John Glenn has passed away. He was a Marine F-4U pilot in WWII, an F9-F5 pilot on his first tour of duty in Korea and one of his sqaudron was Ted Williams the famous baseball legend, and the F-86 on his second tour of duty in Korea while TDY (temporary duty) with the USAF. The F-86 is famous for the inscription in red and yellow (USMC colors) "Mig Mad Marine". It is often thought that he had that painted on the aircraft, but it was the ground crew that did that because when Maj. Glenn returned from his missions he would complain to the ground crew "there were'nt enough Migs up there today".
Later in his career he flew a RF-8 Crusader to a record breaking flight accross the U.S.A. Some time after that he was selected for the NASA space program and became the first American to orbit the earth in outer space. As if that was not enough, he would become a U.S. Senator from Ohio and at one point take a run at getting the Nomination for his party to run for president.
After he retired from the U.S. Senate he had an office on the Ohio State University Campus. I had an association with the University and had the opportunity to meet him and talk with him a few times and that is one of the high points in my life. I have autographed pictures of the F-86 "Mig Mad Marine", The RF-8, the Mercury Space Capsule, and the Space Shuttle he went up in at age 77. Semper Fi, and "God Speed John Glenn"
John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was an American aviator, engineer, astronaut, and United States Senator from Ohio. In 1962 he became the first American to orbit the Earth, circling three times. Before joining NASA, he was a distinguished fighter pilot in both World War II and Korea, with six Distinguished Flying Crosses and eighteen clusters to the Air Medal.
Glenn was one of the "Mercury Seven" group of military test pilots selected in 1959 by NASA to become America's first astronauts. On February 20, 1962, he flew the Friendship 7 mission and became the first American to orbit the Earth and the fifth person in space. Glenn received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978, was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1990, and was the last surviving member of the Mercury Seven.
After he resigned from NASA in 1964, Glenn planned to run for a U.S. Senate seat from Ohio. A member of the Democratic Party, he first won election to the Senate in 1974 where he served through January 3, 1999.
He retired from the Marine Corps in 1965, after twenty-three years in the military, with over fifteen medals and awards, including the NASA Distinguished Service Medal and the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. In 1998, while still a sitting senator, he became the oldest person to fly in space, and the only one to fly in both the Mercury and Space Shuttle programs as crew member of the Discovery space shuttle. He was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.
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