John Glenn

Template:Other people Template:Use American English

John Glenn
In office January 3, 1987 – January 3, 1995
Preceded by	William V. Roth Jr.
Succeeded by	William V. Roth Jr.
Preceded by	Howard Metzenbaum
Succeeded by	George Voinovich
Born	July 18 1921(1921-07-18) Cambridge, Ohio, U.S.
Died	December 8 2016 (aged 95) Columbus, Ohio, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	ambox}} (m. 1943–2016)
Children	2
Alma mater	Muskingum University (BS) University of Maryland
Signature	John Glenn's signature

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 was the first American to orbit the Earth, circling it three times. Before joining NASA, Glenn was a distinguished fighter pilot in World War II and Korea with six Distinguished Flying Crosses and eighteen clusters on his Air Medal.

He was one of the Mercury Seven: military test pilots selected in 1959 by NASA as the United States' first astronauts. On February 20, 1962, Glenn flew the Friendship 7 mission; the first American to orbit the Earth, he was the fifth person in space. He received the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, 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 Glenn resigned from NASA in 1964 and retired from the Marine Corps the following year, he planned to run for a U.S. Senate seat from Ohio. An injury in early 1964 forced his withdrawal, and he lost a close primary election in 1970. A member of the Democratic Party, Glenn first won election to the Senate in 1974 and served for 24 years until January 3, 1999.

In 1998, still a sitting senator, Glenn was the oldest person to fly in space as a crew member of the Discovery space shuttle and the only person to fly in both the Mercury and Space Shuttle programs. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.

Early life and education

Glenn was born on July 18, 1921 in Cambridge, Ohio, the son of John Herschel Glenn, Sr. (1895–1966, owner of the Glenn Plumbing Company) and teacher Clara Teresa (née Sproat, 1897–1971), and was raised in nearby New Concord with his adopted sister Jean. He attended New Concord Elementary School.^:25

After graduating from New Concord High School in 1939, Glenn studied engineering at Muskingum College. He earned a private pilot license for credit in a physics course in 1941. Glenn did not complete his senior year in residence or take a proficiency exam, both required by the school for its Bachelor of Science degree. Muskingum awarded his degree in 1962, after Glenn's Mercury space flight.

Military career

World War II

When the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II, Glenn quit college to enlist in the U.S. Army Air Corps. Never called to duty, in March 1942 enlisted as a U.S. Navy aviation cadet. Glenn attended the University of Iowa in Iowa City for pre-flight training and continued at Naval Air Station Olathe in Kansas for primary training, where he made his first solo flight in a military aircraft. During advanced training at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas, he accepted an offer to transfer to the U.S. Marine Corps.

Completing his training in March 1943, Glenn was commissioned as a second lieutenant. After advanced training at Camp Kearny, California, he was assigned to Marine Squadron VMJ-353 and flew R4D transport planes. Glenn was posted to the Marine Corps Air Station El Centro in California in July 1943 and joined VMO-155, which flew the F4F Wildcat fighter. VMO-155 re-equipped with the F4U Corsair in September 1943.^:103–107

He was promoted to first lieutenant in October 1943, and shipped out to Hawaii in January 1944. Beginning in June 1944, stationed in the Marshall Islands, Glenn flew 59 combat missions in the area. Hit by anti-aircraft fire five times, he received two Distinguished Flying Crosses and ten Air Medals.

Glenn returned to the United States at the end of his one-year tour of duty in 1945, and was assigned to Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina and then to Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland. Although he was promoted to captain in July 1945, shortly before the Pacific War's end, he was uncertain of a regular commission in the Marine Corps. Glenn was ordered back to Cherry Point, joined VMF-913 (another Corsair squadron), and learned that he qualified for a regular commission.^:135–141

In March 1946, he was assigned to Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in southern California. Glenn volunteered for service with the occupation in North China, believing that it would be a short tour. He joined VMF-218, yet another Corsair squadron (based at Nanyuan Field near Beijing), in December 1946.^:147 Glenn flew patrol missions until VMF-218 was transferred to Guam in March 1947, and he returned home in December 1948.

He was re-posted to NAS Corpus Christi, first as a student and then as a flight instructor. In July 1951, Glenn was sent to the Amphibious Warfare School at Marine Corps Base Quantico in northern Virginia for a six-month course. He then joined the staff of the Commandant, Marine Corps Schools. Given only four hours of flying time per month, Glenn maintained his proficiency (and flight pay) by flying on weekends.^:166 He was promoted to major in July 1952.

Korean War

Glenn was ordered to South Korea in October 1952, late in the Korean War.^:167 On February 3, 1953 he reported to K-3 and was assigned to VMF-311, one of two Marine fighter squadrons there, as its operations officer.^:171 VMF-311, equipped with the F9F Panther jet fighter-bomber, was assigned a variety of missions. Glenn flew his first, a reconnaissance flight, on February 26.^:175

Military portrait of Glenn

He flew 63 combat missions in Korea with VMF-311,^:186 and was nicknamed "Magnet Ass" because of his ability to attract enemy flak (an occupational hazard of low-level close air support missions);^:180 twice, he returned to base with over 250 holes in his plane.^:180 Glenn flew for a time with Marine reservist Ted Williams (a future Hall of Fame baseball player with the Boston Red Sox) as his wingman,^:180–184 and also flew with future major general Ralph H. Spanjer.

Before he left for Korea, Glenn applied for an inter-service exchange position with the U.S. Air Force to fly the F-86 Sabre jet fighter-interceptor. In preparation, he arranged with Colonel Leon W. Gray to check out the F-86 at Otis Air Force Base in Massachusetts.^:186–187 Glenn later wrote, "Since the days of the Lafayette Escadrille during World War I, pilots have viewed air-to-air combat as the ultimate test not only of their machines but of their own personal determination and flying skills. I was no exception."^:185 In June 1953 he reported for duty with the 25th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, and flew 27 combat missions in the faster F-86.

Glenn shot down his first MiG-15s in a dogfight on July 12, 1953. A second battle followed on July 19, and a third (during which four Sabres shot down three MiGs) on July 22. These were the final air victories of the war, which ended with an armistice five days later.^:192–196 For his service in Korea, Glenn received two more Distinguished Flying Crosses and eight more Air Medals.

Test pilot

Glenn's USAF F-86F, dubbed "MiG Mad Marine", during the Korean War in 1953

With combat experience as a fighter pilot, Glenn applied for training as a test pilot while he was still in Korea. He reported to the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at NAS Patuxent River in Maryland in January 1954, and graduated in July.^:204–206

Glenn's first assignment was testing the FJ-3 Fury, a Navy version of the F-86 Sabre which nearly killed him when its cockpit depressurized and its oxygen system failed.^:208–210 He also tested the armament of aircraft such as the Vought F7U Cutlass and F8U Crusader.^:212–220 From November 1956 to April 1959, Glenn was assigned to the Fighter Design Branch of the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics in Washington, D.C. and attended the University of Maryland.

On July 16, 1957 he made the first supersonic transcontinental flight, flying an F8U Crusader 2,445 miles (3,935 km) from Los Alamitos, California to Floyd Bennett Field in New York City in under 3+¹⁄₂ hours. Glenn received his fifth Distinguished Flying Cross for this mission,^:228 and he was promoted to lieutenant colonel on April 1, 1959. He now had nearly 9,000 hours of flying time, including about 3,000 hours in jets.

NASA career

Pre-selection

Glenn in his Mercury spacesuit

While Glenn was on duty at Patuxent and in Washington, he began reading everything he could find about space. His office was asked to send a test pilot to Langley Air Force Base in Virginia to make runs on a spaceflight simulator, part of NASA research of reentry-vehicle shapes. The pilot would also be sent to the Naval Air Development Center in Johnsville, Pennsylvania, and would be subjected to high g-forces in a centrifuge for comparison with data collected in the simulator. Glenn's request for the position was granted, and he spent several days at Langley and a week in Johnsville for the testing.

Before Glenn's appointment as an astronaut in the Mercury program, he participated in capsule design. NASA had asked military-service members to participate in planning the mockup of a capsule. Since Glenn had participated in the research at Langley and Johnsville, been on mock-up boards in the Navy and understood capsules, he was sent to the McDonnell plant in St. Louis as a service adviser to the mockup board.

Selection

In 1958, the newly-formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration began a recruiting program for astronauts. Glenn barely met the requirements; he was near the age cutoff (40) and lacked a science-based degree at the time, but he was on a list of 100 test pilots who met the minimum requirements to become an astronaut. The candidates were screened, and the number of potential astronauts was reduced to 32. The candidates underwent a battery of tests, including physical tests to measure stamina and psychological tests to measure maturity, alertness, and motivation.

After testing, the candidates had to wait 10 to 12 days for the results. Glenn had returned to his position at the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics when he received a call from the associate director of Project Mercury, Charles Donlan, offering him a position as one of the Mercury Seven. He remained an officer in the Marine Corps after his selection in 1959, and was assigned to the NASA Space Task Group at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The task force was moved to Houston in 1962, and became part of the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center.

Project Mercury

Training

The astronauts trained at Langley. A portion of the training was education, and they studied subjects such as graduate-level introductory space science. The training also had a practical aspect, which included scuba diving and work in simulators. Astronauts were given an additional role in the spaceflight program, to ensure pilot input in design. Glenn's role was cockpit layout design and control functioning for the Mercury and early Apollo programs, and he was a backup pilot for Shepard and Grissom on the Freedom 7 and Liberty Bell 7 sub-orbital missions.

Friendship 7 flight

Glenn (center) with President John F. Kennedy and General Leighton I. Davis, celebrating his orbital flight in 1962

The flight took off on February 20, 1962 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. There were eleven delays during the countdown due to equipment malfunctions, improvements to equipment functioning properly and the weather. During Glenn's first orbit, a scheduled 30-minute test to see if he could fly the spacecraft manually became significant when a failure of the automatic-control system was detected at the end of the first orbit; this forced Glenn to operate in manual mode for the second and third orbits and re-entry.

Later in the flight, telemetry indicated that the heat shield had loosened. If the telemetry was correct, Glenn's spacecraft would probably have been destroyed during re-entry from the intense heat. Flight controllers had him modify his re-entry procedure by keeping his retrorocket pack over the shield to help retain it during re-entry. Leaving the retrorocket pack on made large chunks of flaming debris fly past the window of his capsule during re-entry, although Glenn thought it might have been the heat shield. He told an interviewer, "Fortunately it was the rocket pack—or I wouldn't be answering these questions." After the flight, it was determined that the indicator was faulty.

Friendship 7 safely splashed down 800 miles (1,290 km) southeast of Cape Canaveral after Glenn's 4-hour, 55-minute flight. He carried a note on the flight which read, "I am a stranger. I come in peace. Take me to your leader and there will be a massive reward for you in eternity" in several languages, in case he landed near southern Pacific Ocean islands. Although the original procedure called for Glenn to exit through the top hatch, he was uncomfortably warm and decided that egress through the side hatch would be faster. During the flight, he endured 7.8 G's of acceleration and traveled 75,679 miles (121,794 km) at about 17,500 miles per hour (28,200 km/h).

Glenn is honored by President Kennedy at temporary Manned Spacecraft Center facilities at Cape Canaveral, Florida, three days after his flight.

The flight made Glenn the first American to orbit the Earth; the third American in space, he was the fifth human in space. The "best day of his life", it renewed U.S. confidence. His flight occurred while the U.S. and the Soviet Union were embroiled in the Cold War and competing in the Space Race.

As the first American in orbit Glenn became a national hero, met President Kennedy, and received a ticker-tape parade in New York City reminiscent of those honoring Charles Lindbergh and other dignitaries. He became "so valuable to the nation as an iconic figure", according to NASA administrator Charles Bolden, that Kennedy would not "risk putting him back in space again." Glenn's fame and political potential were noted by the Kennedys, and he became a friend of the Kennedy family. On February 23, 1962, President Kennedy gave him the NASA Distinguished Service Medal.

In July 1962, Glenn spoke before the House Space Committee in favor of excluding women from the NASA astronaut program. Although NASA had no official policy prohibiting women, the requirement that astronauts had to be military test pilots effectively excluded them.

Resignation

Since Glenn was 42 years old, he was unlikely to be chosen for a lunar landing. He resigned from NASA on January 16, 1964, and announced his Democratic Party candidacy for the U.S. Senate from his home state of Ohio the following day. On February 26 Glenn received a concussion from hitting his head against a bathtub, and he withdrew from the race on March 30. He went on convalescent leave from the Marine Corps until he fully recovered, which was required for his retirement. Glenn retired as a colonel on January 1, 1965, becoming an executive with Royal Crown Cola.

Political career

U.S. Senate

During Glenn's training, NASA psychologists determined that he was the astronaut best suited for public life. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy suggested to Glenn and his wife in December 1962 that he run for the U.S. Senate from Ohio in 1964, challenging aging incumbent Stephen M. Young (1889–1984) in the Democratic primary election. In early 1964, Glenn announced his resignation from the space program to run against Young. He withdrew from the race several weeks after his hospitalization for a concussion sustained in a fall against a bathtub in late February; an inner-ear injury from the accident left him unable to campaign. Glenn remained close to the Kennedy family; he was with Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles when he was assassinated in 1968, and was a pallbearer at Kennedy's funeral in New York City.

In 1970, Young did not seek reelection and the seat was open. Glenn was defeated in the Democratic primary by businessman Howard Metzenbaum (who received 51 percent of the vote to Glenn's 49 percent), but Metzenbaum lost the general election to Robert Taft Jr. In 1974, Glenn declined Ohio governor John J. Gilligan and the state Democratic party's request that he run for lieutenant governor and challenged Metzenbaum again for the other Ohio Senate seat (vacated by Republican William B. Saxbe, who became U.S. Attorney General in early 1974). Metzenbaum was the short-term incumbent, appointed by Gilligan in January.

In the primary, Metzenbaum contrasted his strong business background with Glenn's military and astronaut credentials and said that his opponent had "never held a payroll". Glenn's reply became known as the "Gold Star Mothers" speech. He told Metzenbaum to go to a veterans' hospital and "look those men with mangled bodies in the eyes and tell them they didn't hold a job. You go with me to any Gold Star mother and you look her in the eye and tell her that her son did not hold a job". According to many observers, Glenn's "Gold Star Mothers" speech won him the primary. He defeated Metzenbaum 54 to 46 percent before defeating Ralph Perk (the Republican mayor of Cleveland) in the general election, beginning a Senate career which would continue until 1999. Glenn was reelected in 1980, defeating Republican challenger Jim Betts by over 40 percent. Metzenbaum ran again in 1976 against the incumbent, Taft, winning a close race on Jimmy Carter's coattails.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the relationship between Glenn and Metzenbaum was strained. There was a thaw in 1983 (when Metzenbaum endorsed Glenn for president) and in 1988 when Metzenbaum was opposed for reelection by Cleveland mayor George Voinovich, who accused him of being soft on child pornography. Voinovich's charges were criticized by many, including Glenn (who recorded a statement for television rebutting the mayor's charges); Metzenbaum won, 57 to 41 percent. Glenn defeated Representative Tom Kindness in 1986, and announced his retirement from the Senate at the end of his current term in 1997.

Savings and loan scandal

Glenn was one of the Keating Five: U.S. senators who were caught up in the savings and loan crisis after he accepted a $200,000 campaign contribution from Lincoln Savings and Loan Association head Charles Keating. Glenn and Republican senator John McCain were the only senators who were exonerated, although the Senate commission found that Glenn had exercised "poor judgment". The association of his name with the scandal made Republicans hopeful that he could be defeated in the 1992 campaign, but Glenn defeated lieutenant governor Mike DeWine to retain his seat.

Presidential politics

In 1976, Glenn was a candidate for the Democratic vice-presidential nomination. However, his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention failed to impress the delegates and the nomination went to veteran politician Walter Mondale. Glenn also ran for the 1984 Democratic presidential nomination.

He and his staff were concerned about the 1983 release of The Right Stuff, a film about the Mercury Seven based on the best-selling Tom Wolfe book of the same name. Wolfe had called Glenn a "zealous moralizer", and he did not attend the film's Washington premiere on October 16, 1983. Reviewers saw Ed Harris' portrayal of Glenn as heroic, however, and his staff began to publicize the film to the press. Aide Greg Schneiders suggested an unusual strategy, similar to Glenn's personal campaign and voting style, where he would avoid appealing to special interest groups and instead seek support from ordinary Democratic primary voters: the "constituency of the whole". Mondale defeated Glenn for the nomination, however, and he carried $3 million in campaign debt for over 20 years before receiving a reprieve from the Federal Election Commission. He was considered as a vice-presidential candidate in 1984, 1988, and 1992.

Issues

As a senator, Glenn was chief author of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act of 1978, chaired the Committee on Governmental Affairs from 1987 to 1995 and sat on the Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees and the Special Committee on Aging.

When the Republican Party regained control of the Senate, Glenn was the ranking minority member on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (chaired by Maine senator Susan Collins) which investigated illegal foreign donations by China to U.S. political campaigns for the 1996 election. Considerable acrimony existed between Glenn and committee chair Fred Thompson of Tennessee.

Return to space

File:John Glenn 1998 Shuttle.jpg

Senator-astronaut John Glenn on the shuttle Discovery, 1998

On January 16, 1998, NASA administrator Dan Goldin announced that Glenn would be part of the STS-95 crew; this made him, at age 77, the oldest person to fly in space. NASA and the National Institute of Aging (NIA) planned to use Glenn as a test subject for research, with biometrics taken before, during and after his flight. Some experiments (in circadian rhythms, for example) compared him with the younger crew members. In addition to these tests, he was in charge of the flight's photography and videography. Glenn returned to space on the Space Shuttle on October 29, 1998, as a Payload Specialist on Discovery.

According to the New York Times, Glenn "won his seat on the Shuttle flight by lobbying NASA for two years to fly as a human guinea pig for geriatric studies"; this was cited as the main reason for his participation in the mission. Shortly before the flight, researchers disqualified Glenn from one of the flight's two major human experiments (on the effect of melatonin) because he did not meet one of the study's medical conditions; he participated in experiments on sleep monitoring and protein use.

Glenn wrote in his memoir that he had no idea that NASA was willing to send him back into space when the agency made its announcement. His participation in the nine-day mission was criticized by some members of the space community as a favor granted by president Bill Clinton; John Pike, director of the Federation of American Scientists' space-policy project, said: "If he was a normal person, he would acknowledge he's a great American hero and that he should get to fly on the shuttle for free ... He's too modest for that, and so he's got to have this medical research reason. It's got nothing to do with medicine".

In a 2012 interview, Glenn said that the purpose of his flight was "to make measurements and do research on me at the age of 77 ... comparing the results on me in space with the younger [astronauts] and maybe get [insights] on the immune system or protein turnover or vestibular functions and other things — heart changes". He regretted NASA's not following up the research on aging by sending other older people into space.

After STS-95 returned safely, its crew received a ticker-tape parade; this made Glenn the tenth (and latest) individual to receive multiple ticker-tape parades. On October 15, 1998, NASA Road 1 (the main causeway to the Johnson Space Center) was renamed John Glenn Parkway for several months. In 2001, Glenn strenuously opposed sending Dennis Tito, the world's first space tourist, to the International Space Station because Tito's trip had no scientific purpose.

Public-affairs institute

Glenn helped found the John Glenn Institute for Public Service and Public Policy at Ohio State University in 1998 to encourage public service. On July 22, 2006, the institute merged with OSU's School of Public Policy and Management to become the John Glenn School of Public Affairs; Glenn held an adjunct professorship at the school. In February 2015, it was announced that the school would become the John Glenn College of Public Affairs in April.

Personal life

Annie and John Glenn in 1965

On April 6, 1943 Glenn married his high school sweetheart, Anna Margaret Castor (b. 1920). Glenn and his wife attended Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio, where he was a member of the Stag Club fraternity. They had two children—John David (b. 1945) and Carolyn Ann (b. 1947)—and two grandchildren, and remained married for 73 years until his death. Glenn's NASA friend, Charles Bolden, was inspired by the marriage. His boyhood home in New Concord has been restored as an historic house museum and education center.

A Freemason, Glenn was a member of Concord Lodge #688 in New Concord, Ohio. He received all of his degrees in full in a "Mason at Sight" ceremony from the Grand Master of Ohio in 1978, fourteen years after petitioning his lodge. In 1998, Glenn became a 32nd-degree Scottish Rite Mason in the Valley of Cincinnati (NMJ); the following year, he received the 33rd degree of the Scottish Rite. As an adult he was honored as part of the DeMolay Legion of Honor by DeMolay International, a Masonic youth organization for boys (although he did not belong to the organization as a youth).

Glenn was an ordained elder of the Presbyterian Church. Although his religious faith was kindled before he became an astronaut, it was reinforced after he traveled in space. "To look out at this kind of creation and not believe in God is to me impossible", said Glenn after his second (and final) space voyage. He saw no contradiction between belief in God and the knowledge that evolution is "a fact", and believed that evolution should be taught in schools: "I don't see that I'm any less religious that I can appreciate the fact that science just records that we change with evolution and time, and that's a fact. It doesn't mean it's less wondrous and it doesn't mean that there can't be some power greater than any of us that has been behind and is behind whatever is going on."

He was an original owner of a Holiday Inn franchise near Orlando, Florida, which is today the Seralago Hotel & Suites Main Gate East. Glenn's business partner was Henri Landwirth, a Holocaust survivor who became his "best friend." He remembered learning about Landwirth's background: "Henri doesn't talk about it much. It was years before he spoke about it with me and then only because of an accident. We were down in Florida during the space program. Everyone was wearing short-sleeved Ban-Lon shirtsTemplate:Mdasheveryone but Henri. Then one day I saw Henri at the pool and noticed the number on his arm. I told Henri that if it were me I'd wear that number like a medal with a spotlight on it."

Public appearances

Glenn with President Kennedy and Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov at the White House, 1962

Glenn was an honorary member of the International Academy of Astronautics and a member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, Marine Corps Aviation Association, Order of Daedalians, National Space Club Board of Trustees, National Space Society Board of Governors, International Association of Holiday Inns, Ohio Democratic Party, State Democratic Executive Committee, Franklin County (Ohio) Democratic Party and the 10th District (Ohio) Democratic Action Club. In 2001 he guest-starred as himself on the American television sitcom, Frasier.

On September 5, 2009, John and Annie Glenn dotted the "i" in Ohio State University's Script Ohio marching band performance during the Ohio State–Navy football-game halftime show. Other non-band members to receive the honor include Bob Hope, Woody Hayes, Jack Nicklaus and Earle Bruce. On February 20, 2012, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Friendship 7 flight, Glenn had an unexpected opportunity to speak with the orbiting crew of the International Space Station when he was onstage with NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden at Ohio State University.

Glenn at the ceremony transferring the space shuttle Discovery to the Smithsonian Institution

On April 19, 2012, Glenn participated in the ceremonial transfer of the retired Space Shuttle Discovery from NASA to the Smithsonian Institution for permanent display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. He criticized the "unfortunate" decision to end the Space Shuttle program, saying that grounding the shuttles delayed research.

In June 2016, the Port Columbus, Ohio airport was renamed the John Glenn Columbus International Airport. The Glenns attended the ceremony, and he spoke about how visiting the airport as a child kindled his interest in flying.

Illness and death

In June 2014, Glenn underwent successful heart valve replacement surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. In early December 2016, he was hospitalized at the James Cancer Hospital of Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus. According to a family source, Glenn had been in declining health and his condition was grave; his wife, their children and grandchildren were at the hospital.

Glenn died on December 8, 2016, at the OSU Wexner Medical Center; no cause of death was disclosed. He would be interred at Arlington National Cemetery after lying in state at the Ohio Statehouse and a memorial service at Mershon Auditorium at Ohio State University.

Tributes

File:Godspeed-john-glenn-tributes01.jpg

Glenn looks into a celestial training device before his 1962 launch

President Barack Obama said that Glenn, "the first American to orbit the Earth, reminded us that with courage and a spirit of discovery there's no limit to the heights we can reach together". Tributes were also paid by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and president-elect Donald Trump.

"Godspeed" which hailed Glenn's launch into space, became part of his social-media hashtag: #Godspeedjohnglenn. Former and current astronauts added tributes; so did NASA Administrator and former shuttle astronaut Charles Bolden, who wrote: "John Glenn's legacy is one of risk and accomplishment, of history created and duty to country carried out under great pressure with the whole world watching." President Obama ordered flags to be flown at half-mast until Glenn's burial.

Gallery

• 

  Childhood home in New Concord

• 

  At Mercury Control Center, Cape Canaveral

• 19620220-JohnGlennMedical.jpg

  Medical debriefing aboard the aircraft carrier USS Randolph (CVS-15) after Friendship 7 flight

• 

  Plaque near Mercury launch pad

• 19620220-JohnGlennEKG.jpg

  "Best regards and many thanks for all the help, 'Smokey', (debriefing team leader Seldon C. Dunn), John H. Glenn Jr, Mercury Astronaut, A good date—20 February 62"

Awards and honors

200px
Template:Ribbon devices20px
Template:Ribbon devices20px	Template:Ribbon devices	Template:Ribbon devices
Template:Ribbon devices	Template:Ribbon devices	Template:Ribbon devices
Template:Ribbon devices	Template:Ribbon devices	Template:Ribbon devices
Template:Ribbon devices	Template:Ribbon devices	Template:Ribbon devices
Template:Ribbon devices	Template:Ribbon devices	Template:Ribbon devices
Template:Ribbon devices	Template:Ribbon devices	Template:Ribbon devices

Naval Aviator Astronaut Insignia
Distinguished Flying Cross with stars and clusters denoting, in toto, five additional awards
Air Medal with stars and clusters denoting, in toto, 17 additional awards	Presidential Unit Citation	Navy Unit Commendation
Presidential Medal of Freedom	Congressional Space Medal of Honor	NASA Distinguished Service Medal
NASA Space Flight Medal	Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal	China Service Medal
American Campaign Medal	Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with two stars	World War II Victory Medal
Navy Occupation Service Medal	National Defense Service Medal with one star	Korean Service Medal with two stars
Presidential Unit Citation (Korea)	United Nations Korea Medal	Korean War Service Medal

Receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2010

• Congressional Gold Medal
• National Geographic Society's Hubbard Medal, 1962
• John J. Montgomery Award, 1963
• General Thomas D. White National Defense Award
• Ambassador of Space Exploration Award

In 1961 Glenn received an honorary LL.D from Muskingum University, the college he attended before joining the military in World War II. He received honorary doctorates from Nihon University in Tokyo, Wagner College in Staten Island, New York and New Hampshire College in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Glenn was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1976 and the International Space Hall of Fame in 1977. In 1990, he was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.

In 2000 Glenn received the U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for public service by an elected or appointed official, one of the annual Jefferson Awards. Four years later, he received the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution. In 2009, Glenn received an honorary LL.D from Williams College; the following year, he received an honorary doctorate of public service degree from Ohio Northern University.

Quincy Jones presents platinum copies of "Fly Me to the Moon" (from It Might as Well Be Swing) to Glenn and Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong

In 2013, Flying magazine ranked Glenn 26th on its "51 Heroes of Aviation" list. On September 12, 2016 Blue Origin announced the New Glenn, a rocket.

The Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field in Cleveland is named after him, and the Senator John Glenn Highway runs along a stretch of I-480 in Ohio across from the Glenn Research Center. Colonel Glenn Highway (which passes Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and Wright State University near Dayton, Ohio), John Glenn High School in his hometown of New Concord, and Col. John Glenn Elementary in Seven Hills, Ohio, are also named for him. High schools in Westland and Bay City, Michigan; Walkerton, Indiana; San Angelo, Texas, and Norwalk, California bear Glenn's name.

The fireboat John H. Glenn Jr., operated by the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department and protecting sections of the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers which run through Washington, D.C., was named for him. The USNS John Glenn (T-MLP-2), a mobile landing platform delivered to the U.S. Navy on March 12, 2014, is also named for Glenn. It was christened on February 1, 2014, in San Diego at General Dynamics' National Steel and Shipbuilding Company.

See also

John Glenn Portal

• List of spaceflight records
• The John Glenn Story, a 1962 documentary film
• Project Mercury Commemorative stamp

Further reading

• Fenno, Richard F., Jr. (1990). The Presidential Odyssey of John Glenn. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press. ISBN 978-0-87187-567-9. 
• Glenn, John H. (2000). John Glenn: A Memoir. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 978-0-553-58157-7. 
• Mersky, Peter B. (1983). U.S. Marine Corps Aviation — 1912 to the present. Annapolis, Maryland: The Nautical and Aviation Publishing Company of America. ISBN 978-0-933852-39-6. 
• Shettle Jr., M. L. (2001). United States Marine Corps Air Stations of World War II. Bowersville, Georgia: Schaertel Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9643388-2-1. 

External links

Template:Biographical Directory of Congress

• Template:C-SPAN
• COLONEL JOHN H. GLENN, JR., USMC(RETIRED). Who's Who in Marine Corps History. Retrieved December 18, 2006.
• John Glenn: A Journey, nasa.gov
• John & Annie Glenn Historic Site and Home
• John Glenn profile, glennschool.osu.edu
• {{#invoke:webarchive|webarchive}}
• John Glenn's Flight on Friendship 7, MA-6 – complete 5-hour capsule audio recording
• John Glenn's Flight on the Space Shuttle, STS-95
• Iven C. Kincheloe Award winners
• John Glenn IMDb profile
• John Glenn profile, National Aviation Hall of Fame website
• Biodata, Astronautix.com
• John Glenn: A Life of Service, pbs.org
• Obituary: John Glenn bbc.co.uk

Party Political Offices
Preceded by: John Gilligan	Democratic nominee for Senator from Ohio (Class 3) 1974, 1980, 1986, 1992	Succeeded by: Mary Boyle
Preceded by: Reubin Askew	Keynote Speaker of the Democratic National Convention 1976 Served alongside: Barbara Jordan	Succeeded by: Mo Udall
United States Senate
Preceded by: Howard Metzenbaum	United States Senator (Class 3) from Ohio 1974–1999 Served alongside: Robert Taft, Howard Metzenbaum, Mike DeWine	Succeeded by: George Voinovich
Preceded by: William Roth	Chair of Senate Governmental Affairs Committee 1987–1995	Succeeded by: William Roth
Honorary Titles
Preceded by: Edward Brooke	Oldest Living United States Senator (Sitting or Former) January 3, 2015–December 8, 2016	Succeeded by: Ernest Hollings

Template:Congressional Space Medal of Honor Template:United States Senators from Ohio Template:SenHomelandSecurityCommitteeChairmen Template:NASA Astronaut Group 1 Template:US Marine Corps navbox Template:National Football Foundation Gold Medal Winners Template:United States presidential election, 1984 Template:Authority control

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• John_Glenn  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "John Glenn"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.