<P> On Shepard's second cruise with Cogswell, he was appointed a gunnery officer, responsible for the 20 mm and 40 mm antiaircraft guns on the ship's bow . They engaged kamikazes in the Battle of Okinawa, where the ship served in the dangerous role of a radar picket . The job of the radar pickets was to warn the fleet of incoming kamikazes; but because they were often the first ships sighted by incoming Japanese aircraft, they were also the most likely ships to be attacked . Cogswell performed this duty from May 27, 1945, until June 26, when it rejoined Task Force 38 . The ship also participated in the Allied naval bombardments of Japan, and was present in Tokyo Bay for the Surrender of Japan in September 1945 . Shepard returned to the United States later that month . </P> <P> In November 1945, Shepard arrived at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas, where he commenced basic flight training on January 7, 1946 . He was an average student, and for a time faced being "bilged" (dropped) from flight training and reassigned to the surface navy . To make up for this, he took private lessons at a local civilian flying school--something the Navy frowned on--earning a civil pilot's license . His flying skills gradually improved, and by early 1947 his instructors rated him above average . He was sent to Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida for advanced training . His final test was six perfect landings on the carrier USS Saipan . The following day, he received his naval aviator wings, which his father pinned on his chest . </P> <P> Shepard was assigned to Fighter Squadron 42 (VF - 42), flying the Vought F4U Corsair . The squadron was nominally based on the aircraft carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt, but the ship was being overhauled at the time Shepard arrived, and in the meantime the squadron was based at Naval Air Station Norfolk in Virginia . He departed on his first cruise, of the Caribbean, on Franklin D. Roosevelt with VF - 42 in 1948 . Most of the aviators were, like Shepard, on their first assignment . Those that were not were given the opportunity to qualify for night landings on a carrier, a dangerous maneuver, especially in a Corsair, which had to bank sharply on approach . Shepard managed to persuade his squadron commander to allow him to qualify as well . After briefly returning to Norfolk, the carrier set out on a nine - month tour of the Mediterranean Sea . He earned a reputation for carousing and chasing women . He also instituted a ritual of, whenever he could, calling Louise at 17: 00 (her time) each day . </P> <P> Normally sea duty alternated with periods of duty ashore . In 1950, Shepard was selected to attend the United States Naval Test Pilot School at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland . As a test pilot he conducted high - altitude tests to obtain information about the light and air masses at different altitudes over North America; carrier suitability certification of the McDonnell F2H Banshee; experiments with the Navy's new in - flight refueling system; and tests of the angled flight deck . He narrowly avoided being court - martialed by the station commander, Rear Admiral Alfred M. Pride, after looping the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and making low passes over the beach at Ocean City, Maryland, and the base; but Shepard's superiors, John Hyland and Robert M. Elder, interceded on his behalf . </P>

After calling it a day in 1974 he came