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RIP, John Glenn
John Glenn, a war hero who became the first American to orbit the Earth and later served four terms in the U.S. Senate, has died in his home state of Ohio, officials at Ohio State University, where he was being treated at James Cancer Hospital, announced Thursday. He was 95.
The author Tom Wolfe wrote that Glenn, once a small-town American, became “the last true national hero America has ever made.”
But that’s not the only title Glenn earned during his career. As a Marine fighter pilot, while flying 149 combat missions during World War II and the Korean War, he received the nickname “Old Magnet Ass” for his ability to draw enemy fire and keep the plane flying with huge holes blown into its exterior.
Most Americans remember Glenn for taking to space in 1962. Dubbed Friendship 7, Glenn’s space capsule circled the Earth and put the United States on equal footing with the Soviet Union in the space race.
Glenn joined the Mercury 7, America’s first class of astronauts, after setting the transcontinental speed record as a test pilot. He said he aimed to be the first man in space, but was relegated to a backup role behind Alan Shepard. A Russian cosmonaut beat them to it, and Glenn got the Americans’ lead role on February 20, 1962, riding a Mercury-Atlas rocket from Cape Canaveral.
Glenn went on to become a Democratic presidential candidate, a four-term senator from Ohio, and while still in office, became the oldest man to visit space at 77.
https://youtu.be/n0JH3U0yN8A
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This makes me very sad. I was born the day before Glenn’s flight. My parents would have named me John Glenn if my older brother didn’t already have that middle name.
I never got to meet him, but I do have a signed copy of Time Magazine from that week with Glenn on the cover. I didn’t see him sign it personally, but dropped it off at his office in Washington DC on a visit, and the staffer I talked to insisted that he didn’t use autopen for those types of things but signed them personally.
He was the last survivor of the original seven astronauts.
A true legend. Today is one more time Glenn has been beaten to a lofty place by Gagarin, but I’m much happier that he took his time for this particular ascent. RIP.
The last of the Mercury astronauts. Thanks for the childhood inspiration.
He was a hero. My Dad’s first spacetracking system, Minitrack, helped track his Mercury spacecraft. Glenn signed a copy of its output from his third orbit. I’m glad that I got to meet Scott Carpenter in 2013. RIP Glenn and the rest of the original seven.
High Flight, by John Magee
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, –and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of –Wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air…
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
It is astounding to think that there is no one left on the planet who knows what it was like to fly in a Mercury spacecraft. Something that once seemed so futuristic is now slipping beyond living memory.
It won’t be long, sadly, before the rest of the Gemini and Apollo veterans are gone as well. Soon we will live in a world that is without moonwalkers, or indeed anyone who has left low Earth orbit.
I remember waking up early in the morning to watch John Glenn’s launch with my father. This American hero will continue to inspire generations to come. As many have said, Godspeed, John Glenn.
This scene from The Right Stuff captures the essence of Glenn perfectly:
In either 1964 or 1965 John Glenn visited my Cub Scout pack. It was Pack 101 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I was eight or nine. At the time I thought Glenn was doing nothing other than going around visiting Cub Scout Packs and Scout Troops. Later, when I was much older I realized the visit was probably due to Professor Harm Buning having a son in my pack. Buning had worked with Glenn on the mission. (Buning help me decide to become an engineer in 1972, when I was settling on a college major.)
For years, until he made his second flight in the 1990s, Glenn was the answer to this space trivia question: What American who has been in orbit has spent the least amount of time in space? It was a great question because if you got it wrong you felt like slapping yourself. (Now the answer is Scott Carpenter, who spent one minute longer in space during his Mercury mission than Glenn did in his Mercury mission.)
By the time I started working at Johnson Space Center (in 1979) of the original seven astronauts only Deke Slayton was still with NASA and still at JSC. Now all seven are part of history.
Seawriter
EDs,
Here’s another example of how American Presidents used to talk.
Regards,
Jim
Thank you. I had never seen that clip.
That is Gustav Holt’s inspiring symphony “Jupiter”:
You’ve never seen the Right Stuff?! You owe it to yourself to see it, this weekend if possible.
I sat next to him at a departure gate in San Jose airport circa 1998. It was 2am waiting for the red-eye to DC, and I was so oblivious to my surroundings that it took me almost 10 minutes to recognize him. I spent another 5 minutes trying not to stare while thinking, “Is that really John Glenn?”
I explained that I didn’t want to disturb him, but I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I passed up the chance to thank him for all he’s done for our country. We made small talk for the next 30 minutes. It was a little uncomfortable. As you might expect from a serious man of his generation, he wasn’t exactly a chatterbox. I’m not very good at small talk, and who talks about themselves when speaking to John Glenn. His efforts to get me to do anything but ask questions were for naught. Despite the awkwardness, he never acted bothered or like he’d prefer to go back to his paper. He was gracious, humble, down to earth, and likeable.
May he rest in peace.
My uncle Jim, upon whom I did my first post, meetJohn Glenn during the Korean War. Jim was Air Force but they shared some facilities on occasion. Jim was picked for astronaut school but had a serious car accident on his way to report to the Cape. Jim and John were more rivals than friends. Jim used to rejoin that he was a better pilot than John but John could drive a car better. He and all those jet jockeys had large egos. They needed them.
They don’t make Democrats like him anymore.
Old Marines never die, they just get a new posting. From the third and rarely sung stanza of The Marine Corps Hymn:
John Glenn (L) and his wingman during the Korean War, Ted Williams
Here’s health to you and to our Corps
Which we are proud to serve
In many a strife we’ve fought for life
And never lost our nerve;
If the Army and the Navy
Ever look on Heaven’s scenes;
They will find the streets are guarded
By United States Marines.
Semper Fi, John Glenn.
I read his biography in 3rd grade. I was fascinated by space, he was a Marine like my dad, and we shared a first name. My hero worship got out of hand. While the teasing was merciless for a while, I never really minded.
Who could feel bad about looking up to John Glenn ?
The book is even better!
In Indiana we all thought both were unfair to Grissom.
Marci! Thank you! I was just watching that clip and wondering where that perfect and amazing music originated. Perfect.
I’ve never seen the movie, either, but I read the book. The thing I mostly remember is Chuck Yeager’s (from memory) “Why would I want to be an astronaut? A monkey could do it. Hell, a monkey has done it.”
It’s the only movie I never tire of watching again.
I’ve always had a special place in my heart for Jupiter. One of my son’s teams first projects years ago – was “decoding Io’s sodium clouds.”