Aldrin was born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr. on January 20, 1930, at Mountainside Hospital in Glen Ridge, New Jersey.[1] His parents, Edwin Eugene Aldrin Sr. and Marion Aldrin (née Moon), lived in neighboring Montclair.[2] His father was an Army aviator during World War I and the assistant commandant of the Army's test pilot school at McCook Field, Ohio, from 1919 to 1922, but left the Army in 1928 and became an executive at Standard Oil.[3] Aldrin had two sisters: Madeleine, who was four years older, and Fay Ann, who was a year and a half older.[4] His nickname, which became his legal first name in 1988,[5][6] arose as a result of Fay's mispronouncing "brother" as "buzzer", which was then shortened to "Buzz".[4][7] He was a Boy Scout, achieving the rank of Tenderfoot Scout.[8]
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Aldrin's year-long tour ended in December 1953, by which time the fighting in Korea had ended. Aldrin was assigned as an aerial gunnery instructor at Nellis.[18] In December 1954 he became an aide-de-camp to Brigadier General Don Z. Zimmerman, the Dean of Faculty at the nascent United States Air Force Academy, which opened in 1955.[28][29] That same year, he graduated from the Squadron Officer School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama.[30] From 1956 to 1959 he flew F-100 Super Sabres equipped with nuclear weapons as a flight commander in the 22nd Fighter Squadron, 36th Fighter Wing, stationed at Bitburg Air Base in West Germany.[18][24][28] Among his squadron colleagues was Ed White, who had been a year behind him at West Point. After White left West Germany to study for a master's degree at the University of Michigan in aeronautical engineering, he wrote to Aldrin encouraging him to do the same.[15]
Don Zabriskie Zimmerman was born in Eugene, Oregon, on 25 November 1903,[1][2] the youngest of four children of John Wilbur Zimmerman, a comptroller at a lumber company, and his wife Zilpha Zula née Zabriskie, a teacher.[3] He attended Eugene High School,[1] and entered the University of Oregon when he was 15.[2] During his first year he was a mathematics major, but switched to geology as a sophomore. He played baseball and was the left fielder and captain of the university team in his senior year. His ability attracted baseball talent scouts, and he received offers from two Major League Baseball and two Pacific Coast League teams, but turned down the offers.[3]
After the war, Zimmerman served in the Office of the Secretary of War until 28 March 1946. He was a student at the Imperial Defence College in the UK from 1 April 1946 to 20 December 1946, and then returned to Washington for another tour of duty on the War Department General Staff. With the creation of the United States Air Force as a separate service, he transferred to it as a colonel on 12 April 1948.[7] After the outbreak of the Korean War he went to the Headquarters Far East Air Forces, first as its director of plans, programs and policy, and then as deputy for intelligence until after the fighting ended in 1953. He became a brigadier general, and was awarded two more Legions of Merit and the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal.[1]
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On 22 July 1954, Zimmerman became the first dean of faculty at the nascent United States Air Force Academy.[8] As such, Zimmerman was responsible for the selection of teaching staff and development of the curriculum. He gave it a different orientation from West Point, with as many classroom hours devoted to the humanities and social studies as to scientific subjects.[1][3] He then returned to the Pentagon as Air Force deputy director of Development Planning. In 1958 he became assistant for foreign developments to the deputy chief of staff of the Air Force for Development.[5]
Zimmerman retired from the Air Force in 1958, and became a consultant for Boeing.[5] He died on 11 May 1983,[1] and was buried at the United States Air Force Academy Cemetery.[9]
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