page_title: Charles Bassett
section_title: Military service
hierarchical_section_title: Charles Bassett / Military service
caption_attribution_description: English: ARPS Class III graduates (L-R) Front row: Ed Givens, Tommie Benefield, Charlie Bassett, Greg Neubeck &amp; Mike Collins. Back row: Al Atwell, Neil Garland, Jim Roman, Al Uhalt and Joe Engle. Missing: Ernst Volgenau.
context_page_description: Charles Arthur Bassett II, Major, USAF was an American electrical engineer and United States Air Force test pilot. He went to Ohio State University for two years and later graduated from Texas Tech University. He joined the air force as a pilot and graduated from both the Aerospace Research Pilot School and the Air Force's Experimental Test Pilot School. Bassett was married and had two children. He was selected as a NASA astronaut in 1963 and assigned to Gemini 9, but died in an airplane crash during training for his first spaceflight. He is memorialized on the Space Mirror Memorial, The Astronaut Monument, and the Fallen Astronaut memorial plaque, placed on the Moon during the Apollo 15 mission.
context_section_description: He started his career with training at Stallings Air Base, North Carolina and Bryan Air Force Base, Texas. Bassett graduated from Bryan in December 1953 and was commissioned in the Air Force. He arrived for additional training in Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, as a second lieutenant. There, he flew trainer aircraft, such as the T-6, T-28, and T-33, and flew the jet fighter F-86 Sabre in 1954.
  He went to Korea with the 8th Fighter Bomber Group and flew a F-86 Sabre. Bassett was too late to fly any combat missions, and said, "If you don't have any challenge, you never know how good you are." Bassett was promoted to first lieutenant in May 1955. He returned from Korea in 1955 and was assigned to Suffolk County Air Force Base in New York flying aircraft such as the F-86D, F-102, and C-119.
  In November 1960, Bassett went to Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama to attend Squadron Officer School. He also graduated from the Aerospace Research Pilot School and the Air Force's Experimental Test Pilot School (Class 62A) and was promoted to captain. Bassett was an experimental test pilot and engineering test pilot in the Fighter Projects Office at Edwards Air Force Base, California, and logged over 3,600 hours of flying time, including over 2,900 hours in a jet aircraft.
caption: ARPS Class III graduates Front row: Edward Givens, Tommie Benefield, Charlie Bassett, Greg Neubeck and Mike Collins. Back row: Al Atwell, Neil Garland, Jim Roman, Al Uhalt and Joe Engle.
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