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I am finding countless citations saying that he received this. I plan to look for the original source where he was awarded it later today, but if anyone else has time that would be good. Kees08 (Talk)19:26, 6 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
@Balon Greyjoy: I think that Stafford did not receive this award. While citations about Stafford say he did, citations about the Presidential Medal of Freedom never list him. Thoughts on that? Kees08 (Talk)05:46, 16 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I didn't dig nearly as deeply as you, so I had always assumed he received it. I say that we err on the side of removing information that we can't find good sources for; I'll remove it. Balon Greyjoy (talk) 17:19, 16 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I digged into it more than this, but just to put something on this page besides "yeah we looked for it", at List_of_Presidential_Medal_of_Freedom_recipients#Space_exploration he is not listed. That was my starting point, and I never found any mention of the award outside of when folks were just listing his awards, so my guess is the error just compounded. Should all be good now! Also that is why I usually try to find specific citations for when the award was awarded on Newspapers.com and such. Kees08 (Talk)17:40, 16 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
@Hawkeye7 and Balon Greyjoy: About to logoff and wanted to note this. In this article, we say that Stafford was selected for the New Nine on September 14. In Pete Conrad we say he joined September 17. In Neil Armstrong, we say he was asked by Slayton if he wanted to join on September 13th, that the selections were kept secret for three days, and that the selection was announced September 17. Not sure how we want to phrase it, but we should probably keep it consistent between the articles. Kees08 (Talk)07:20, 29 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Just pulled up my copy of We have Capture (the good thing about having a messy workstation is that your resources are rarely out of arm's reach), and Stafford's words are that he received the news that he was selected on September 14. I'm thinking that we should honor that dates given by the individuals, and state something along the lines of that they received word of their selection on the given date. Balon Greyjoy (talk) 13:05, 29 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I think that is fine, maybe if they specify that they received word to include that date, and to say that the group was announced on September 17th? Kees08 (Talk)17:01, 29 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Slayton says that he called the successful candidates on Friday 14 September. The selection of the Next Nine was publicly announced at a press conference on Monday 17 September. The candidates had to be informed beforehand so they could be there. To avoid tipping off the media, all checked into the Rice Hotel in Houston under the name of Max Peck, its general manager. Hansen says Armstrong was contacted on 13 September, but there is no source (he actually says "four days before [the conference]"). However, some newspapers printed on 14 September that Armstrong had been selected, so he may have been contacted before the others. Hawkeye7(discuss)00:55, 30 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
level-5 vital article is rated GA-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
