Vice Admiral Richard H. Truly, USN (Ret), Golden Eagle Emeritus

Gentlemen,
 
It is my sad duty to inform you that on Tuesday, 27 February 2024, Golden Eagle Emeritus VADM Richard H. Truly made his Last Take Off in Genesee, Colorado. Dick was born on 12 November 1937, in Fayette, Mississippi, where he grew up and then attended high school in Meridian, MS. He played football in high school and was an Eagle Scout. He attended the Georgia Institute of Technology, in Atlanta, GA, graduating in June 1959 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering. Dick was on an NROTC scholarship and was commissioned an Ensign upon graduation. He immediately reported to NAS Pensacola, FL, for flight training and then he and Cody, whom he had met in college on a blind date, were married on 3 July 1959 in Atlanta, GA.
 
Dick flew the T-34B Mentor, T-28B Trojan, F-9F Cougar, and F-11F Tiger and received his Wings of Gold on 7 October 1960. He then reported to VF-174 Hell Razors, the Atlantic Fleet F-8U Crusader replacement pilot training squadron at NAS Cecil Field, FL. His nugget tour was with VF-33 Tarsiers, at NAS Oceana, VA, and aboard USS Intrepid and USS Enterprise. Dick made two Mediterranean Sea deployments aboard Intrepid and Enterprise and two shorter contingency deployments to the Dominican Republic following the assassination of its leader and for the Cuban missile crisis blockade. He made almost 300 carrier arrested landings during his first tour.
 
In December 1963, Dick reported to Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School at Edwards AFB, CA. After graduation, he remained on the staff there, teaching academics and as a Flight Test Instructor. He flew and instructed in a wide variety of aircraft including the T-33, T-37, T-38, F-101, F-106, F-104, B-26, C-47, C-130, and KC-135. The legendary Colonel Chuck Yeager was Commandant of the school and he made sure that Dick’s next assignment was an Astronaut for the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program in late 1965. MOL was a highly classified orbital mission that was eventually canceled by President Nixon in June 1969. That September Dick was assigned to NASA as an Astronaut, arriving between the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 missions. At NASA, he was a member of the astronaut support crew and capsule communicator (CAPCOM) for all three of the crewed Skylab missions in 1973, and the Apollo-Soyuz Docking Mission in 1975. His Approach and Landing Tests (ALT) of the Space Shuttle Enterprise, beginning in 1977, were revolutionary for a space craft of the Shuttle’s size and on whose ultimate viability and success the entire Shuttle program depended. Dick’s Distinguished Flying Cross citation for these flights is a masterpiece of understatement and reads in part: “Commander Truly was the spacecraft pilot for the Approach and Landing Test Program, a series of Space Shuttle orbiter experimental test flights conducted at the Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards Air Force Base, California. He participated in control of the orbiter vehicle during one captive-active test flight atop the Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and in two air-launched, unpowered glides, approach and landing free flights. The series of approach and landing test flights provided valuable real-time data, duplicating the last five minutes of an operational shuttle mission which significantly advanced the progress of the Space Shuttle Program.”
 
In 1981 Dick was the backup Pilot for the first Space Shuttle mission and he flew as the Pilot aboard Columbia’s Shuttle Transportation System (STS)-2 mission. This was the first time a spacecraft had been re-flown in space and set a world circular orbital altitude record. In August 1983, he commanded STS-8, the eighth Shuttle mission and the third flight of Challenger. It conducted the first night launch and night landing of the program and Dick was the only veteran astronaut in the crew of five. While assigned to NASA Dick flew the T-33, T-38, C-1, C-2, C-135, B-26, A-7, TA-4, F-15, F-16, and orbiters Enterprise, Columbia, and Challenger.
 
After STS-8, Dick left NASA to become the first commander of the newly created Naval Space Command in October 1983. A year later, Naval Space Command became the first Naval Component Commander for U.S. Space Command. Three weeks after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster Dick returned to NASA to become NASA's Associate Administrator for Space Flight on 20 February 1986. His primary task was to watch over the Space Shuttle’s return to flight status. He was also responsible for long-term issues as whether Challenge would be replaced, the role the Shuttle would play in the future, and the mixture of expendable spacecraft and the shuttle for upcoming missions. While it only took a few days to determine the technical reason for the accident, sorting out the root cause was much more difficult. In the end, it took Dick and NASA’s "Return to Flight" program 31 months before the Space Shuttle Discovery successfully flew on 29 September 1988. Dick was awarded the Collier Trophy and the President’s Citizen Medal by President Reagan for his leadership of the Shuttle program’s return to flight. He retired from the Navy on 30 June 1989 and was sworn in the following day as NASA’s eighth Administrator, the first Astronaut to do so.
 
Dick led NASA until March 1992, overseeing the sustainment of the Shuttle program, the early planning for the International Space Station (ISS), and many other scientific and space exploration programs. NASA would later say in tribute of his Agency stewardship: “As NASA administrator, it was under Richard’s leadership and judgment that Voyager 1 turned Earthward and took a final picture of our beautiful planet as it floated 3.7 billion miles away. It was the picture that became known as the ‘Pale Blue Dot.’ This is to say that as administrator, Richard’s vision was bold and broad. Humanity is all the better for that vision. Woven through these accolades, tests, and triumphs was Richard’s poise as a leader and vision as a pioneer. Richard had the makings of someone who understood that we choose to do great things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
 
Dick served on active duty for 30 years, flew more than 7,500 flight hours in countless spacecraft and aircraft, and made 304 carrier arrested landings. He commanded Naval Space Command as the Naval Component Commander for U.S. Space Command, led the Shuttle program’s return to flight after the Challenger disaster in 1986, and was the NASA Administrator for three years. Among his many awards, he received the Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, NASA Distinguished Service Medal (its highest award), the Presidential Citizens’ Medal, NASA Outstanding Leadership Award, NASA Exceptional Service Award, NASA Space flight Medal, the Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP) James H. Dolittle award, the Collier Trophy, and the General Thomas D. White USAF Space Trophy. In his decades of service to the Navy, to NASA, to his country, he lifted ever higher humanity’s quest to know the unknown and to achieve the impossible dream. Being a Golden Eagle was one of his proudest achievements.
 
After leaving NASA, Dick became Vice President and Director of the Geogia Tech Research Institute in Atlanta, GA, until 1997. He then served as director of the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory and as Executive Vice President of MRI Global, a non-profit research organization that provides solutions through scientific research, technology development, and technical services for the benefit of government, industry, and the public until 2005. Dick was appointed a Lifetime Trustee at Regis University. In 2010, Dick was appointed to the board of trustees of the Colorado School of Mines and served as the vice chairman of the board.
 
He is survived by his wife Cody, sons Michael and Daniel, and daughter Lee Rumbles. A service and flyover at the post chapel in Fort Logan, CO, is planned for 19 March 2024. Additional details will be provided as they become available.
 
He will be missed.
 
In sadness,
Keith Stalder
Pilot