Pete Conrad - Aviation Career in The U.S. Navy

Aviation Career in The U.S. Navy

Conrad became a naval aviator and a fighter pilot. He excelled in Navy flight school, and he served for several years as an aircraft carrier pilot in the Navy. Conrad also served as a flight instructor in the Navy flight schools along the Gulf of Mexico.

Next, Conrad applied for and he was accepted by the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Patuxent, Maryland, where he was assigned as a Project Test Pilot.

During this period, Conrad was invited to take part in the selection process for the first group of astronauts for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (the "Mercury Seven"). Conrad, like his fellow candidates, underwent several days of what they considered to be invasive, demeaning, and unnecessary medical and psychological testing at the "Lovelace Clinic" in New Mexico. Unlike his fellow candidates, Conrad rebelled against the regimen. During a Rorschach inkblot test, he told the psychiatrist that one blot card revealed a sexual encounter complete with lurid detail. When shown the next card, he studied it for a moment then he said with a deadpan face, "It's upside down."

Then when he was asked to deliver a stool sample to the onsite lab, he placed it in a gift box and tied a red ribbon around it. Eventually, he decided that he had had enough. After dropping his full enema bag on the desk of the clinic’s commanding officer, he walked out. His initial application to NASA was denied with the notation not suitable for long-duration flight.

Thereafter, when NASA announced its search for a second group of astronauts, Mercury veteran Alan Shepard, who knew Conrad from their time as naval aviators and test pilots, approached Conrad and persuaded him to reapply. This time, the medical tests were less offensive, and Conrad was selected to join NASA.