United Service Organizations Inc. (USO) is a private, nonprofit organization that
provides morale and recreational services to members of the U.S. military in 160
centers worldwide. It was founded in response to a request from President Franklin
D. Roosevelt who was elected as its honorary chairman.

Apollo 5 was the first unmanned flight of the Apollo Lunar Module, which would
later carry astronauts to the Moon. It lifted off on Monday, January 22, 1968 with
a Saturn 1B rocket. The mission tested the Lunar Module in space environment
and the descent and ascent engine systems.

 

William "Billy" Mitchell (December 29, 1879 – February 19, 1936)

Mitchell was one of the most famous and most controversial figures in the
history of American military aviation. He commanded American air combat
units in France during World War l and was appointed deputy director of 
the Air Service following the war. He believed that bombers should take
the place of battleships and there should be a separate command for the
Air Service.

Mitchell received many honors following his death, including a commission
by President Franklin Roosevelt as a Major General and was the only
person to have an American military aircraft, the B-25 bomber (below),
named after him.

 
The North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber

The influence of air power on the ability of one nation to impress its will on
another in armed contest will be decisive.

–Brig Gen William "Billy" Mitchell

George Smith Patton, Jr. (November 11, 1885 – December 21, 1945)

Patton was U.S. Army General, best known for his controversial leadership while commanding armies during World War ll.  In 1944, Patton assumed command of
the U.S. Third Army, which under his leadership advanced farther, captured more
enemy prisoners, and liberated more territory in less time than any other army in
military history.

On December 9, 1945, Patton was severely injured in, what seemed to be at first,
a minor automobile accident while on a day trip to hunt pheasants in Germany. He received a severe cervical spinal cord injury and was paralyzed from the neck
down. He died of a pulmonary embolism on Friday December 21, 1945.

The crew of Apollo 8: Frank Borman, Bill Anders and Jim Lovell.

Apollo 8 was the second crewed mission in the Apollo space program.  After the 
launch on December 21, 1968, Apollo 8 took three days to reach the Moon. It
orbited ten times over the course of 20 hours, during which time the crew made a Christmas Eve TV broadcast, reading the first 10 verses from the Bibles Book of Genesis. At the time, the broadcast was the most watched TV program ever. The successful mission of Apollo 8 paved the way for Apollo 11 and the fulfillment of President John F. Kennedy’s goal of landing a man on the Moon before the end
of the 1960s.