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{
    "localId": "193652",
    "label": "Alan Shepard Oral History Interview",
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{
    "id": "193652",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/193652",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Alan Shepard Oral History Interview",
    "description": "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",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/193652",
    "creators": [
        "Shepard, Alan Bartlett, Jr., 1923-1998"
    ],
    "collections": [
        "John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Program",
        "John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Program: John F. Kennedy Oral Histories."
    ],
    "subjects": [
        "National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (10/01/1958 - )",
        "Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963",
        "Shepard, Alan Bartlett, Jr., 1923-1998",
        "Interviews",
        "Space programs",
        "Astronauts"
    ],
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    "hasTranscription": false
}

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            "day": 12,
            "logicalDate": "1964-06-12",
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{
    "seq": 7,
    "pageIndex": 0,
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    "ocrText": "Interview with Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr.\n7\nCommander Shepard: Not to my knowledge. I know, of course,\nthat during all of the flights, using primarily the public\nrelations office channels, we kept an open line to the White\nHouse. I did not have access to the line and I'm not sure\nexactly what conversations went on.\nMr. Sohier: I note on this list here that you had lunch at\nthe White House with the President of Ecuador on July 23,\n1962. How did you happen to get invited to that? Do you\nremember much about that?\nCommander Shepard: Yes. As a matter of fact, that in itself\nis rather a funny story. It seems to me that the President\nhad invited the French Minister of Culture to dinner. Colonel\nLindbergh was also to be there, and he had invited Mrs.\nShepard and me.\nIt so happened that the date of the dinner fell on a day when\nI was supposed to be at one of our tracking stations in\nCalifornia getting ready for Carpenter's flight. It was my\nopinion that I should regret that I would be unable to attend,\nwhich I did to Mrs. Kennedy's secretary. And it's my under-\nstanding that on the morning of that particular affair, the\nPresident was reviewing the guest list and wanted to know\nwhere my name was. You can imagine the confusion that\ncreated over at NASA Headquarters when they received the\ncall from the President wanting to know where Shepard was.\nThey immediately contacted me, just at the end of an all-\nnight session at the tracking station, and I wasn't too\nhappy about it anyway. I was able to explain the situation\nto them and, in fact, finally did call Taz Shepard, the\nPresident's naval aide, and explain it to him. I assume\nthat the President was made aware of my decision and he\nsaid he certainly agreed with it and offered a \"rain check.\"\nSo the luncheon for the President of Ecuador was the \"rain\ncheck,\" and Mrs. Shepard and I went up there together.\nThe two things that he mentioned when we went through the\nreceiving line were, first, that he was in fact sorry I"
}