Fred Haise, Apollo 13 astronaut, before the spikes.

Fred Haise: Apollo 13 Astronaut

Biloxi, Mississippi

Give Fred Haise credit: as an astronaut, he persevered.

Fred was supposed to be the sixth human to ever walk on the moon in 1970, but Apollo 13 nearly blew up on the way there and barely made it back to Earth alive. So no moon walk for Fred, who had also developed a kidney infection and was in pain for most of the trip. He never flew in space again, even though he had been slated to command Apollo 19 -- which was cancelled -- and then the second flight of the Space Shuttle -- which was also cancelled.

Fred's hometown of Biloxi planned to unveil a statue of him in his (never used) moon suit on the 50th anniversary of his only spaceflight, but it was cancelled because of Covid-19 and because the sculptor, Mary Ott Tremmel Davidson, developed cancer. Hurricane Zeta damaged the statue's Saturn V base later in 2020, and the statue still wasn't ready in time for Fred's 88th birthday in 2021. But Biloxi, like its astronaut hero, persevered, and when the statue finally was dedicated on April 13, 2022, the guest of honor at the unveiling was Fred.

But then, in September 2023, the city added large spikes to the top of Fred's head, in a bizarre attempt to stop seagulls from perching and pooping on the bronze space hero. Now he looks like a post-apocalyptic villain from a Mad Max movie. Poor Fred!