-in-law David all received the Silver Snoopy which is the astronauts' personal achievement award.