re: For all that like to be called Gump and such

Also a Grandmaster Chess Champion. Not only was he an astronaut - he was the backup fricking computer for the rocket in which he travelled with the ape. IIRC, the landed in Papua New Guinea and lived with cannibals for a year or so.

The book is so incredibly divergent from the movie that it isn't even funny (even though the novel is hilarious).