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Author
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Topic: Apollo astronaut nicknames or call signs
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sts205cdr
Member Posts: 738
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Jun 2001
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posted 12-18-2022 05:37 PM
   
Something I'm wondering about, the nicknames of the Apollo lunar astronauts. Please add to what I recall: - Schirra: Jolly Wally
- Cunningham: Walt
- Eisele: What's His Name
- Borman:
- Lovell: Shaky
- Anders:
- McDivitt:
- Scott:
- Schweickart:
- Stafford: Mumbles
- Young: Briar Rabbit
- Cernan: Geno
- Armstrong:
- Aldrin: Dr. Rendezvous
- Collins:
- Conrad: Tweety
- Gordon: Dick, uh, Gordon/Dickie
- Beano: Beano
- Lovell: Shaky
- Swigert:
- Haise: Freddo
- Shepard: The Icy Commander/Smilin' Al
- Mitchell:
- Roosa:
- Scott:
- Worden:
- Irwin:
- Young: Briar Rabbit
- Duke:
- Mattingly:
- Cernan: Geno
- Evans:
- Schmitt: Dr. Rock/Jack
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Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 49743
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 12-18-2022 06:15 PM
For John Young, I think you mean "Br'er Rabbit," who jumped into the briar patch.On edit: Also, someone please correct me if I am wrong, but I don't know if this would qualify as a nickname. Did Young ever use this reference other than his first words on the moon? |
Blackarrow
Member Posts: 3543
From: Belfast, United Kingdom
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 12-18-2022 08:59 PM
Apollo 9: "Rusty" SchweickartApollo 17: Ron Evans was "Captain America." |
Delta7
Member Posts: 1695
From: Bluffton IN USA
Registered: Oct 2007
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posted 12-19-2022 03:09 PM
I think I read somewhere that Richard Gordon had "The Animal" as a nickname. |
p51
Member Posts: 1759
From: Olympia, WA
Registered: Sep 2011
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posted 12-19-2022 05:12 PM
Wasn't Al Bean called, "Beeno" by his Apollo 12 pals? |
David C
Member Posts: 1381
From: Lausanne
Registered: Apr 2012
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posted 12-20-2022 04:32 AM
- Schirra: "Skyray", after one of the jets he tested.
- I think Borman was known by some unprintable, behind his back terms, by a few.
- Young: originally "José", then occasionally "Cornbeef John", but I think both fell out of use. Never 'Br'er Rabbit', that was his reference to himself as mentioned by Robert.
- Bean: various versions of "Spaghetti Al", I think, for his eating habits out at the contractors.
- Gordon: "The Animal", if I recall correctly because he was quite hairy.
- Worden: "Sonny", which his mom called him, dug up by Jim McDivitt.
- Mattingly: just Ken during Apollo, "TK" later.
- Evans: "Captain America" during/ after 17 only, because he was captain of CSM America.
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Henry Heatherbank
Member Posts: 306
From: Adelaide, South Australia
Registered: Apr 2005
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posted 12-20-2022 06:35 AM
quote:
Originally posted by David C:
Schirra: "Skyray", after one of the jets he tested.
Skyray was coined after Schirra was introduced to an audience that way, when the announcer/MC mispronounced his name. The nickname doesn’t come from a jet he flew. |
David C
Member Posts: 1381
From: Lausanne
Registered: Apr 2012
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posted 12-20-2022 09:52 AM
The stories you hear eh!
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ashot
Member Posts: 39
From:
Registered: Mar 2010
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posted 12-20-2022 12:11 PM
Charlie Duke "Typhoid Mary" |
ea757grrl
Member Posts: 786
From: South Carolina
Registered: Jul 2006
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posted 12-20-2022 05:00 PM
For whatever it's worth, in "Schirra's Space" Wally wrote: Jo, my wife, at one point began calling me Skyray — she still does, to tease me. I came to like it. Skyray sounds like Schirra, and it's the name of the F4D, the Navy fighter I first flew when I was a test pilot at Patuxent River, Maryland. Best of all, it's a name everyone recognizes. I once used it as my CB radio call sign. |
c670cj
Member Posts: 21
From: Renton, Washington
Registered: Jul 2016
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posted 12-21-2022 01:33 PM
Anders is Viking. |
David Carey
Member Posts: 973
From:
Registered: Mar 2009
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posted 12-21-2022 04:17 PM
I don’t know that it received any other notoriety, but we also have “The Decal Kid” for Captain Lovell on Apollo 13. |
FFrench
Member Posts: 3284
From: San Diego
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 01-01-2023 08:41 PM
Gene Cernan, talking about why the "Beep Beep" Apollo 14 patch looks as it does: "We called the Prime crew: Shepard the Old Man, Mitchell the Fat Man, and Roosa the cute little Redhead." |
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