Retired U.S. Marine Corps Major General Charles Bolden, Jr.

U.S. President Barack Obama has nominated 1994 NFF Distinguished American Award recipient Charles Bolden, Jr., to head NASA.

A retired U.S. Marine Corps Major General, Bolden graduated from C. A. Johnson High School in Columbia, South Carolina in 1964 before attending the U.S. Naval Academy. Football played a big role in Bolden’s early years. His father was a winning high school coach, and Bolden quarterbacked his high school team to the South Carolina Black High School State Championship in 1963, the last year of segregation for the school.

Commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine crops, he became a naval aviator, flying more than 100 sorties into North and South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia at the controls of an A-6A Intruder from 1972-73.

Following a stint as Naval Test Pilot, he attracted the attention of NASA, launching his career as an astronaut in August of 1981. He participated in four space missions, including deploying the SATCOM KU satellite and the Hubble Space Telescope. On his third mission, he commanded the Space Shuttle Atlantis during the first Spacelab mission dedicated to NASA's Mission to Planet Earth. His fourth trip featured the first joint U.S. and Russian Space Shuttle Mission.

He returned to his alma mater in 1994 to become deputy commandant of the midshipmen. His chest-full of decorations includes the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Medal, the Strike/Flight Medal (8th award), the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal (1992), and several NASA Exceptional Service Medals.

Upon Senate confirmation, Bolden, 62, would be the first African- American to serve as NASA Administrator and only the second astronaut to hold the position.

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