Lachlan Macleay

Lachlan "Mac" Macleay (born June 13, 1931) is a retired colonel in the United States Air Force and a former USAF astronaut. Although he trained for the USAF Manned Orbital Laboratory (MOL), the program was cancelled before any of the MOL crews reached space.

Macleay was born in Saint Louis, Missouri, and graduated in 1954 from the United States Naval Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering. Although a USNA graduate, he chose to begin his career in the United States Air Force. In 1970, he earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Southern California.

Macleay was a flight instructor in the F-86D at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia. In 1965, Macleay was selected as one of the first astronauts to the Air Force's classified Manned Orbital Laboratory.

Macleay continued flying for the Air Force and served a combat tour in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War as commander of the 23rd Tactical Air Support Squadron (TASS) at Nakhon Phanom, Thailand. The 23d TASS, flying the OV-10 Bronco under the callsign Nail, served as forward air controllers directing air strikes against enemy troops.

Macleay retired from the Air Force on May 1, 1978, and joined Hughes Aircraft in Tucson, Arizona, where he worked on a series of missile systems. He currently lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Several of the MOL astronauts, including Lachlan Macleay, were interviewed for this documentary.