Mourners remember life of astronaut John Glenn
COLUMBUS: Mourners gathered at a memorial service for groundbreaking astronaut John Glenn on Saturday in his home state of Ohio, capping two days of remembrances for the fi rst American to orbit the Earth.
Glenn, who later in life also became the first senior citizen in space, was remembered as a national hero who believed in selfless service to his country.
He died last week at the age of 95, after a lifetime spent in the US Marines, the American space programme, the Senate, and as a university professor.
At the public memorial service in the state capital Columbus, Vice President Joe Biden said Glenn exemplified America’s view of itself as a ‘country of promise, opportunity, always a belief for tomorrow’.
“He knew from his upbringing that ordinary Americans can do extraordinary things,” said Biden, who served in the US Senate with Glenn.
“If you’re looking for a message to send for our time here on Earth, and what it means to be an American, it’s the life of John Glenn.”
The former astronaut, who was born in a small town in Ohio, enlisted in the Marines following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941.
He served in World War II and the Korean War as a pilot, and later became a military test pilot.
Glenn was one of the ‘Original Seven’ pilots recruited into America’s nascent space programmein 1959. The pilots’ saga was recounted in the classic movie ‘ The Right Stuff’.
The state of Ohio held ceremonies over two days, complete with full military honours, ending with the memorial service held at a 2,500seat auditorium on the Ohio State University campus home to the Glenn College of Public Affairs.
The memorial service was attended by dignitaries, highranking government officials and members of the public who got tickets.
The service included a platoon of 40 Marines who marched 4.8 kilometres to accompany the hearse carrying Glenn’s body from the Ohio Statehouse to the auditorium.
Glenn’s flag- draped coffin lay in state at the Statehouse rotunda Friday, allowing thousands of visitors to pay their fi nal respects in an honour granted to only eight other people in Ohio’s history.
At the memorial, speakers — including his adult children Lyn and David — remembered Glenn’s long career in public service.
“The potential for government to do good was something he never forgot. This was not an abstract concept to him. This was real life,” Lyn Glenn said, recounting that her father was a child of the Great Depression and remembered the positive effects of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programmes.
She also pointedly referred to recent conversations she had with her father over the current state of US politics.
“You never allowed your name or picture to be used to make money,” Lyn Glenn said in addressing her father, “because you said you were a government employee and it wouldn’t be right to make money from government service.
“In today’s word, your words almost seem quaint, but they should be standard,” she added.
In 1962, Glenn became the fi rst American to orbit the Earth, one year after Russia’s Yuri Gagarin became the first person ever do so.
A fter his 23-year career in the US military and space programme, Glenn entered the US Senate as a Democrat, and made two unsuccessful tries for the party’s presidential nomination. — AFP