Although Fulgham did not require hospitalization at Walker AFB, upon his return to Holloman AFB he was admitted to the base hospital for observation. Three days later on May 24, 1959, the balloon pilots were flown from Holloman to Wright-Patterson AFB on a specially arranged flight aboard a C-131 hospital aircraft.[234] The return to Wright-Patterson AFB was directed by Stapp and coordinated by Kittinger.[235] The preliminary arrangements for this flight were made by Kittinger while at the Walker AFB hospital.[236] Kittinger recalled that conversations with Stapp regarding their return to Wright-Patterson AFB were made by phone in busy areas of the hospital and these conversations could have been overheard by nearly anyone present.[237] Upon their arrival at Wright-Patterson, Fulgham, who Kittinger did not want to transport on a commercial flight due to his odd appearance, still could not open his eyes and had to be led down the steps of the aircraft. Kittinger recalled that Fulgham’s wife was waiting at the bottom of the aircraft steps when they arrived. “They dropped the ramp and I looked down at the bottom and there was Dan Fulgham’s wife,” Kittinger said. “Dan couldn’t see ... so I grabbed him by the arm ... Dan’s wife sees me leading this blob down the staircase ... and she looks right at me and says, ‘Where’s my husband?’ I said, ‘Ma’am, this is your husband’. I presented her this blob that I was leading down the ramp. And she let out this scream you could hear a mile away. He was such a horrendous looking thing that she had no idea that the thing I was leading down that ramp was her husband.”[238] [Illustration: Fig. 29. As a physiologist for the space program, Fulgham (_third from left_) discusses Project GEMINI emergency escape systems at the U.S. Navy Aerospace Recovery facility at El Centro, Calif. on January 28, 1965. Shown with Fulgham (_from left_) are NASA astronaut Jim Lovell, NASA project engineer Hilary Ray, and NASA astronaut Alan Bean. (_U.S. Navy photo_)] [Illustration: Fig. 30. A veteran of 100 combat missions during the Korean conflict, Fulgham flew 133 combat missions in F-4 aircraft (shown here) in 1966–67 as a member of the 555th “Triple Nickel” Tactical Fighter Squadron at Ubon Air Base, Thailand. (_photo collection of Dan D. Fulgham_)] Fulgham recalled that upon his return to work at the Aero Medical Laboratory he received reactions of “immediate compassionate sympathy” from persons he encountered, including his secretary, who cried when she saw him.[239] Within several weeks, Fulgham returned to flying status with no permanent effects. Fulgham went on to complete a distinguished career in the Air Force and retired as a colonel in 1978. Fulgham’s assignments included combat tours in fighter aircraft in both Korea and Vietnam, as well as an assignment as an experimental parachutist and physiologist for the space program. Summary