Earl Eastwold; Admiral in Early Astronaut Recoveries

Retired Navy Rear Adm. Earl R. Eastwold, 78, commander of the recovery forces that plucked astronauts John Glenn and Scott Carpenter from the sea in the infancy of manned space flight. A 1932 graduate of the Naval Academy, Eastwold was a Navy aviator who became executive officer of the carrier Lunga Point during World War II and participated in the Leyte, Iwo Jima and Okinawa campaigns. Afterward he was executive officer on the Norton Sound, then the Navy’s only missile-testing ship. From 1956 to 1957, he commanded the Essex, an attack aircraft carrier that served in both the Pacific and Atlantic and 10 years later, after tours at the Pentagon, he became Commander Middle East Force, the flag officer in charge of naval forces in the Middle East and Northeast Africa areas. He retired in 1967 and most recently had been a consultant for businesses with overseas interests. On Thursday in Harbor City.