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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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            "day": 12,
            "logicalDate": "1964-06-12",
            "month": 6,
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    "ocrText": "Interview with Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr.\nMr. Sohier: This is the beginning of an oral interview\nwith Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr. in connection with\nthe oral history program of the Kennedy Library. The\ninterview is being conducted in Commander Shepard's office\nat the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas, on\nJune 12, 1964, and is being conducted by Walter D. Sohier,\nGeneral Counsel of NASA.\nI wonder, Commander Shepard, if we might begin with Project\nMercury and your flight of May 5, 1961, and your first\nmeeting, I believe, with President Kennedy\nsome anecdotes\nof that and things you can recall.\nCommander Shepard: My first contact with President Kennedy\nactually occurred on the day of the flight, the 5th of May,\n1961, and it was in the nature of a radiotelephone call\nfrom the White House to me aboard the aircraft carrier USS.\nLake Champlain.\nMr. Sohier: That must have been quite a surprise. I guess\nthe others got to maybe expect it, but yours was the first,\nwasn't it?\nCommander Shepard: That's quite right. Actually it was a\nsurprise to me as an individual, and the first of many\nsurprises, really, which comprised not only the President's\nreaction to the manned space program but the public's\nreaction as well. I was, in fact, very surprised when the\nphone call came through. I talked first to a Captain Taz\nShepard, the President's naval aide, who is a personal\nfriend of mine.\nThe connection was very good. And then the President came\non, and, I must say, I was even more thrilled at that\nmoment in talking to him than I had been after the flight.\nOf course, it was about an hour after the flight, as I\nrecall. I actually had been on board the carrier for about\nan hour and the first flush of success had worn off to some\ndegree, but it certainly was reactivated when I talked to\nhim."
}