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Alan B. Shepard, Jr.
by Tara Gray

Alan B.

Shepard, Jr. (RADM, USN, Ret.), was born on November 18, 1923, in East Derry, New Hampshire, to parents Lt. Col. Alan B. Shepard (USA, Ret.) and Renza (Emerson) Shepard.¹ He attended primary school in East Derry and was graduated from the Pinkerton Academy in Derry, New Hampshire, in 1940.² He studied one year at Admiral Farragut Academy, Toms River, New Jersey, and then entered the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland.

He was graduated from the Naval Academy on June 7, 1944.³ After graduation, Shepard was commissioned as an ensign and during the final year of World War II he served on the destroyer Cogswell deployed in the Pacific.⁴ At war's end, on March 3, 1945, Shepard married the former Louise Brewer, of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, whom he had met while he was a midshipman at the Naval Academy.⁵

After the war, he underwent naval flight