PORT ARTHUR — As an astronaut, retired Navy captain, former ambulance driver, and spouse of a U.S. congresswoman, Mark Kelly had his share of stories to tell a packed Lamar State College-Port Arthur gymnasium Tuesday night.

He told jokes about meeting aliens during space exploration, spoke through complete silence when explaining his experience after his wife Gabrielle “Gabby” Giffords was shot, and brought applause following personal inspirations.

Last year, on Jan. 8, Giffords was the victim of an assassination attempt outside of a grocery store in her representative state of Arizona. She sustained massive injuries but survived. Six people, however, lost their lives.

Kelly said he was in disbelief after he got the first phone call. After snapping back into reality, he gathered his two daughters and quickly flew out to join his wife in the hospital.

“One of the biggest mistakes I made, if I had a top-five list, was keeping the TV on,” he said. “We get halfway there, and the stations report that Gabby had died.”

The initial reports were wrong. Giffords was in surgery when her family arrived.

Kelly described the surgeries his wife went through, including when the doctors removed her left eye socket and reconstructed it. He talked about learning to be patient through her therapy and the joy he felt as she slowly recovered.

“If you come to our house, one of the first things she’ll do is pull out a blue container from the freezer with a piece of her skull in it,” Kelly said of his wife. “Some people get really freaked out.”

Kelly said one of the highlights of his life was seeing his wife go back to work for one day to cast her vote for raising the country’s debt ceiling.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever packed your wife’s suitcase before,” he said amongst laughter. “But that was one of the most dangerous things I’ve ever done.”

After a few months into his wife’s therapy, Kelly made the tough decision to go back to work. The job was just too good for him to miss: flying the Endeavor for the last trip into space.

Kelly detailed the procedures for how a space shuttle, all four million pounds of it, launches and how it lands. He described the camaraderie between flight crews and the dangers of voyaging into space.

“It’s incredible to see this big blue marble floating in complete darkness,” he said.

Kelly was accompanied by his oldest daughter, Claudia, who is going into college next year. She said she gets more publicity than most kids, but countered by saying “no one has a normal life.”

Kelly started his speech with how his mother, who worked hard to become one of the first female police officers in New Jersey in the 1970s, inspired him to achieve his goals.

After finishing college, Kelly joined the Navy to become a pilot, one of the biggest steps toward his dream of walking on Mars, he said. He joined in 1986, the same year the movie Top Gun was released.

“I’ll admit it,” he said. “I had that cheesy soundtrack playing on my drive to base.”

Kelly said he “quickly found out (he) wasn’t Maverick,” and struggled in his first flight attempts.

After working through his hardships, Kelly became a combat pilot in Kuwait during Desert Storm. He summarized some of his war stories, including flying over restricted air space in Iran.

“You know what’s worse than seeing the first missile come at you?” he asked the audience. “Seeing the second one.”

Kelly soon became one of the most decorated pilots in the county and worked his way up to NASA. He spent 55 days in space during his career, visiting the International Space Station four times.

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