Title
The Philadelphia City Council is pleased and proud to hereby recognize and honor Navy Captain and National Aeronautics and Space Administration Astronaut Christopher Ferguson, Mission Commander of the space shuttle Endeavour during its 15-day flight to rebuild the International Space Station.
Body
WHEREAS, Navy Captain Christopher Ferguson is a native of Northeast Philadelphia, a graduate of St. Martha's Grade School, Archbishop Ryan High School, and Drexel University, where he majored in Mechanical Engineering; and
WHEREAS, Captain Ferguson was commissioned from the Navy ROTC program at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his Navy Wings in Kingsville, Texas, in 1996 and was ordered to the F-14 Tomcat training squadron in Virginia Beach, Virginia. After a brief period of instruction, he joined the 'Red Rippers' of VF-11 deploying to the North Atlantic, Mediterranean and Indian Ocean on board the USS Forrestal (CV-59). While with VF-11 he also attended the Navy Fighter Weapon School (TOPGUN). He was selected for the Naval Postgraduate/Test Pilot School program in 1989 and graduated in 1992. Through June 1994 he was assigned to the Weapons Branch of the Strike Aircraft Test Directorate at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, where he served as the project officer for the F-14D weapon separation program, becoming the first pilot to release several types of air-to-ground weapons from the Tomcat. He served one year as an instructor at the Naval Test Pilot School before joining the 'Checkmates' of VF-211 in 1995 and completing a deployment to the Western Pacific/Persian Gulf in defense of the Iraqi no-fly zone on board the USS Nimitz (CVN-68). He briefly served as an F-14 logistics officer for the Atlantic Fleet prior to his selection to the space program; and
WHEREAS, Captain Ferguson reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1998. Following the completion of two years of training and evaluation, he was initially assigned...
Click here for full text