William Anders

Anders received an appointment to Annapolis, following in the footsteps of his father, who graduated with the Class of 1927.

William Alison "Bill" Anders (born 17 October 1933) is an American former United States Air Force (USAF) major general, former electrical engineer, nuclear engineer, NASA astronaut, and businessman.

William Alison Anders was born in Hong Kong on 17 October 1933, the son of Arthur F. Anders, a United States Navy lieutenant, and his wife Muriel Adams.

The family relocated from Hong Kong to Annapolis, Maryland, where his father taught mathematics at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School.

They were then posted to China.

In June 1937, the Second Sino-Japanese War erupted and Japan invaded China.

In December, his father was serving as the executive officer of the river gunboat USS Panay (PR-5) when it was attacked and sunk by Japanese bombers and was wounded in the attack.

Anders and his mother fled Nanjing before the advancing Japanese forces, taking a train to Guangzhou.

From the porch of the hotel they were staying in they could see Japanese aircraft bombing ships on the Pearl River 200 yards away.

This was ominous, as the river was their only means of escape.

In addition to the threat of Japanese aircraft, the river was mined, and there was the danger of being boarded by bandits.

Foreigners had to be separated from Chinese people on the boat by barbed wire.

They eventually reached the Philippines, where they awaited news of his father.

Arthur Anders was rescued by the British and sent to San Diego Naval Hospital to recover from his wounds and a staph infection.

He was awarded the Purple Heart and the Navy Cross but was discharged from the Navy due to his wounds.

He was recalled to active duty during World War II.

The family returned to the United States, where Anders was active in the Boy Scouts, achieving the organization's second-highest rank, Life Scout.

As a teen, Anders attended St. Martin's Academy and Grossmont High School in El Cajon, California.

To improve his grades where he could be accepted at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, Anders was sent to the Boyden School, a military academy prep school in downtown San Diego.

He commuted to Boyden by bus from La Mesa, California.

The school lay under the flight path into Lindbergh Field and aircraft like the huge Convair B-36 Peacemaker would fly low over the school.

He was fascinated with flight and built model aircraft.

He graduated from Boyden in 1951.

A graduate of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, Anders was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force (USAF) in 1955, and became a fighter pilot flying Northrop F-89 Scorpions equipped with MB-1 nuclear-tipped air-to-air missiles.

He hoped to study aeronautical engineering through the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio of Air University, but the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion program was ongoing, and he had to study nuclear engineering instead.

He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1955.

Part of the course was orientation cruises during which midshipmen could experience life at sea.

A cruise on board an aircraft carrier convinced him that he did not want to become a naval aviator; there were too many fatal accidents.

He graduated from the AFIT in 1962 with a Master of Science degree in nuclear engineering, and was sent to the Air Force Weapons Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, where he managed the technical aspects of the USAF nuclear power reactor programs.

In December 1968, he was a member of the crew of Apollo 8, the first three people to leave low Earth orbit and travel to the Moon.

Along with fellow astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, Anders circled the Moon ten times, and broadcast live images and commentary back to Earth.

During one of the mission's lunar orbits, he took the iconic Earthrise photograph.

Anders was the executive secretary of the National Aeronautics and Space Council from 1969 to 1973, a commissioner of the Atomic Energy Commission from 1973 to 1975, and chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 1975 to 1976.

He then became the Ambassador to Norway from 1976 to 1977.

In September 1977, he joined General Electric (GE) as the vice president and general manager of its Nuclear Products Division and became the general manager of the GE Aircraft Equipment Division in 1980.

He left GE to join Textron as executive vice president for aerospace, and two years later became senior executive vice president for operations.

During his time in the Civil Service, Anders had remained in the USAF as a reserve officer and had retained his active flight status.

He retired from the reserve as a major general in 1988.

In 1990, he became vice chairman of General Dynamics, and on 1 January 1991 its chairman and CEO.

He retired as CEO in 1993, and as chairman in May 1994.