After high school Neil joined the Navy and was accepted in a special program that paid for his college education.He went to Purdue University in Indiana.It had a strong flight engineering program.

• 高中以后，尼尔参加了海军，接受了特殊计划的资助进入印第安纳州的普渡大学学习，那里有很强的飞行工程专业。