Shuttle pilot Commander William C. McCool and myself were both serving in the US Navy aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN-65) at the time he was selected for the NASA program. While I didn't know Cdr. McCool personally, everyone onboard the Enterprise made up a very close community, one that I can only assume is just as strong amongst the people in our global space program community.

Commander McCool was the Administrative and Operations Officer for the "Scorpions", Tactical Electronics Warfare Squadron VAQ-132. I was an Aviation Ordancemen Third Class for the flight deck crew of WEPS/G-1. We served together aboard the Enterprise during her pre-deployment work-ups between February and April of 1996.

McCool had successfully logged over 2,800 flight hours in various aircraft, and had completed more than 400 arrested landings aboard aircraft carriers.