Godspeed, John Glenn 1921 - 2016
FIRST AMERICAN TO ORBIT EARTH
THEY DON’T MAKE HEROES like John Glenn anymore.
The Ohio native had the right stuff throughout his long and legendary life: Decorated World War II fighter pilot. The first American to orbit the Earth. Millionaire businessman. United States senator. Senior citizen in space.
And even the winner of $25,000 on “Name That Tune.”
Glenn, the last of NASA’s original Mercury 7 astronauts, died Thursday at age 95. The man who circled the globe and traveled the world passed away close to home at the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.
The all-American Glenn was hospitalized more than a week before his death, said his spokesman Hank Wilson.
“The last of America’s first astronauts has left us, but propelled by their example, we know that our future here on Earth compels us to keep reaching for the heavens,” President Obama said. “On behalf of a grateful nation, Godspeed, John Glenn.”
The President’s signoff echoed the words of fellow astronaut Scott Carpenter to Glenn just before he hurtled off a Cape Canaveral launch pad on Feb. 20, 1962.
Four hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds after takeoff, Glenn returned to Earth as a one-of-a-kind icon, a fearless, green-eyed flyboy with nerves of steel and an aw-shucks charm.
“Zero-G and I feel fine,” Glenn told NASA’s earthbound crew while in orbit — a line he repeated often over the next half-century.
He was honored with the biggest tickertape parade in New York City history. A total of 3,474 tons of paper were swept up after Glenn’s triumphant ride through the Canyon of Heroes in March 1962.
The genuine red, white and blue hero’s name would soon adorn schools, an airport and a space center.
Obama honored Glenn in 2012 with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
Glenn’s celestial exploits eventually gave way to a career in politics, with a 1974 splashdown in Washington as Ohio’s newest senator.
Glenn won reelection three times to become his state’s longest-serving senator, finally stepping down in 1999 after admitting that even he was human.
“There is still no cure for the common birthday,” said Glenn — even though he had proved himself wrong a year earlier, returning to space at age 77. He spent nine days aboard the space shuttle Discovery.
“America owed John Glenn a second flight,” said NASA Administrator Dan Goldin.
Glenn recalled his wife Annie offering a second opinion on his second voyage into space: “Over my dead body.”
The Marine veteran was remembered in death for his patriotism and common touch as much for his heroic exploits in the skies above.
“More than anything else, John served his country with profound humility,” said Arizona senator and war veteran John McCain. “He extended kindness and courtesy to all those who had the pleasure of being in his company.
“John held many titles throughout his life: war hero, astronaut, and senator. But none so aptly described John as the title of ‘good man.’ ”
President-elect Donald Trump praised Glenn as “a great pioneer of air and space . . . He was a hero and inspired generations of future explorers.”
The native of Cambridge, Ohio, lived a life with few regrets. Glenn once joked that the only astronaut he ever envied was Neil Armstrong — the first man to walk on the moon.
Glenn, who left NASA in 1964, kept his pilot’s license and flew his own plane until just five years ago.
Though Glenn and his fellow first astronauts were lionized in author Tom Wolfe’s book “The Right Stuff,” the space explorer was no fan of the film version — with Ed Harris portraying him.
Glenn came across as a straitlaced, clean-living farm boy who frowned upon the carousing ways of his fellow astronauts.
“I don’t think any of us cared for the movie,” Glenn said in 2011. “I know I didn’t.”
Glenn’s only public missteps came on the political front — a failed 1984 run for the Democratic presidential nomination, and a Senate Ethics Committee reprimand for his involvement with crooked California businessman Charles Keating.
His entry into politics was inspired by his friendship with President John F. Kennedy and brother Robert, although he didn’t reach Washington until after both men were assassinated.
An aborted 1964 Senate run was undermined by a fall in the bathtub that left him with a head injury and a forced withdrawal.
As a kid, Glenn loved to build, fly and crash model airplanes. His dad recalled young John running through their backyard with his arms outstretched, pretending he was soaring through the clouds.
“It was something I was fascinated with,” said Glenn, whose name was later bestowed on the Columbus airport.
In World War II, Glenn was an accomplished and fearless Marine fighter pilot. He flew 149 missions, including several death-defying trips where he returned with enemy bullet holes torn in the side of his plane.
Glenn flew during the Korean War, too, collecting 20 medals across the two conflicts — including six Distinguished Flying Crosses.
“My plane was hit five times,” the gutsy Glenn once recalled of his wartime exploits. In 1957, while a military test pilot, he burst into the public eye with a recordsetting transcontinental flight aboard his Crusader jet. He zipped at an average of 725 mph from Los Angeles to New York City in three hours, 23 minutes and eight seconds.
That same year, he teamed with child actor Eddie Hodges to collect $25,000 on the game show “Name That Tune.” In 1959, Glenn was selected as one of the Mercury Seven, NASA’s first class of astronauts.
Glenn was preceded into space by astronauts Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom, but he received the call for the first U.S. mission to orbit the Earth.
Glenn knew there was a serious risk with the mission — delayed and finally slated for Feb. 20, 1962. He bid farewell to his wife, using the same words he uttered to her before every wartime fighter mission.
“I’m going down to the corner store and buy some chewing gum,” Glenn declared.
“Don’t take too long,” Annie Glenn replied.
There was, in fact, a brush with mortality: Mission control feared a loose heat shield might cause his craft to incinerate during reentry. But the Friendship 7 capsule landed safely after three trips around the world, and a star was born.
“Boy, that was a real fireball!” Glenn exclaimed as the temperature hit 3,000 degrees outside his craft. He took a phone call from JFK with a brief message: “We are really proud of you.”
Glenn, despite decades of attention, never lost his Midwestern modesty.
“If other people look at me as someone they admire because of what I’ve been fortunate enough to take part in, I don’t recoil from that, nor do I try to advance it,” Glenn said in 1998.
Glenn was survived by Annie, his childhood sweetheart and wife of 73 years. She wore her $125 engagement ring across seven decades after Glenn popped the question in 1942. He also left behind two children, John David and Carolyn.
Glenn warned Annie before they married that life with him “would never be dull.”