Experience
Reightler was designated a Naval Aviator in August 1974 at Corpus Christi, Texas. After replacement pilot training in the P-3C airplane, he reported to Patrol Squadron 16 (VP-16) in Jacksonville, Florida, serving as both a mission commander and patrol plane commander. He made deployments to Keflavík, Iceland, and to Sigonella, Sicily. Following jet transition training, Reightler attended the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland.
Upon graduation in 1978, he remained at the Naval Air Test Center where he served as test pilot and project officer for a variety of flight test programs involving the P-3, S-3, and T-39 airplanes. He later returned to the Test Pilot School, serving as a flight test instructor and safety officer flying the P-3, T-2, OV-1, T-39, and TA-7 airplanes. In June 1981 Reightler was assigned to the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower as communications officer and carrier on-board delivery pilot, making two deployments to the Mediterranean Sea.
Selected for postgraduate education, he attended the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. Redesignated an Aerospace Engineering Duty Officer (AEDO), he was sent to transition training for the F/A-18 airplane with Strike Fighter Squadron 125 (VFA-125) at NAS Lemoore, California. He then reported for duty at the Test Pilot School in March 1985, serving as the chief flight instructor until his selection for the astronaut program.
He has logged over 5,000 hours flying time in over 60 different types of aircraft.
Read more about this topic: Kenneth S. Reightler, Jr.
Famous quotes containing the word experience:
“Young men are as apt to think themselves wise enough, as drunken men are to think themselves sober enough. They look upon spirit to be a much better thing than experience, which they call coldness. They are but half mistaken; for though spirit without experience is dangerous, experience without spirit is languid and defective.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“One of the most difficult aspects of being a parent during the middle years is feeling powerless to protect our children from hurt. However “growthful” it may be for them to experience failure, disappointment and rejection, it is nearly impossible to maintain an intellectual perspective when our sobbing child or rageful child comes in to us for help. . . . We can’t turn the hurt around by kissing the sore spot to make it better. We are no longer the all-powerful parent.”
—Ruth Davidson Bell (20th century)
“I’m not making light of prayers here, but of so-called school prayer, which bears as much resemblance to real spiritual experience as that freeze-dried astronaut food bears to a nice standing rib roast. From what I remember of praying in school, it was almost an insult to God, a rote exercise in moving your mouth while daydreaming or checking out the cutest boy in the seventh grade that was a far, far cry from soul-searching.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)