West Point Grad on Dancing with the Stars

Just_A_Mom

Just_A_Mom

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Buzz Aldrin, 80, West Point grad, Astronaut will be on the 10th season of Dancing with the Stars. The show begins March 22 on ABC.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35715250/ns/entertainment-celebrities/

Aldrin, who will dance with pro Ashly Costa, says he thinks he’s up for it: After all, he took Arthur Murray dance instruction in the earlier years, and went to many formal dances in his years at West Point.
“We danced wearing gloves,” he recalls. “I’ve probably neglected my Lightfoot Louie on the dance floor, but I always have a lot to learn. I didn’t take up skiing until I was 50.”
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You gotta love his spunk!
 
Good Lord.....

Another one bites the dust. :frown:
 
80! I'm afraid for his health. That seems a little old to "move and shake" it. Lots of forces exerted on hips.

Good luck to him. I'll cheer for him.
 
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Buzz Aldrin. The name rings a bell, didn't he do something important after West Point? :yllol: Like take a walk somewhere?

Good for him for doing this. He has always been a big one for getting his name out in the public eye. He is very much the opposite of Neil Armstrong in that regard. From what I've heard, he has always resented the fact that Armstrong got out first, precisely because he felt that he was a better one to handle the fame that goes along with being the first man. Rumor and conjecture, I guess, but I think Mike Collins poited this sentiment out in his book.
 
From what I heard....Buzz got the spot because a future 3-star from USNA had a heart murmur.
 
sprog said:
Buzz Aldrin. The name rings a bell, didn't he do something important after West Point? :yllol: Like take a walk somewhere?
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Assuming it really happened! :yllol:

Did you see what he did to the stupid dork that got in his face and called him a liar about having landed on the moon?

Now THAT'S the way to deal with the willfully ignorant! :thumb:
 
LineInTheSand said:
From what I heard....Buzz got the spot because a future 3-star from USNA had a heart murmur.
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Uh...... Alan Shepard?

He had an inner ear issue. Google is failing me on anyone else. :confused:
 
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Zaphod is correct, Shepherd had Meniere's disease, which is an inner ear disorder manifested by dizziness/vertigo and tinnitus (ringing in the ears). I think he underwent a surgical correction for it, since he landed on the moon with Apollo 14.
 
sprog said:
That should be Alan Shepard...apologies.
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Very true. :redface:

sprog said:
I think he underwent a surgical correction for it, since he landed on the moon with Apollo 14.
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IIRC, he had a drain put in. It was a radical procedure back then, but it worked.

HBO covered it well in one of the episodes of "From The Earth To The Moon".
 
@Zaphod--
Yep - back then lots of WP and USNA grads commissioned into the AF.
Buzz Alrrin graduated 3rd in his class at West Point in 1951. He turned down a full scholarship to MIT to attend West Point.

LITS - be careful what you say about the "elderly". Hopefully someday you will be elderly too! Any 80 year old who still skiis will probably be a better dancer than Tom Delay!

In all seriousness, Aldrin has been in the news lately with this proposal for us to go to Mars. Couple that with a whole generation of kids who don't realized that astronauts actually walked on the moon - this should be good PR for NASA and history itself!
 
I can promise you, at 80 I will not consider "Dancing with the Stars"...

At the rate my hockey injuries are going....I won't be dancing much at all...

My hope when I'm an "elder"....I see the Social Security I've been paying into.
 
Just_A_Mom said:
@Zaphod--
Yep - back then lots of WP and USNA grads commissioned into the AF.
Buzz Alrrin graduated 3rd in his class at West Point in 1951. He turned down a full scholarship to MIT to attend West Point.
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I've heard Buzz Aldrin say that the 1951 massive cheating scandal at WP (90 cadets including half the football team) soured him about the Army in many ways and thus steered him toward commissioning as a 2LT in the USAF and not the Army when he graduated.

In fact, he personally accused another WP cadet of cheating but the case was dismissed because the other cadet wouldn't admit it, and that cadet went on to high ranking office in the Army, and Aldrin has described the experience as "a bitter one."

According to his biography, both events caused him to lose his "naive idealism" about WP and the Army ("the system") that he had when he entered.
 
Oh yes - that was a big one. There was a movie made about that. Something like 80 cadets either resigned or were separated on honor - a bunch were football players. One included Blaik's son.
I read an article recently about a statue of Coach Blaik that was to be erected at West Point. They wanted the names of ALL his lettermen on the statue - even the ones that were expelled. The grads said No.
Everytime folks decry the lack of honor our youth have *today* I think back to this and the 1976 cheating scandal.

Now this is getting further off topic but another Astronaut Frank Borman was also a West Point grad - 1950. When the 1976 cheating scandal broke, a commission was formed to go into West Point and examine the Honor code and how it was being implemented. Borman chaired that commission - they brought about many recommendations that are still being followed today.

Regardless of Aldrin's personal feeling toward the Army and West Point - he commissioned when the Air Force was in it's infancy. A lot of WP grads (like Borman) provided the AF with pilots.
 
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