Gene Aldrin was born on April 12, 1896, in Worcester, Massachusetts. After graduating with a bachelor's degree from Clark University in 1915 and from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1916, he was commissioned a 2d Lt in the Coast Artillery Corps on November 16, 1917, and attended the Coast Artillery School at Fort Monroe, Virginia, from December 1917 to March 1918. His first assignment was with the 11th Coast Artillery Company at Fort McKinley, Maine, from April to May 1918, followed by service with the 72nd Coast Artillery Company at Fort Preble, Maine, from May to June 1918. Lt Aldrin transferred to the School of Aeronautical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in June 1918, and completed his flying training there, completing the school in February 1919. He transferred to the U.S. Army Air Service on July 1, 1920, and served in various flying units before earning his master's degree in aeronautical engineering from MIT in 1927, and his Ph.D. in aeronautical engineering from there in 1928. Capt Aldrin resigned his commission on November 12, 1928, and was commissioned a Major in the U.S. Army Air Corps Reserve on February 15, 1929. While in the Army Air Corps Reserve, Lt Col Aldrin served in the Air Corps Procurement Planning Office in New York and at Fort Ethan Allen, Vermont, from September 1930 to August 1939. He went on active duty in the U.S. Army Air Forces on February 4, 1942, and then served as Commanding Officer and Military Commander of Newark Airport, New Jersey, from February to May 1942. Col Aldrin's next assignment was as Commander of the Sea Search Attack Section of the 8th Air Force in England from May to October 1942, and then as a Civilian Technical Service officer in Washington, D.C., from October 1942 to January 1943. He served as the Sea Search Attack Unit Liaison Officer with Headquarters Army Air Forces in Washington, D.C., from January 1943 to July 1944, and then as a Design and Development Officer with the 4020th Army Air Force Base Unit at Wright Field, Ohio, where he served as a project engineer on experimental production aircraft from July 1944 to January 1945, and as Chief of the Operational Aids Branch with the same unit from January to November 1945. Col Aldrin was then on terminal leave until he left active duty and joined the Air Force Reserve on June 21, 1946. He retired from the Air Force Reserve on May 1, 1956. Gene Aldrin died on December 28, 1974, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. He married Marion G. Moon (1903-1968) of El Paso, Texas, on March 22, 1924, and their son Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., became the 2nd man to walk on the moon in 1969.