Astronaut Clark McClelland, "the real Fox Mulder," has ties to Sligo.

Written by Clark McClelland, former ScO (Ground Test Astronaut), Space Shuttle Fleet, Kennedy Space Center, Florida

Submitted 08 November 1999.

My father was raised in Sligo, PA, and born on May 26, 1913.  His father was employed by the railroad; and my father, Clyde Clark McClelland, and aunt, Lois Evelyn McClelland, lived with their mother, Grace Viola McClelland, while the father was away.  The railroad company apparently had some financial troubles, and Charles B. McClelland, my grandfather, was released from his many years of employment with the company.  He was out of work and worried himself into an early grave in Sligo Cemetery.  He was only 41 or so.  My father, his sister, and their mother moved from Sligo and came to Pittsburgh, where my grandmother went to work for Singer Sewing Machine Company.

My mother, Elizabeth Helen (Mackovitch) McClelland, married Dad and had my brother, Robert Lance McClelland, and I.  She lost a baby girl when she had a miscarriage.

My father was drafted into the US Army Tank Destroyers and sent to Fort Hood, Texas, for training.  He was soon after sent to England and landed in France during the D-Day invasion.  Eventually, he was trapped behind enemy lines during the Battle of the Bulge, where he eventually was wounded twice; one being serious, he was sent to a hospital in France to heal.  He returned to his Third Army assignments under General George Patton.  With Patton, Dad was involved in the release of many thousands of concentration camp prisoners.  He won the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and many other medals and battle stars.

My dad and mother, along with Bob, moved to Titusville, Florida, in 1956, where my father joined the US Space Program.  He and I were two of the first to be pioneers in that great effort.  I arrived there in 1958 with my former wife Anna Mae (Smoller) McClelland.  She gave birth to our son, Clark Michael McClelland, and daughter, Colleen Marie McClelland.

 I continued to work on the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs along with other members of our family. My uncle, Joseph Mackovitch (my mother's brother) worked the Apollo program; my sister-in-law, Margaret Dabelko (Minuteman program); and my wife, Anna Mae (Mercury program).  It was a family affair.

My Father left the program due to my mother's requiring a more northern, seasonal atmosphere for her asthma.  They returned to Pittsburgh with my brother.

I remained at the launch bases and worked the Apollo-Soyuz mission of the meeting and coupling of the US and USSR spacecraft in orbit, the unmanned Lunar Orbiter program, and future planning of the Space Shuttle program.

During my years at Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center, I was also involved in the search for extraterrestrial life and investigating UFO sightings by our astronauts.  I was the Director of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) and the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) at both launch bases.  I was actually the real "X-Files" and the real Fox Mulder.  Yes, our astronauts have seen UFO's.

I ended my Space Center career in 1992.  My father (85) is presently fighting a battle with cancer in Pittsburgh.  My mother (83) is in a nursing home in Pittsburgh.

I am going to be rehired by Walt Disney World in Florida again after spending a year and a half taking care of my parents in Pittsburgh.  I am a member of the Masonic Order (F&AM) and a York Rite Knight of the Temple at Lodge 301 in Florida.  I am an honorary Blood Brother of Chief White Wolf of the Lakota Sioux and a member of the Lakota Sioux Tribe since 1993.

Our family history includes such historic people as Civil War General George B. McClellan (he did not use the "d" in his last name); William Clark, of the Lewis and Clark Expeditions; Abraham Clark, signer of the Declaration of Independence; Revolutionary War General George Rogers Clark; John Clark, first mate of the Mayflower (Pilgrims, 1620); William Clark(e) Quantrill, of the guerilla band that scourged the west with Jesse and Frank James (don't mention this often); and Joseph (?) Clark, who had an apartment across from Ford's Theater in Washington, DC, where President Abe Lincoln was carried and lay in his (Clark's) bed, where the President died.

For more information about Clark and his space career, visit his Web site, Stargate Chronicles.