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Captain Carl E. Pruett, MC USN, (d.1991) specialized in aviation medical safety, serving 30 years as assistant for medical and allied sciences to the deputy chief of naval operations. Pruett received a medical degree from the University of Illinois in 1943. He graduated from the Naval School of Aviation Medicine and served in Washington, DC, from 1953 to 1955 as aviation medical safety specialist in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Air. Pruett assignments also included sea duty as a flight surgeon in the Pacific and as Chief of the Biomedical Division of the Air Force Aero Medical Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio. In 1958 Pruett was assigned to Point Mugu, California, where he helped establish the Pacific Missile Bioscience Office and Life Science Department of the Naval Missile Center (now the Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Division). He became a medical monitor for Project Mercury in 1962, and in that capacity served as medical monitor for the earth-orbiting flight of John Glenn. He was later transferred to Washington, DC, where he served in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations until his retirement.

Identifier

NASM.2017.0006

Date

bulk 1961-1964

Provenance

Richard K Pruett (Rick), Gift, 2016

Extent

1.68 Cubic feet ((2 boxes))

Archival Repository

National Air and Space Museum Archives

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of the following manuals, many of which are annotated by Captain Carl E. Pruett, MC USN: MR-3 post-flight debriefing of Alan B. Shepard, Jr.; Project Mercury Familiarization Manuals (3 manuals); Project Flight Controller Handbook; Operations Plan: Bioastronautic Support for Project Mercury; Project Mercury Familiarization Manual; Descriptive Synopsis of Project Mercury; Mercury Atlas MA-6 booklet; NASA Project Gemini Familiarization Manual Long Range and Modified Configurations; Procedures for Alerting and Moving DOD Medical People in Support of Project Gemini; The First Manned Space Flight, by Yu. M. Volynkin, V. I. Yazdovskiy and others; Project Mercury Capsule Flight Operations Manual; MA-6 Briefing Notebook; Introduction to Project Mercury and Site Handbook; Basic Orientation Course, Aeromedical Monitors - Project Mercury Notebook; Project Mercury Vol. 1, Chronology, Suborbital Flight 1, Suborbital Flight 2, First Manned Orbital Flight; Project Mercury Flight Controller Handbook; Results of the Second US Manned Orbital Space Flight May 24, 1962; Remote Site Flight Controller's Console Handbook; Samples of the Project Mercury Bioinstrumentation Records, April 4, 1963; "Trip Report on TAD, NASA Project Gemini Command Control and Communications Network;" NASA photos from an unidentified site visit and presentation, and "Go: Colonel Glenn in Orbit" 33 1/3 RPM Record.

Rights

Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests

Restrictions

No restrictions on access.

Citation

Mercury and Gemini Program Manuals [Pruett], Accession 2017-0006, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

Topics

Astronautics

Manned space flight

Gemini Project

Mercury Project

Space medicine

Type

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Technical manuals