And then I graduate two years later, in 1998, with my class. And, since then I've been here in Houston for training basically. And I was very happy to be assigned to this mission.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I served two tours in Iraq, in the Marine Corps.
Coming to Houston was an opportunity that I couldn't pass up.
I went to college and law school with the help of the GI Bill. That experience moved me so much, I dedicated the rest of my life to serving this great country and helping others succeed.
I came to Houston for a job, the reason most people move halfway across the country with a first grader and a five-week-old. I came here to teach at Rice.
I went to school at night in L.A. to brush up on my engineering while I applied to the astronaut program. I really did not know if I would get in. It was the year after the Challenger accident in 1987.
I spent some special years in my hometown of El Paso.
I was put in the Air Corps. I was never educated to serve in the military, but soon my activities in the American Air Corps became very interesting to me.
After I left the Marines in '46, I wanted to stay in the Marines; I was very happy - I loved that life.
I decided to go back home and try to enroll in the University of Houston.
I flew fighters for the Navy in San Diego for three years, went and did my post-graduate education, and then I was a test pilot in Patuxent River, Maryland, for a few years. I was back in the fleet in the Navy when I was selected to come back here to NASA to become an astronaut.