Raymond Armstrong Raymond Armstrong Lieutenant General Raymond Fullarton Armstrong (14 December 1917 — early 1990s) was a South African Air Force officer, who served as Chief of Defence Staff. Armstrong attended Rondebosch Boy's High School before attending the South African Military College. He joined the Special Service Battalion in 1936 and soon thereafter joined the Permanent Force. He was trained as a pilot, serving in World War II and later in the Korean War. He was Armed Forces Attache in Washington. He served as "Chief of Air Staff" before being appointed acting "Chief of Defence Staff" from 1 March 1974 to 30
Neil Armstrong the only people who could fly the lunar missions. Slayton talked about the planned missions and named Armstrong to the backup crew for Apollo 9, which at that stage was planned as a medium Earth orbit test of the combined lunar module and command and service module. The crew assignment was officially announced November 20, 1967. For crewmates, Armstrong was assigned Lovell and Aldrin, from Gemini 12. After design and manufacturing delays of the lunar module (LM), Apollo 8 and 9 swapped prime and backup crews. Based on the normal crew rotation, Armstrong would command Apollo 11, with one change: