Edwin Eugene "Gene" Aldrin Sr. (12 April 1896 – 28 December 1974) was an aviator and officer in the United States Army during World War I and World War II. He was assistant commandant of the Army's first test pilot school at McCook Field, Ohio, from 1919 to 1922, and founded the engineering school there that later became the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) at Wright-Patterson AFB. The Edwin E. Aldrin Sr. Award is presented to an AFIT graduate for leadership and accomplishing AFIT's educational objectives in an outstanding manner. He was the father of astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
