NEWS IN BRIEF: Astronaut to speak at Navy ROTC Ceremony

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Captain David C. Leetsma, United States Navy (retired) and the director of Flight Crew at NASA since 1992, will be the guest speaker and commissioning officer at the Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps Commissioning Ceremony to be held May 11 at 2 p.m. in Duncan Recital Hall. He will be swearing in seven students as ensigns in the U.S. Navy; four are Rice students.

Leetsma graduated first in his class from the U.S. Naval Academy and was an F-14 and Navy test pilot before he became an astronaut in 1980. Since then, he has orbited the earth 354 times, spending over 500 hours in space on missions including the sixth flight of the Space Shuttle Challenger, a five-day flight aboard the Orbiter Columbia and a nine-day mission on the Atlantis.

The commissionees from Rice are seniors Derek Cole from Baker College, Jennifer Mraw from Sid Richardson College, Joel McFarland from Will Rice College and Jason Fox from Hanszen College. Cole and Fox will then begin specialized training as part of the Nuclear Power School; Mraw will start training in Flight School. McFarland was selected for a Navy scholarship to attend the University of Texas at Galveston Medical School and will begin classes this fall.

This item appeared in the News section of the April 19, 1996 issue.

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