[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 100 (Thursday, July 23, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S8825]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          ALAN B. SHEPARD, JR.

  Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, last night Alan Shepard died. Alan Shepard 
is a huge figure in the lives of those of us who are in that postwar 
baby boom generation which went through the Sputnik experience and the 
early days of our space program. He is a huge figure especially for 
those of us who come from New Hampshire, because he was born and raised 
in Derry, NH, a small town. In fact, a while after he went into space, 
for many years, Derry sort of changed its name and called itself Space 
Town in honor of Alan Shepard.
  He was really an extraordinary American, embodying so much of what 
makes our country a special place. He came from a small, rural 
community. It has gotten quite big. In fact, it is a city now. But when 
he grew up, it was still a small, rural community. He committed his 
life to service of this Nation and, of course, he was one of those 
exceptional people who was in the early test pilot program which 
transitioned into the early astronaut program. We have the great 
benefit of having another one of those exceptional people in the Senate 
with us in Senator Glenn.
  Alan Shepard was the first to go into space as an American, and his 
impact on our country was extraordinary because of that. I can recall 
very vividly--I must have been 9 or 10 years old --that our whole class 
in school met in the evening in order to watch this thing called 
Sputnik go through the sky. And it threw a great scare into our Nation 
at the time because we, at that time, having come out of World War II 
and the Korean war, viewed ourselves as a nation of extraordinary 
strength and really a nation of at least scientific leadership that was 
unparalleled, and suddenly the Soviet Union, which was a clear and 
present threat of proportions which cannot even be appreciated today, 
had launched a satellite which made it clear we were not maybe as far 
ahead as we thought we were. In fact, in the area of space we were 
behind.
  And so the commitment was made to overtake the Soviet lead in space 
technology, but, more importantly, to make America the preeminent space 
explorer of the world. That commitment was made first by President 
Eisenhower and followed aggressively by President Kennedy, President 
Johnson and President Nixon. But the personification of the success of 
that commitment was Alan Shepard, because not only did he go into space 
as the first American, but then after overcoming significant physical 
restrictions--he had a very severe inner ear problem which he went back 
and had operated on--he went back into space and landed on the Moon. Of 
course, who can forget his hitting a golf ball on the Moon. I think he 
used a 6 iron and hit it 300 yards--almost a Tiger Woods drive.
  Alan Shepard was a person who believed totally in the American dream 
and who lived the American dream. He was an icon of our culture and 
clearly a dominant figure of our time. We will miss him. In New 
Hampshire, we will especially miss him because we are very proud of 
him. We are a small State. At that time we had less than 1 million 
people, and here it is, with less than 1 million people, we sent the 
first person in space and he was from New Hampshire. Great pride.
  I express my sorrow to his family and join with all Americans in 
thanking him for what he did for our Nation, to restore our pride in 
ourselves and to establish once again that we are a nation that is 
unique, filled with people who are unique, who, when we pull together 
to take on a task, no matter how daunting, such as putting a person on 
the Moon and putting a person in space, will always succeed.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  Mr. President, I make a point of order that a quorum is not present.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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