The Right Stuff Page #5

it is my pleasure to introduce to you...

seven Americans...

gentlemen all.

Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom!

Leroy G. Cooper!

Donald K. Slayton!

John H. Glenn, Junior!

Malcolm S. Carpenter!

Alan B. Shepard, Junior!

Walter M. Schirra, Junior!

America's Mercury astronauts!

Holy sh*t!

Smile, Gus. We're heroes.

Yeager ought to see this.

Seven rookies being installed

as the hottest fliers...

and they haven't done a thing

but show up for a press conference.

Following the distribution of the kits,

those of you who have p.m. Deadlines...

better dash to your phones.

Now we'll have some questions

from the press, please.

I'd like to know

whether your wives and children...

had anything to say about this.

Mine think it's fine.

They're all for it.

I don't think any of us could go on

with something like this...

if we didn't have

pretty good backing at home.

My wife's attitude towards this

has been the same...

as it's been all along through my flying.

If it's what I want to do, she's behind it.

And, by golly, my kids are, too.

100 percent.

I don't believe this.

But look at them out there.

They're eating it up.

I was brought up believing

that you are placed on Earth...

more or less with a 50-50 proposition.

This is what I still believe.

We're placed here with certain talents

and capabilities...

and it's up to each one of us

to use those talents as best we can.

And if we use our talents properly...

I think there is a power

greater than us that will place...

the opportunities in our way.

When I think of Orville

and Wilbur Wright...

standing on a hill

at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina...

tossing a coin to see which one

would take the first airplane flight...

and then I think of us here today...

I thank God I live in a country...

where the best and finest in a man

can be brought out.

I'd like to second some of the things

Mr. Glenn has said here.

I think that we are all very,

very fortunate...

that we have been,

should we say, "blessed"...

with the talents for something like this.

And I think that we would be most remiss

in our duty indeed...

if we did not volunteer

for something as important as this is...

for our country...

and to the world in general right now.

One of our Air Force boys.

Don't you agree, Deke?

I absolutely agree with Gordo.

But we're not saying anything new.

We're just saying the same things...

that need to be said again

and again with fierce conviction.

Can you tell us if any of you

go to church regularly?

As far as church goes...

I attend regularly.

Which one of you will be

the first into space?

The best will be first.

Share it, brother.

F***ing A, bubba.

This is for America's Life magazine.

These are the greatest pilots in America.

How much do they make?

$7,000-$8,000 a year?

- Tops.

- At the most.

With this one deal

I'm giving them $500,000...

split seven ways over three years.

How does that sound?

Now I want them all to meet my people

who will write their true stories.

These stories will appear in Life

under their own by-lines.

For example...

"by Betty Grissom..."

or, "by...

"Virgil I. Grissom."

- Or...

- Gus.

What was that?

Gus.

Nobody calls me by that other name.

Gus?

An astronaut named Gus?

What's your middle name?

Lvan.

Maybe...

"Gus" isn't so bad.

Might be something there.

All right, you can be Gus.

I bet for all that money

they could call you Virgil.

They sure could me.

Well, what's with her?

She seems snobby.

I don't get it.

I get it. She's "Mrs. Clean Marine."

I'm going to the Cape tomorrow.

I wish to heck it wasn't off-limits to wives.

There's so much work to do, anyway.

More tests...

training...

studying.

What about after?

After hours I'll run a lot.

I'm going to get up to five miles a day.

There's a beautiful, long beach there.

It's called Cocoa Beach.

You can run forever.

Scott Carpenter will run with me.

He's a good guy.

He's real philosophical.

What about...

The others want to get the job done and

keep the Mickey Mouse to a minimum.

They're good men.

Good men.

They'll give 100 percent

when the time comes.

Guess they think I'm kind of a...

gung-ho type.

"Eddie Attaboy."

"Harry Hair-shirt."

What, you agree?

You agree?

My own wife.

Do you think I'm a "Dudley Do-right"?

That's me, I guess.

A lonely beacon of restraint...

and self-sacrifice in a squall of car-crazies.

It's important to America

to get a man up there first.

I plan to be the first man

to ride the rocket.

Four, three, two, one. Ignition.

What is the most important thing

in rocket travel?

To me the most important thing...

is the blast-off.

I always take a blast before I take off.

Otherwise I wouldn't go near that thing.

He loves Ed Sullivan.

Four down, three to go.

I don't want anything to put this program

in a bad light.

We have the opportunity of a lifetime

and I'm sorry, but I won't stand by...

and let other people compromise

the whole darned thing!

You know and I know this could lead

to something very unfortunate.

I'm talking about the playing around

that's going on.

I'm talking about the young girls.

I'm talking about the cookies.

I'm talking about keeping our pants zipped

and our wicks dry.

Mr. Glenn, you are way out of line.

I advise you not to try to foist your

moral views on anyone else in this group.

Each man here has volunteered

to do a job.

Each man is devoting long hours

of training...

and doing many things

above and beyond the call of duty...

such as morale tours of factories...

Such as bringing girls up to your room?

And forgoing any orderly family life.

Mr. Glenn, as long as

a man uses good sense...

what he does with his wick

is his own business!

I'm from Life magazine.

I'm not with these people.

You can't go in.

They're discussing scientific problems.

John's right. Whether we like it or not

we're public figures.

Whether we deserve it or not,

people look up to us.

We have a tremendous responsibility.

You can't tell a pilot what to do

when he's not flying.

Wait a minute. You got it all wrong.

The issue here ain't p*ssy.

The issue here is monkey.

- What?

- Us. We are the monkey.

What Gus is saying is

that we're missing the point.

Gus is saying that we all heard rumors

they want to send a monkey up first.

None of us wants them to send

a monkey up to do a man's work.

What Gus is saying is that...

what they're trying to do to us

is send a man up to do a monkey's work.

Us. A bunch of

college-trained chimpanzees.

What Gus is saying is that

we've got to change things around here.

He's saying that we are pilots.

We know more about what we need

to fly than anybody else.

So what we have to do

is alter the experiment.

It comes down to who is going

to control this thing from here on.

What Gus is saying here is

that we've got to stick together on this.

These tests were designed...

to decondition, to desensitize...

to adapt out fears.

Since we have developed

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