Upon graduation in 1954, he received his commission in the U.S. Marine Corps through the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps on August 9, 1954, and subsequently reported to The Basic School at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, and after completing it, he was sent to NAS Pensacola, Florida, for flight training. He became a naval aviator in August 1956, and served with operational tactical jet squadrons of the Fleet Marine Force. He then attended the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland. Following graduation from USNTPS in June 1961, as part of Class 28, he was test pilot for three years in the Carrier Suitability Branch of the Flight Test Division at NAS Patuxent River. His work there included both land-based and shipboard tests of the F-8E, TF-8A, F-8E, and A-4E aircraft and the automatic carrier landing system. In 1962, as project officer on the F-8 Crusader new jet trainer, Williams, then a Captain, became the first pilot to land a two-seat jet on the aircraft carrier from the rear cockpit. While at NAS Patuxent River, he was selected for the NASA astronaut program in the third group of prospective Gemini and Apollo astronauts in late 1963. Of the 2,500 hours flying time he accumulated, more than 2,100 hours were in jet aircraft. aircraft
NASA career
On October 18, 1963, Major Williams was named by NASA as one of their third group of astronauts, along with 13 others. This group included Buzz Aldrin, who took part in the first lunar landing in 1969, as well as Roger B. Chaffee, who died in the Apollo 1 fire in 1967. The third group of astronauts performed jungle training. Williams partnered with Rusty Schweickart. Williams served as the backup pilot for Gemini 10, which took place in July 1966. Later that year, Pete Conrad chose Williams to be the Lunar Module pilot on the mission for which Conrad was commander, which would serve as the back-up Apollo 9 crew, and later become Apollo 12. After his death, his position on Conrad's crew was filled by Alan Bean, who had been his commander on the Gemini 10 backup crew.
Marriage and children
Williams was the first bachelor astronaut. This changed when he married Jane Elizabeth Lansche, who was a former waterskiing performer at the Cypress Gardenstheme park in Florida. Upon the announcement of their engagement, the press feigned disappointment over the loss of the nation's only bachelor astronaut. The couple met in June 1957. They were married on July 1, 1964, in St. Paul's Catholic Church in New Bern, North Carolina, which was Lansche's hometown. The couple had two children. Their first daughter, Catherine Ann, was born on January 6, 1967. Their second daughter, Jane Dee Williams, was born on May 31, 1968, nearly eight months after Williams had died.
Death
On October 5, 1967, Williams was flying from Cape Canaveral to Mobile to visit his father who was dying of cancer. A mechanical failure caused the aileron controls to jam on his T-38 jet trainer near Tallahassee, Florida, causing an uncontrollable aileron roll. The aircraft dived straight down, between pine trees apart, and crashed without touching them, although it did singe them from a fire caused by the crash. The jet was flying at when it performed a sudden roll to the left and dived into the ground, almost straight down, at. Williams ejected at altitude, but the plane was traveling too fast at too low an altitude for the seat to land safely. Personnel with the air force said, "The plane disintegrated and the body disintegrated with it."
