One of the most experienced of the Apollo era astronauts, he flew two
Gemini and two Apollo missions. On Gemini 6 he flew with Wally Schirra
conducting the first rendezvous of two separate spacecrafts and on
Gemini 9 he was the commander with Eugene Cernan rendezvousing with an
Agena target vehicle. On Apollo 10 he went to the moon with John Young
and Eugene Cernan without landing and flew the Apollo Soyuz Test
Project as the commander with Vance Brand and Deke Slayton in 1975 on
the last Apollo mission. The lunar module on the Apollo 10 mission was called Snoopy while the command module was called Charlie Brown.
Has two daughters, Dionne and Karin, from his first marriage.
He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and volunteered for the Air Force. By the time he got his wings, the Korean War had ended. He attended the Air Force's experimental test pilot school, graduated first in his class, and became an instructor.