Light This Candle: The Life & Times of Alan Shepard--America's First Spaceman (64 page)

page 155, “You are not aiding the individual or the Navy”: Ramage, oral history.

page 156, Once, during a change-of-command ceremony . . . : Author interview with Jig Dog Ramage.

page 156, “He always had a lot of protection”: Ibid.

page 157, A winter night over the Sea of Japan: Barbree et al.,
Moonshot,
p. 57.

page 157,
I might be in real trouble
[entire scene]: Ibid;
We Seven,
p. 84.

page 158, “the vast tribunal of the tempestuous sky”: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry,
Wind, Sand and Stars.

page 158, burning fuel at a horrendous rate: Barbree et al.,
Moonshot,
p. 57–60.

page 159, He roared to himself: Ibid.

page 159, “normal carrier landing”: Ibid.

page 159, “separates the men from the boys”: Ted Wilbur, “Once a F
ighter Pilot,”
Naval Aviation News
(1970).

page 160, “He always wanted to be one of them”: Aut
hor interview with Frank Repp.

page 161, “we took a few liberties”: Author interview with Robert Elder.

page 161, They’d fly straight at each other: Author interviews with Robert Elder and William Lawrence.

page 161, “The star of the show was Alan Shepard”: Charles D. Griffin, oral history interview, U.S. Naval Institute.

page 161, the Mangy Angels made plans to get a photograph: Author interview with William Lawrence.

page 162, “Guys would go there like flies”: Walt Radosevich, oral history interview with Thomas Saylor,
Oral History Project of the World War II Years.

page 163, “short-arm” inspection: Author interview with Jig Dog Ramage.

page 163, Friends called him a . . . “liberty hound”: Author interview with Ralph Stell.

page 163, “Shep never revealed . . . who he screwed”: Author interview with John Mitchell.

page 164, nearly a million men subscribed to
Playboy
David Halberstam,
The Fifties
(New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1994), p. 573.

page 164, wondered why she stayed with him: Author interview wi
th Betty Whisler.

page 165, still managed to reach Mach .93: Author interview with John Mitchell.

page 166, Rooney . . . “a little stinker first class”: Griffin, oral history.

page 167, unauthorized happy hour: Author interview with Bill Geiger.

page 167, “Shake the hand that held the tit of Ava Gardner”: Ibid.

page 167, attack on the battleship USS
Iowa
: Author interview wi
th Jig Dog Ramage; Ramage, oral history.

page 169, “Shep, I owe you one” [entire scene]: Ibid.

8: “That little rascal”

page 170, “He didn’t like to be needled”: Author interview with John Mitchell.

page 175, four planes flying in the same direction: Barbree et al.,
Moonshot,
p. 56.

page 175, falling “like a Steinway piano”: Ibid.

page 176, aviators . . . killed as a result of . . . : Gillcrist,
Feet Wet,
p. 69.

page 176, “using up the sky in a terrible hurry”: Barbree et al.,
Moonshot,
p. 55.

page 176, Shepard left the Tiger on the tarmac [entire scene]: Ibid.

page 176, “an unforgiving, unreliable airplane”: Test pilot John Moore,
written for the National Museum of Naval Aviation’s Web s
ite (www. naval-air.org/AircraftCollection).

page 177, watched the plane . . . bloom into a fireball: Author
interview with Larry Richardson.

page 177, “This isn’t what we want”: Author interview with John Mitchell.

page 178, At first the poor girl was in shock . . . : Author in
terviews with Denni Seibert, Betty Whisler, and Alice Wackermann.

page 179, Louise . . . knew she had done something right: Autho
r interview with Betty Whisler.

page 179, “brush up on some academic subjects”:
We Seven,
p. 84.

page 180, “I thought I had a very good chance”: Ibid.

page 180, The change of routine was not, however, an easy one: Author interview with Dorel Alco Abbot.

page 183, “the embodiment of the sheer animal force of the Soviet Union”
: Halberstam,
The Fifties,
p. 702.

page 183, “Kaputnik . . . Flopnik . . . Stayputnik”: Ibid, p. 627.

page 185, “That little rascal”: Barbree et al.,
Moonshot,
p. 43.

page 185, “gnawed at his insides”: Ibid.

PART II /// INTO SPACE

9: “We made them heroes, the first day they were picked”

page 190, “Not . . . those who would be enamored”: Thomas,
Men of Space,
p. 185.

page 190, a “miserable weekend”: Shepard, Academy of Achievement interview.

page 190, “kicked the dog, spanked the children”: Platt,
Florida Today.

page 190, “ ‘Just go right ahead’ ”: Louise Shepard, “Just Go Right Ahead,”
Life,
Vol. 47, No. 12 (September 21, 1959), p. 150.

page 191, “Why are you asking me?”:
We Seven,
p. 85.

page 191, “stay alive under tough and dangerous assignments”: Thomas,
Men of Space,
p. 185.

page 191, “space was the new turning point . . . something new and important”:
We Seven,
p. 85.

page 191, To Voas’ surprise . . . : Author interview with Robert Voas.

page 192, he already knew she was “all for it”: Shepard, Academy of Achievement.

page 192, Secretly Louise hoped . . . “he’s only one out of a hundred”: Smaus and Spangler,
America’s First Spaceman,
p. 123.

page 193, “We were trying to drive them crazy”: Caidin,
Man into Space,
p. 132.

page 193, “sick doctors working on well patients”: Walter M. Schirra,
Schirra’s Space
(Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Pres
s/Bluejacket Books, 1995), p. 60.

page 193, “sadists”: Gordon Cooper, Leap of Faith: An Astronaut’s Journey into the Unknown (New York: HarperCollins, 2000), p. 13.

page 194, he even had to squat over the camera: James Schefter, The Race:
The Uncensored Story of How America Beat Russia to the Moon
(New York: Doubleday/Random House, 1999), p. 57.

page 194, “Nothing is sacred anymore”: Loyd S. Swenson Jr. et al., This New
Ocean: A History of Project Mercury
(Houston: NASA History Series, 1989).

page 194, reviewing . . . each candidate’s adolescence: Caidin,
Man into
Space.
p. 134.

page 194, “We l
ooked for real men”: Swenson et al.,
This New Ocean.

page 194, Those who seemed to exhibit “emotional stability”: Author interview with Robert Voas.

page 195, “We wanted perfect . . . specimens”: Ibid.

page 195, Glenn started scribbling . . . : Glenn,
A Memoir,
p. 189.

page 195, “difficult for me to analyze my own feelings”: Shepard,
We Seven,
p. 86.

page 195, “Al thought it was a bunch of nonsense”: Author interview with John Glenn.

page 196, “motivated”: Author interview with Robert Voas.

page 196, “these would probably be famous people”: Ibid.

page 196, couldn’t decide which of two competing candidates
should be the sixth: Charles Berry, oral history interview, NASA archives, Universi
ty of Houston, Clear Lake.

page 196, Shepard let out a whoop:
We Seven,
p. 86.

page 197, “Louise and I just held each other”: Ibid, p. 87.

page 197, Renza said she was “delighted”: Jim Watson, “Shepard Sky
High on NASA,” The Washington Times (August 6, 1986).

page 197, “Someday . . . you may be an admiral”: Allen,
Yankee.

page 198, “splitting up the family”: Watson,
The Washington Times.

page 198, a splotch of “guck” on his bow tie: Barbree et al.,
Moonshot,
pg. 62.

page198, “cold and standoffish” . . . “trying to be nice”: Donald K. “Deke”
Slayton, Michael Cassut, DEKE! U.S. Manned Space: From Mercury to the
Shuttle
(New York: Forge Books/A Tom Doherty Associates Book, 1994), p. 73.

page 200, “the worst stress test I’ve ever been through”:
We Seven,
p. 17.

page 201, “These people are nuts”: Barbree et al.,
Moonshot,
p. 63.

page 201, “I have no problems at home”: James M. Grimwood, ed.,
Project
Mercury: A Chronology (press conference transcript, NASA, 1963).

page 201, “disadvantage to have to speak loud”: Ibid.

page 201, “This is the worst, here”: Ibid.

page 202, “waiting for the religion question all along”: Cooper,
Leap of Faith,
p. 18.

page 202, Glenn “ate this stuff up”: Slayton and Cassut,
DEKE!
p. 74.

page 202, Grissom’s response . . . made a few of the others cringe: Ibid.

page 202, “the seven-sided coin of competition”: Swenson et al.,
This New
Ocean.

page 203, his loquaciousness had cost him points: Glenn,
A Memoir,
p. 197.

page 203, Who is this Boy Scout?: Cooper, Leap of Faith, p. 18.

page 203, “There’s nothing on your tie, Slayton”: Barbree et al.,
Moonshot,
p. 64.

page 203, “square-jawed trim halfbacks”: John W. Finney, “7 Named as Pilots for Space Flights,”
The New York Times
(April 10, 1959).

page 203, “virile”: Norman Mailer, Of a Fire on the Moon (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1969); Faludi,
Stiffed,
p. 455.

page 203, “daring and courageous”:
We Seven,
p. 4.

page 203, these were “military pilots”:
The New York Times
(April 10, 1959).

page 203, “Not one of us knew what he was in for”: Glenn,
A Memoir,
pp. 198–201.

page 204, “unsophisticated in many ways”: Schirra,
Schirra’s Space,
p. 63.

page 204, “Mrs. Shepard? . . . We’re from
Life
magazine”: Barbree et al.,
Moonshot,
p. 67.

page 204, orders to track down each of the astronauts’ families: Schefter, The Race, p. 60.

page 205, “Mom, what is all this?”: Barbree et al.,
Moonshot,
p. 68.

page 205, “our relationship”: Author interview with John Glenn.

page 206, According to an internal NASA memo . . . : Robert Sherrod, unpublished manuscript, NASA archives.

page 206, “nibbled to death by ducks”: Glenn,
A Memoir,
p. 200.

page 206, the whole table busted out laughing: Author interview
with John Glenn; Glenn,
A Memoir,
p. 201.

page 207, “a tremendous guy . . . a very close personal friend”: Alan Shepard, interview transcript (James Burke, BBC TV, 1979).

page 207, “the ‘happily married’ illusion”: Cooper,
Leap of Faith;
Author interview with Gordon Cooper.

page 208,
Life
. . . “NASA’s house organ”: Faludi,
Stiffed,
p. 455.

page 208, “They were heroes not, like Charles Lindbergh . . .”: Ibid, p. 454.

page 208, “I rather enjoyed the insulation”: Shepard, interview with Burke.

page 208, “We made them heroes, the first day they were picked”: Matt Schudel, “Rocket Town,”
Sunshine
magazine (October 18, 1998).

page 209, “a way of putting words in our mouths”: Author interview with John Glenn.

10: Eyeballs in, eyeballs out

page 211, “he wouldn’t even have a window”: Chris Kraft,
Flight: My Life in
Mission Control (New York: E. P. Dutton, 2001), p. 64.

page 212, “the most complex of the original astronauts”: Cooper,
Leap of
Faith,
p. 21.

page 212, Shepard was so “anxious to win”:
We Seven,
p. 11.

page 212, “serious clown”: Platt,
Florida Today.

page 212, “a great test pilot”: Ibid.

page 213, Shepard thought less of Cooper and Carpenter: Ibid.

page 213, “we are seven different individuals”:
We Seven,
p. 9.

page 213, “comments . . . revealed a sharp, analytical mind”: Glenn,
A Memoir,
p. 194.

page 213, “it gave me the right image as a Navy test pilot”: David W. Te
mple, “The Car with the Right Stuff,”
Car Collector
(August, 2001).

page 213, “it was cheap and got good gas mileage”: Glenn,
A Memoir,
p. 202.

page 214, “Al was more of an enigma”: Ibid., p. 204.

page 214, “objects of an insatiable curiosity”: Ibid., p. 198.

page 215, “Nothing gave me more pleasure”: Ibid.

page 215, “It would be good if you kept him alive”: Kraft,
Flight,
pp. 65–68.

page 217, “glad they got that one out of the way”: Glenn,
A Memoir,
p. 207.

page 217, “I sure hope they fix that”: Guenter Wendt, with Russell Still,
The
Unbroken Chain
(Ontario: Apogee Books, 2001), p. 14.

page 217, “Some of this was fairly exotic stuff”:
We Seven,
p. 203.

page 218, “Communism was on the march”: Author interview with John Glenn.

page 219, During a trip to Dallas: Author interview with Larry Richardson.

page 219, “Jockeying for position became a constant activity”: Walter Cunningham,
The All-American Boys
(New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1977), p. 82.

page 219, “It was a competition guaranteed to bring out the worst”: Ibid.

page 220, “There was always another what-if”: Author interview with John Glenn.

page 222, A few of the doctors . . . were surprised: Author interview with Robert Voas.

page 222, the first of the seven to tame the MASTIF: Swenson et al.,
This
New Ocean.

page 223, “a bulldog tearing away at you”: Mickey Kapp (producer),
To the
Moon,
6-CD audio book.

page 224, the record . . . was an astonishing 20 Gs: Glenn,
A Memoir,
p. 209.

page 224, “County Fair Killer”: Barbree et al.,
Moonshot,
p. 73.

page 224, “oversize cream separator”: Press conference (December 15, 1959).

page 224, “It’s something I never want to do again”: Ibid.