Navy Career
Bursch graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1979, and was designated a Naval Flight Officer in April 1980 at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. After initial training as an A-6E Intruder bombardier/navigator (B/N), he reported to VA-34 in January 1981, and deployed to the Mediterranean aboard the USS John F. Kennedy, and to the North Atlantic and Indian Oceans aboard the USS America. He attended the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in January 1984. Upon graduation in December he worked as a project test flight officer flying the A-6 Intruder until August 1984, when he returned to the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School as a flight instructor. In April 1987, Bursch was assigned to the Commander, Cruiser-Destroyer Group 1, as Strike Operations Officer, making deployments to the Indian Ocean aboard the USS Long Beach and the USS Midway. Redesignated an Aeronautical Engineering Duty officer (AEDO), he attended the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, from July 1989 until his selection to the astronaut program.
He has flown over 3,430 flight hours in more than 35 different aircraft.
Read more about this topic: Daniel W. Bursch
Famous quotes containing the words navy and/or career:
“Give me the eye to see a navy in an acorn. What is there of the divine in a load of bricks? What of the divine in a barber’s shop or a privy? Much, all.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It is a great many years since at the outset of my career I had to think seriously what life had to offer that was worth having. I came to the conclusion that the chief good for me was freedom to learn, think, and say what I pleased, when I pleased. I have acted on that conviction... and though strongly, and perhaps wisely, warned that I should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the results of the line of action I have adopted.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)