Light This Candle: The Life & Times of Alan Shepard--America's First Spaceman (63 page)

page 73, “The smell of burned flesh and cries of pain”: Oral history of Jac
k Gebhart, “Oral History—War in the Pacific,” Naval Historical Center.

page 74, “The war’s not over yet!”: Author interview with John Huber.

page 74, One night . . . the throat of an officer on a ship dir
ectly behind Cogswell: Personal diary of John Huber; personal d
iary of Howard Johnson.

page 75, “The kamikazes raised hell last night”: Author interview with John Huber.

pages 75–76, one sailor scrambled aboard . . . crying like a baby: Author interview with Andrew Atwell.

page 76, “I heard screams as she slipped under the water”: Oral history of Jack Gebhart.

page 76, “A bottle of whisky was passed around”: Ibid.

page 76, “The burial of the dead was terrible”: Oral history of Samuel Robert Sherman, “Oral History—War in the Pacific,” Naval Historical Center.

page 77, “Much evidence of bloodshed and violence”:
Author interviews with Howard Johnson and Ray Bates.

page 77, “[Much] sooner than was expected”: Shepard
letter to Williams (August 22, 1945).

page 78, “turn on your lights and let them know”: Author interview with Howard Johnson.

page 78, thirty-four Navy ships were sunk off Okinawa . . . Ernie Pyle: William Manchester,
The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America
(Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1973), pp. 417–424.

4: “UNSAFE FOR SOLO” in Zoom Town

page 82, “They were kind of falling all over the place”:
An Oral History of the
Corpus Christi Naval Air Station During World War II
(Del Mar College, 1995).

page 82, . . . at the urging of a young congressman named Lyndon Johnson: Ibid.

page 83, burned, peeling faces: Donald D. Engen,
Wings and Warriors: My
Life as a Naval Aviator (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institute Press, 1997), p. 25.

page 83, “Man, I have arrived at heaven”:
An Oral History of the Corpus Christi
Naval Air Station.

page 84, thousands of dead frogs: Ibid.

page 85, “exuded confidence the way a lamp gives off light”: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry,
Wind, Sand and Stars
(Harcourt, 1992).

page 85, “tasted the proud intoxication of renunciation”: Ibid.

page 85, Of twenty-seven men aboard the two planes, only five survived:
An Oral History of the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station.

pages 85–86, “were dropping down, just like rain”: Ibid.

page 87, After mastering the Stearman [all training scenes]: Author interviews with Tazewell Shepard and John Glenn.

page 88, “skill, composure, enthusiasm, judgment . . .”:
An Oral History of the
Corpus Christi Naval Air Station.

page 88, “It was wonderful . . . I loved it”: Paul Gillcrist,
Feet Wet: Reflections
of a Carrier Pilot
(Pocket Books, 1990), p. 21.

page 89, he approached with his nose too high: Shepard’s flight training records, obtained from Chief of Naval Air Training in Corpus Christi.

page 90, his grades plummeted: Ibid.

page 90, “Cadet Brownstein is of quiet, meek disposition”:
An Oral History
of the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station.

page 91, “eager to learn . . . above average”: Shepard’s flight training records.

page 91, “Student was confused”: Ibid.

page 92, Going “to the lakes”:
An Oral History of the Corpus Christi Naval Air
Station.

page 93, “Barran . . . you fly like shit”: Author interview with Jack Barran.

page 93, “IN THE WRONG DIRECTION”: Shepard’s flight training records.

page 94, “UNSAFE FOR SOLO”: Ibid.

page 94, “If you are looking for perfect safety . . .”: William Langewiesche,
Inside the Sky: A Meditation on Flight
(New York: Vintage Books, 1999), p. 14.

page 95, hemorrhaging of grease monkeys: Author interview with Tazewell Shepard; Faludi,
Stiffed.

page 96, Then it was Renza’s turn: Smaus and Spangler,
America’s First Spaceman,
p. 109.

page 96, “You goofed off a little bit”: Allen,
Yankee.

page 97, “That kind of complacency is so insidious”: Ibid.

page 97, “Naval aviators were not angels”: Gillcrist,
Feet Wet,
p. xvii.

page 97, “escorting a fervor as tender”: Saint-Exupéry,
Wind, Sand and Stars.

page 98, Pilots would swoop down low for a look:
An Oral History of the CorpusChristi Naval Air Station.

page 98, One famous Corpus Christi story involves the trainee: Ibid.

page 99, “She captivated everyone she ran into”: Author interview with Robert Williams.

page 100, “the best-trained men in the world”:
An Oral History of the Corpus
Christi Naval Air Station.

page 100, “it was difficult to walk without swaggering.”: Gillcrist,
Feet Wet,
p. 17.

page 100, The crazy notion of using ships as floating runways: Roy Grossnick and William J. Armstrong. United States Naval Aviation: 1910–1995 (Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997).

page 101, The first LSO was . . . Kenneth Whiting: Alfred M. Pride, oral history interview, U.S. Naval Institute.

page 103, “Absolutely perfect . . . right in the center.”: Allen, “The Disciplined Life,”
Yankee.

page 103, “one of the best moments” Ibid.

5: A perfectly charming son of a bitch

page 105, “I earnestly desire to fly fighter-bombers”: Shepard’s flight training records.

page 106, “The air, not the runway, was the Corsair’s element”: Glenn,
A
Memoir,
p. 79; author interview with John Glenn.

page 106, [Lindbergh, World War II, Corsair]: Berg,
Lindbergh,
p. 448.

page 106, “whistling death”: Glenn,
A Memoir,
p. 94.

page 107, “for real men only”: Author interview with Robert Williams.

page 107, He was killed in a fireball: Author interview with Dick Hardy.

page 107, Another peer failed to adjust the mixture control: Author interview with Bill Botts.

page 107, “the bent-wing widowmaker”: Ibid.

page 108, her fragile constitution . . . : Author interview with Dorel Alco Abbot.

page 110, “A rivet or two could pop”: Al Blackburn, Aces Wild: The Race for
Mach 1
(Scholarly Resources, 1998), p. 2.

page 111, proceeded to handpick each of his pilots: Author inte
rview with Dick Hardy.

page 111, Abbot chose Shepard to be his wingman: Author intervi
ew with James L. “Doc” Abbot.

page 111, Abbot . . . took them down to the naval air station a
t Pensacola: Author interview with Dick Hardy.

page 112, Abbot . . . explained how his men had accidentally mi
ssed the turn: Author interview with Doc Abbot.

page 112, The
FDR
sailed first to Guantánamo Bay: Ibid.

page 113, Abbot’s boss—had been killed: Author inter
view with Robert Baldwin.

page 114, One dark, calm night in the Caribbean . . . : Author interview with Doc Abbot.

page 114, Why hang around with the other wives to watch the shi
p: Louise Shepard, “Just Go Right Ahead,”
Life,
Vol. 47, No. 12 (September 21, 1959), p. 150.

page 115, Enormous swells lifted and dropped the
FDR
: Harry D. Felt, oral
history interview, U.S. Naval Institute.

page 115, Most of the
FDR
’s airplanes were tied down [entire
scene]: Author interview with Doc Abbot.

page 117, continued military spending cuts . . . : Author inter
views with Dick Hardy and Robert Baldwin.

page 117, “If they lay off too long, you’re asking for trouble”: Felt, oral history.

page 118, Abbot decided to give Shepard command: Author intervi
ew with Doc Abbot.

pages 118–119, “bodacious” . . . and it turned some colleagues off:
Author interview with Bill Botts.

page 120, “Baldwin, with you sucking on one end of this ship . . .”: Aut
hor interviews with Robert Baldwin and Warren O’Neil.

page 121, Many Navy marriages were battered: Felt, oral history.

page 121, “Why not?” Shepard said: Author interview with Bill Chaires.

page 123, Caldwell often walked down from his office: Author in
terview with DickHardy.

page 124, ironically, his successor was killed in a Corsair: Author interview with Robert Baldwin.

6: Shepard should be court-martialed

page 125, “aviation plan 65” . . . “outstanding flying proficiency”:
United
States Naval Test Pilot School: Historical Narrative and Class Date, 1945
–
1983,
(Annapolis, Maryland: Fishergate Publishing, 1984), p. 7.

page 126, “may not have extra talent”: Shepard, Academy of Achievement interview.

page 127, “drank cheap booze . . . and almost ended up in jail”: Steve V
ogel, “In Patuxent, Past Flies Home to Roost: Naval Pilots Return to Celebrate
the Glory Days,”
The Washington Post
(April 19, 1998).

page 127, “There wasn’t much to do”: Author interview with Robert Elder

page 128, “Training was very informal, to put it politely”: Matt Bortz,
“Memories of WWII Training,” unpublished memoir.

page 128, they raised the requirements for new test pilots:
United States
Naval Test Pilot School.

page 128, Just barely avoiding slamming into the tail [entire s
cene]: John Hyland, oral history, U.S. Naval Institute.

page 129, “He could fly anything”: Author interview with Robert Baldwin.

page 129, One of Shepard’s projects was to fly . . . : Au
thor interview with Bill Chaires.

page 130, “If it sucked, he’d say so”: Author interview with Robert Elder.

page 130, “some of the best reports we had”: Hyland, oral history.

page 131, could “roll a plane a little better”: Shepard, Academy of Achievement.

page 131, “fly the best test flight that anybody had ever flown”: Ibid.

page 132, he couldn’t condone such flights or every yahoo: Author interview with Robert Baldwin.

page 132, He gave Shepard a stern lecture: John Lacouture, “
You Can Be Good and Be Colorful,”
Naval History
(June, 2001).

page 132, He flew down low and screamed across the beach: Ibid.

page 133, As Shepard took off, he radioed the air traffic: Auth
or interview with George Whisler.

pages 133, “Get that pilot’s name”: Ibid.

page 133–134, thought his career was over: Hyland, oral history.

page 134, “Were you just over Chincoteague?”: Entire scene based on auth
or interviews with Robert Elder, H. Y. Davidson, George Whisler
; Hyland, oral history.

page 134, Shepard should be court-martialed: Lacouture,
Naval History;
Hyland, oral history.

page 134, “I want to straighten this kid out”: Hyland, oral history.

page 135, “He [Pride] was furious”: Author interview with Robert Elder.

page 136, He also grounded Shepard for two weeks: Lacouture,
Naval History.

page 136, “Now look, Shep, if you want to fly low . . .”: Hyland, oral history.

page 136, “I thought he was a little indulgent”: Author interview with Robert Elder.

page 136, when Shepard was allowed to fly again . . . [entire scene]: Author interview with Doc Abbot.

page 137, “It was a remarkable piece of work . . .”: Ibid.

page 138, Miss America’s impressive cleavage: Lacouture,
Naval History.

page 138, “Let’s show them how to do it”: Author interview with Robert Elder.

page 138, He painted pubic hair: Author interview with Robert Williams.

page 139, “ . . . it was blowing the airplane apart” [entire scene]: Author interviews with Robert Elder; Mike Machat, “Bob Elder: Naval Aviator,”
Wings,
Vol. 31, No. 6 (December, 2001).

page 140, “I don’t know what a genius IQ is, but he had it”: Hyland oral history.

page 141, Shepard compiled an extensive report . . . : Ibid.

page 141, friends . . . “are going to run right over you on the way to the sam
e target”: Shepard, Academy of Achievement.

page 142, “Maybe you are a little bit better”: Ibid.

page 142, “I was the best graduate . . .”: Allen, “The Disciplined Life,”
Yankee.

7: “Do you wish to declare an emergency?”

page 144, waiters thought they were all drunk: Author interview with Charles Spangler.

page 144, “Mommy, how come Daddy is so rich . . . ?”: Shepard, Academy of Achievement.

page 145, “a pretty good return on the investment”: “Two Aces in K
orean Air War,”
Naval Aviation News
(September, 1953).

page 145, a two-foot hole in Glenn’s tail: Glenn,
A Memoir,
p. 134.

page 146, Shepard . . . “slow-roll”: Author interview with Jig Dog Ramage.

page 146, “I was lying, cheating, and stealing”: Ramage, oral history, U.S.
Naval Institute.

page 146, “At that time, friendships were strong”: Author interview with Jig Dog Ramage.

page 148, “Stop damaging the flight deck”: Ibid; Ramage, oral history.

page 148, That decision would ultimately save Jig Dog’s life: Ibid.

page 149, “there are no old, bold test pilots”: Pam Platt, “Shepar
d Detailed ‘Real Stuff’ in Florida Today Interview,”
Florida Today
(July 22, 1998).

page 150, Captain Griffin later summoned . . . Lawrence: Author
interview with William Lawrence.

page 152, Frank Repp came up a few inches short: Author intervi
ews Frank Repp and Jig Dog Ramage; Ramage, oral history.

page 153, “Pretty colorful, wasn’t I?”: Ibid.

page 153, Shepard’s colleague John Mitchell once . . . : Aut
hor interview with John Mitchell.

page 154, “MiG Mad Marine”: Glenn, A Memoir, p. 141.

page 154, “irrepressible spirit”: Author interview with William Lawrence.

page 155, Shepard was put in hack: Ibid.

page 155, “LT Shepard is a very fine Naval Aviator, but . . .”: William Lawrence, “Reminiscences of Alan Shepard,”
Foundation,
journal of the National Museum of Naval Aviation (Spring, 1990).