On Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:13:05 -0800 (PST), wrote:

I glanced in my copy of Hansen's "First Man, The Life of Neil A.
Armstrong" and happened on a passage about the background of the
Apollo pilots charged with landing the LMs on the Moon: six of the
seven chosen were naval aviators
(Armstrong,Conrad,Shepard,Young,Cernan). Only one was US Air Force
(Scott). Deke Slayton hand picked the guys -- and Slayton was Air
Force.

I wonder if there are enough training or experience differences to
have played a role, or if it was an individual talent / skill issue.

ISTR reading somewhere there was an Air Force policy that led to fewer
applicants. It may have been (just speculating here) that the Air Force wanted
to keep the best candidates to fly the fleet of spacecraft it intended to
acquire.

Ron Wanttaja