Lieutenant Commander Victor A. Prather

U.S. Navy

Lapeer, Michigan​

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Lt. Commander Victor Prather was born in Detroit, Michigan, on June 4, 1926. His family moved to Lapeer, Michigan, where Victor graduated from high school in 1943. His goal, from the time he was five years old, was to become a doctor. He joined the U.S. Navy’s V-12 Program when World War II was in its third year and was assigned to Tufts College in Medford, Massachusetts, as a pre-med student. As the war progressed, things were looking better for the U.S. war effort and the Navy began phasing out its Naval Training Center for training corpsman; upon completion, Prather was sent to Aiea Heights Naval Hospital at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He was released from the service in 1946. He continued his original quest and was accepted, after waiting for a lengthy period of time, to medical school, again at Tufts, in 1948. He graduated in 1952 and in 1954 was drafted back into the service. He was now a medical doctor and the service needed physicians. He applied and was accepted to Flight Surgeon School at Pensacola, Florida, spending the next couple of years at various duty stations as a Flight Surgeon. In 1956 he decided to “go regular” Navy and in 1958 was sent to Washington, D.C., where he was assigned to the Navy’s Project RAM. Although this program was separate from NASA, there was a great deal of cooperation between the two. Prather attended the school for space flight surgeons at Cocoa Beach, Florida, and upon graduation was sent to Rapid City, South Dakota, with Commander Malcolm Ross, for training and trial flight balloon training. Commander Ross, a balloon pilot, had already set a balloon altitude record and was planning to pilot another record flight. Part of their mission was to test a space suit in the stratosphere--through the jet stream. On May 4, 1961, “Project Strato-Lab High 5” was launched from the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Antietam. Commanders Ross and Prather set a world altitude record for balloon flight of 113,740 feet (21 ½ miles) over the Gulf of Mexico. The record still stands. The successful landing of the gondola saw both men waiting for pickup by helicopter. Malcolm Ross was hoisted up first. While waiting below, Prather slipped and fell into the Gulf. He had removed his helmet, causing his suit to fill with water, which pulled him under, and he drowned. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. On May 22, 1961, Victor’s wife, Virginia, received his posthumous award of the Distinguished Flying Cross from President John F. Kennedy. In October 1962, President Kennedy awarded the Harmon Trophy to Commanders Ross and Prather.