Everything about Victor Prather totally explained
Lt. Cdr. Victor A. Prather Jr. (
June 4,
1923 –
May 4,
1961) was an American
flight surgeon famous for taking part in "Project RAM", a government project to develop the
space suit.
Life
Prather was born on
June 4,
1926, to Victor Prather Sr. and Gladys May Furse in
Lapeer, Michigan. He attended
Tufts College in
1941, and became part of the V-12 program there from
1943 to
1945. He graduated from Tufts in
1945 and then attended
Tufts University School of Medicine, graduating there in
1952.
In
1954, he rejoined the
United States Navy. He worked as a surgeon aboard the aircraft carrier
USS Shangri-La (CV-38) near
Morocco until
1957, when he returned to the
United States. He then completed courses in aviation medicine and served in
Pensacola,
Florida from
1957 to
1958, and then in
Honolulu,
Hawaii from
1959 to
1960.
Project RAM
In
1960, he was transferred to Project RAM, a government program to test
prototype space suits, at the
Bethesda Naval Research Institute. He was commissioned to test how the suits worked
underwater, and later commissioned to see how the suits would function at extremely high
altitudes.
The flight
On
May 4,
1961, Prather, along with Cdr.
Malcolm Ross, ascended to an altitude of 113,720 feet (34,668
meters) in the
Stratolab gondola under a large plastic
balloon from the
USS Antietam (CV-36).
(External Link
) They ascended for nine hours, until reaching their record-breaking altitude. They were exposed to temperatures as low as −70 °C (−94 °F) and
air pressure below 0.1
pound per square inch (700
Pa). Their weights were doubled by their gear, making it almost impossible to move.
They landed in the
Gulf of Mexico. Ross climbed up the ladder to the
helicopter first. Prather followed, but unfortunately Prather slipped off the ladder and fell back into the sea. Since he thought he was out of danger, he'd opened up his helmet before climbing up the ladder. When he fell back into the water, he couldn't swim due to the weight of his suit, and water was coming in through his open helmet. He drowned in his suit.
After the jump
Shortly after Prather's death, President
John F. Kennedy phoned Prather's widow, Virginia Merritt, and she arrived at the
White House with her children, Marla Lee Prather and Victor A. Prather III. Her husband was then posthumously awarded the Navy
Distinguished Flying Cross for 'heroism and extraordinary achievement'.
In
1963, Meritt remarried to Colby Allan Child and had one child with him, Colby Allan Child, Jr.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Victor Prather'.
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