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Because the Air Force in the 1940's and 50's was the predecessor to NASA. A lot of the top scientists and aviators were a part of the Air Force and had the experience to make the jump. It was a natural step being that these individuals already had the best training at the time and the only real experience with many of the problems that the blossoming space program was going to experience.

Actually the main reason that the first US astronauts were all military is very simple: When NASA was created by President Eisenhower in 1959, he specifically stated that the astronaut-candidates were all to be test pilots--and the only place you could find test pilots was in the military. This requirement to be test pilots was also why there were no female candidates, even though there were several females who qualified in every other aspect.

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