 He joined the USAF and trained as a test pilot, graduating from the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School in class 63A and MOL.In 1965, he was selected as one of the first astronauts to the Air Force's classified Manned Orbital Laboratory.The MOL program, canceled in 1969 before sending any astronauts into space, was to man a military space station with Air Force astronauts using a modified Gemini spacecraft.