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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:

Col B. Dean Smith served in the Air Force for 22 years flying 13 different types of aircraft, many with four engines. He was the aircraft commander of the aircraft that located and supervised recovery of the first missile nose cone (Atlas) to be recovered after reentry.

Later he tested the GEMINI Space system for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and experienced the first major fire NASA had in the test program. He was one of two occupants in the space chamber which was charged with 100% oxygen when an electrical short circuit caused the fire. Both occupants escaped. Later, NASA had a nearly identical fire on January 27, 1967 with Apollo 1 (204) in which 3 astronauts -- Grissom, White and Chaffee -- lost their lives.