Colonel Joseph William Kittinger II (USAF – ret.) has passed away at the age of 94.
Col. Kittinger severed honorably in Vietnam:
He flew 483 fighter-plane missions in the Vietnam War before he was shot down and taken prisoner.
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Mr. Kittinger flew three tours of duty in Vietnam, became a squadron commander and shot down a North Vietnamese jet. His fighter was downed in May 1972, and he spent 11 months in the prison camp known as the Hanoi Hilton.
He retired from the Air Force as a colonel in 1978 and was a multiple winner of the Distinguished Flying Cross.
He was also the first man to fly a balloon solo across the Atlantic.
…in the 106,000-cubic-foot (3,000 m3) Balloon of Peace, from September 14 to September 18, 1984, launched from Caribou, Maine and organized by the Canadian promoter Gaetan Croteau. As an official FAI world aerospace record, the 5,703.03-kilometre (3,543.70 mi) flight is the longest gas balloon distance flight ever recorded in the AA-10 size category. For the second time in his life, he was also the subject of a story in National Geographic Magazine.
He is perhaps most famous for the act that got him his first National Geographic story.
On August 18, 1960, he jumped out of a balloon at an altitude of 102,800 feet.
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Those records were broken by Felix Baumgartner in 2012. Col. Kittinger assisted Mr.Baumgartner in the jump.
Mr. Kittinger piloted the Excelsior I balloon to 76,400 feet in November 1959, then prepared to jump out of his gondola. What happened next almost cost him his life.
His left arm caught on the door as he emerged, and the delay in freeing himself caused the premature deployment of the small parachute designed to prevent him from going into a catastrophic spin. The parachute caught Mr. Kittinger around the neck and sent him spinning. He tumbled toward Earth at 120 revolutions per minute, but his main parachute opened at 10,000 feet, as designed, slowing him down and saving his life.
A little more than three weeks later, he was aloft again, climbing to 74,400 feet in Excelsior II before jumping out.
In August 1960, soaring to 102,800 feet in the Excelsior III balloon, Mr. Kittinger eclipsed by almost 1,300 feet the altitude record set by Major David Simons of the Air Force in 1957 in his Man High II balloon.
And then Mr. Kittinger jumped from a gondola once more. “I said, ‘Lord, take care of me now,’” he recalled. “That was the most fervent prayer I ever said in my life.”
The right glove of his pressure suit had failed during his ascent, leaving his hand swollen and in pain, but he was otherwise in fine shape when he touched down.
I’ve said this before, but I really liked Craig Ryan’s The Pre-Astronauts: Manned Ballooning on the Threshold of Space (affiliate link) and the price on it seems much more reasonable than the last time I looked.
When Joe Kittinger was 13, he once scrambled atop a 40-foot-high tree to snare some coconuts, ignoring warnings to stay put. His father recalled that venture as symbolizing the derring-do that would be his son’s life.
As the elder Mr. Kittinger put it: “Everybody wants coconuts, but nobody has the guts to go up there and get them.”
Col. Joe Kittinger is the namesake of the Civil Air Patrol Squadron of which I am a member. I had the privilege to meet him with my squadron when he visited us during one of our online meetings on September 14, 2021. The man did not seem like a 90+ year old, but he did seem every bit the vibrant man who accomplished those feats. The Joe Kittinger Phantom Squadron patch features three silhouettes of the F-4 Phantom II, representing the three Vietnam tours that Col Kittinger served.
Col. Kittinger flew the A-26 Invader, B-26K Counter Invader, F-4, and F-4D in service, plus the Cub he soloed in at 17, and who knows how many other craft, to include the balloons, and the pressure suit from which he made his record-setting jump.
Col. Kittinger was approached many times after his jump by others seeking to beat the record. He declined to assist in nearly every one of them because his assessment was that the task was too dangerous for the level of preparation each person had put into it before seeking his help. He eventually did meet someone up to his standards in Felix Baumgartner, participating as his mentor in the Red Bull Stratos project which resulted in a successful jump on 14 Oct 2012 which finally broke Colonel Joe’s 1960 record.
“He declined to assist in nearly every one of them because his assessment was that the task was too dangerous for the level of preparation each person had put into it before seeking his help. ”
Yes. Fairly famously, he declined to assist Nick Piantanida in his attempt. That didn’t end well. (Craig Ryan also wrote a book on that attempt, and I recall ESPN did a short film as well.)
Also, totally spaced on this, which is embarrassing, because I have it: Come Up and Get Me, Col. Kittinger’s autobiography.