43-Delta Eagles Hall Of Fame

Donald "Deke" Slayton

Donald Slayton, born March 1, 1924, in Sparta, Wisconsin. Died June 13, 1993.
Slayton entered the Air Force as an aviation cadet and received his wings in 
April 1943 after completing flight training at Vernon and Waco, Texas.
As a B-25 pilot with the 340th Bombardment Group, he flew 56 combat missions in Europe.
In April 1945, he was sent to Okinawa with the 319th Bombardment Group and 
flew seven combat missions over Japan.
At the end of WW2, he left the Air Force, and was recalled to active duty in 1951 
with the Minnesota Air National Guard.
 June 1955, he attended the USAF Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, 
California. 
He was a test pilot there from January 1956 until April 1959 and participated 
in the testing of fighter aircraft built for the United States Air Force 
and some foreign countries.
He has logged more than 6,600 hours flying time, including 5,100 hours 
in jet aircraft.
Mr. Slayton was named as one of the Mercury astronauts in April 1959. 
He made his first space flight as Apollo docking module pilot of the 
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) mission, July 15-24, 1975. 
 Slayton logged 217 hours and 28 minutes in his first space flight.
Slayton retired from NASA in 1982. He was president of Space Services Inc., 
of Houston, a company he founded to develop rockets for small commercial payloads.
Donald “Deke” Slayton died  in League City, TX, on June 13, 1993.  

 

William Conrad


William Conrad (September 27, 1920 – February 11, 1994), born William Cann, in
Louisville, Kentucky, was an American actor and narrator in radio, film and 
television noted for his gifted use of a marvelous baritone voice, as 
well as for his sizable girth.  
Conrad started work in radio in the late 1930s in California. 
World War II, William Conrad was a graduate of Pilot Class 43-D, and
went on to serve as a fighter pilot.

 He returned to the airwaves after the war, going on to accumulate 
over 7,000 roles in radio. 
Marshal Matt Dillon on the Western program Gunsmoke from 1952-61.
 He was considered for the role when the series was brought to 
television in 1955, but his increasing obesity led to the casting 
of James Arness. 
Other series to which Conrad contributed his talents included Escape, 
Suspense and The Damon Runyon Theater.
Among his various film roles, where he was usually cast as 
threatening figures, perhaps his most notable role was his first 
credited one, as one of the gunmen sent to eliminate 
Burt Lancaster in the 1946 film The Killers.
 He also appeared in Body and Soul (1947), 
Sorry, Wrong Number, Joan of Arc (both 1948), 
and The Naked Jungle (1954).
Moving to television in the 1960s, his first decade in the medium was 
largely marked by a return to voice work (most notably as narrator of 
The Fugitive from 1963-67) and the direction of Brainstorm in 1965; 
he narrated the Bullwinkle cartoons from 1959-64, and later performed 
the role of  Denethor in the 1980 animated TV version of J. R. R. Tolkien's 
The Return of the King. 
The 1970s saw him starring in the first of three detective series 
which would bring him an added measure of renown, Cannon, 
which ran from 1971-76. He later starred in both Nero Wolfe 
(1981) and Jake and the Fatman (1987-92).
Conrad died at age 73 in Los Angeles, California and is interred 
at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery. 
He was elected to the Radio Hall of Fame in 1997.
 

 
Jack Palance


Jack Palance (born Vladimir Palahniuk) was born February 18, 1919 
in Lattimer Mines, Pennsylvania.
A graduate of Pilot Class 43-D.
During World War II, Palance, a B-24 bomber pilot, crashed and 
received severe burns that led to extensive facial surgery, 
resulting in his 
gaunt, pinched face.
Wounded in combat, he received the Purple Heart, 
good conduct medal, and the World War II Victory Medal.   
Palance was discharged in 1944.
After the war he began his long and famous motion picture career.
 For his contribution to the television industry, Jack Palance 
has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 
In 1992, he was inducted into the Western Performers 
Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & 
Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Jack Palance 
School: Pampa
Born: 18 Feb 1920 
Died: 11 Nov. 2006
Los Angeles, California