Neil Armstrong parachute was blown back over land. A jeep driven by a roommate from flight school picked him up; it is unknown what happened to the wreckage of his aircraft, F9F-2 BuNo "125122". In all, Armstrong flew 78 missions over Korea for a total of 121 hours in the air, a third of them in January 1952, with the final mission on March 5, 1952. Of 492 U.S. Navy personnel killed in the Korean War, 27 of them were from the "Essex" on this war cruise. Armstrong received the Air Medal for 20 combat missions, two gold stars for the next
Neil Armstrong political parties, he declined the offers. He described his political leanings as favoring states' rights and opposing the United States acting as the "world's policeman". When Armstrong applied at a local Methodist church to lead a Boy Scout troop in the late 1950s, he gave his religious affiliation as "deist". His mother later said that Armstrong's religious views caused her grief and distress in later life, as she was more religious. In the early 1980s, Armstrong was the subject of a hoax saying that he converted to Islam after hearing the "adhan", the Muslim call to prayer, while walking on