Alan Shepard Oral History Interview
Interview with Alan Shepard for the John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Program by Walter Sohier, General Counsel, National Aeronautics and Space Administration. June 12, 1964 Houston, Texas
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Extracted text
OCR Page 1 of 21Interview with Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr.
Mr. Sohier: This is the beginning of an oral interview
with Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr. in connection with
the oral history program of the Kennedy Library. The
interview is being conducted in Commander Shepard's office
at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas, on
June 12, 1964, and is being conducted by Walter D. Sohier,
General Counsel of NASA.
I wonder, Commander Shepard, if we might begin with Project
Mercury and your flight of May 5, 1961, and your first
meeting, I believe, with President Kennedy
some anecdotes
of that and things you can recall.
Commander Shepard: My first contact with President Kennedy
actually occurred on the day of the flight, the 5th of May,
1961, and it was in the nature of a radiotelephone call
from the White House to me aboard the aircraft carrier USS.
Lake Champlain.
Mr. Sohier: That must have been quite a surprise. I guess
the others got to maybe expect it, but yours was the first,
wasn't it?
Commander Shepard: That's quite right. Actually it was a
surprise to me as an individual, and the first of many
surprises, really, which comprised not only the President's
reaction to the manned space program but the public's
reaction as well. I was, in fact, very surprised when the
phone call came through. I talked first to a Captain Taz
Shepard, the President's naval aide, who is a personal
friend of mine.
The connection was very good. And then the President came
on, and, I must say, I was even more thrilled at that
moment in talking to him than I had been after the flight.
Of course, it was about an hour after the flight, as I
recall. I actually had been on board the carrier for about
an hour and the first flush of success had worn off to some
degree, but it certainly was reactivated when I talked to
him.