Originally Posted by
treadigraph
Think I'm right in suggesting that only the Apollo 8 crew is still complete - Borman, Lovell and Anders.
Even including the Apollo-Soyuz and Skylab missions, they are thin on the ground now.
Correct.
FWIW of no little historical importance is Jim McDivitt's role in Neil Armstrong being the first man on the Moon.
In the original mission planning McDivitt's crew were meant to fly their "D" Mission (LM in Low Earth) as the second planned manned Apollo flight. Due to the way crew rotation worked that put Pete Conrad, McDivitt's backup, in the slot to command the first Moon landing ( the G mission).
As it turned out LM development ran late, the second flight got rejigged to go LM'less to the Moon (a mission profile that was never in the original NASA plan) ...McDivitt declined to fly it since he was determined to stick with his LM, so Borman's crew moved up one flight in the sequence....and that put Borman's back up, Armstrong onto G, aka Apollo 11...
Shortly after 9 it's rumoured McDivitt was offered the option of a landing on a later mission alongside a fit again Al Shepard.....McDivitt wasn't a Shepard fan and was having none of it, instead he moved into Apollo management.