Kittinger served as a fighter pilot during the Vietnam War , and he achieved an aerial kill of a North Vietnamese MiG-21 jet fighter and was later shot down himself , spending 11 months as a prisoner of war in a North Vietnamese prison . He participated in the Red Bull Stratos project as capsule communicator in 2012 at age 84 , directing Felix Baumgartner on his record-breaking freefall from Earth 's stratosphere
Red Bull Stratos
Red Bull Stratos
Joseph Kittinger