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Contact Info
Home Town Youngstown, OH
Last Address Virginia Beach, VA
Date of Passing May 30, 2011
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Last Known Activity:
Captain John Robert Cummings Mitchell, U.S.N.
Capt. John R.C. Mitchell, USN Retired, 81, was born in Youngstown, OH, graduated from Quincy High School in 1947*, from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1952 and received his Navy Wings in 1953. He was a veteran having served in the US Navy for 28 years and was a candidate for the Mercury Astronaut Program. Capt. Mitchell served as a Squadron Commander, Airgroup Commander, F-14 Project Manager NAVAIR, the Commanding Officer of the USS Sylvania and the USS John F. Kennedy. After retiring he went to work for a Navy Ship Repair Facility. He was a man of many talents, an artist, a writer, and a pilot.
*During hight school he enlisted in the Marine Corps's inactive reserve, participating in monthly drills for a year, attending a two-weeek "mini boot camp", passing a general education exam and high school graduation. In June 1947, he graduated high school and joined the Marine Corps. Completing all requirements as a Private First Class (PFC) he was appointed to the USNA as a midshipman in June 1948.
In February 1959 he went to Washington D.C. and found that he was a candidate for astronaut selection, but was not chosen. In 1962 he was again a candidate, but again he was not chosen. In 1965 he received a third invitation to apply for NASA, this time for the Fifth Astronaut Group. He declined their invitation.
Other Comments:
"The Right Stuff"
candidate for the Mercury Astronaut Program
Although he never made it into the NASA astronaut corps, retired U.S. Navy Captain John Mitchell nevertheless achieved a little serendipitous notoriety when he was featured in Tom Wolfe's best-selling book The Right Stuff - even if it was under the alias of Mitch Johnson, a man said to have had "an angel on his shoulder". (see uploaded documents: Attached account in reference to "The Right Stuff" from the book "Selecting the Mercury Seven: The Search for America's First Astronauts" by Colin Burgess).
John Mitchell would have been a Rear Admiral, had he gone along with Jimmy Carter. In an article titled "In Search of Real Leaders" in the January 2001 issue of the U.S. Naval Institute's Proceedings magazine, Captain James F. Kelly, Jr. declared, "One is not a leader by virtue of rank, nor does one inherit the 'mantle of leadership' merely by assuming command or other positions of authority. To be a leader, one practice leadership behaviors." He added, "Professional dissent at the risk of one's career has been a hallmark of some of the Navy's greatest heroes and leaders," one example he cites is that of Captain John R.C. Mitchell... See the uploaded document titled: No stars for Captain Mitchell.
Other Memories Three months after graduating from Annapolis in June 1952, Mitchell undertook flight training. In December 1953 he received his wings as a naval aviator and was sent to NAS Kingsville, Texas, for jet training. Upon completing this in the spring of 1954, he was assigned to VF-193 ("Ghostriders") - a jet night fighter squadron - at NAS Moffett Field south of San Francisco, flying F2H-3 Banshees off the straight-deck carrier USS Oriskany (CV-34) where he worked directly with Alan Shepard (astronaut and ret. RAdm).
