Lieutenant Colonel to Blast Off as First Army Doc in Space

An Army lieutenant colonel and emergency physician is set to become the first Army doctor to go to outer space.

"The Army has made me who I am. I’m an astronaut because the Army gave me some really incredible experiences," Drew Morgan told the Fayetteville Observer.

Morgan will head to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz 59S rocket and spacecraft in July 2019 as a member of Expedition 60/61.

The 42-year-old Pennsylvania native said one of his inspirations was Apollo astronaut and Alan Bean, who he wrote a letter to as a young boy and got a signed lithograph in return.

"That was a pinnacle moment when I was young," Morgan, who was deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa in support of special operations forces, told the Observer. "It really ingrained in me how important it is, how role models have an impact in shaping the next generation."

Bean, the fourth person to walk on the moon, died last month at the age of 86.

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