Maj. Gen. William A. Anders, USAFR (Ret.)
Pilot, astronaut, nuclear engineer, diplomat and businessman, William A. Anders has had a distinguished and varied career.  After graduating from the United States Naval Academy in 1955, Anders served as a fighter pilot in the Air Force Air Defense Command and worked with nuclear reactors at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory in New Mexico.  This experience sparked his interest in nuclear engineering, inspiring him to earn a master’s degree in nuclear engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology.

Anders was selected by NASA as an astronaut in 1964.  He was backup pilot for both Gemini XI and Apollo 11 and was the lunar module pilot for Apollo 8 in December 1968, the first Apollo mission to orbit the Moon.
In 1969, Anders left NASA for a series of high-level government posts, beginning as executive secretary for the National Aeronautics and Space Council.  In 1973, Anders moved to the Atomic Energy Commission, as lead commissioner for all nuclear and non-nuclear power research and development. Anders was appointed by President Gerald Ford to be the first chairman of the newly established Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Concluding his government service as ambassador to Norway, Anders joined General Electric in 1977 as vice president and general manager.  In 1979, he attended Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program.  In 1980 he was appointed general manager of GE’s Aircraft Equipment Division.

Anders held several important positions at large aerospace corporations, including Textron and General Dynamics.  Today he is active in the USAF Heritage Flight program, demonstrating changes in aviation technology by flying vintage and modern fighters together at air shows around the country.  Anders is the founder of the Heritage Flight Museum in Bellingham, Wash., dedicated to preserving historic military aircraft in airworthy condition.   He serves on NASA’s Space Shuttle Return-to-Flight Oversight Committee.

In his fifty-plus years in aviation, Anders has earned numerous awards and decorations, logged more than 6,000 hours in the air, retired as a major general from the Air Force Reserves, and recently been inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame.  He is unquestionably a Pathfinder.