A National Hero
At the age of 40, John Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth in a space capsule. He died today at the age of 95, and with him, a large part of our country's history is gone, too.
Back when I was growing up in Norfolk, and then in Fairbury, Nebraska, everyone knew John Glenn's name. He was always called by both names, John and Glenn, never just John or Mr. Glenn. He was the one and only John Glenn--a household name, and a legend from the very day he orbited the Earth. It only took five hours on February 20, 1962, for John Glenn to circle the Earth three times, but in that brief period, he became a national hero, joining the ranks of other adventuresome Americans, like Lewis and Clark, and Charles Lindbergh, and the Wright brothers. And, even better, he proved that America had what it took to keep up with, and maybe even surpass, the Russians, who had been the first in the world to send a manned spacecraft around the Earth.
And so, the great Space Race was on its way, at breakneck speed. The space capsules grew bigger, so two or three astronauts could work together to accomplish their ever-expanding goals. By July 20, 1969, another astronaut, Neil Armstrong, took his historic first steps on the surface of the moon. In little more than seven years, NASA had progressed through the steps necessary to meet their lofty goals.
John Glenn, and other astronauts like him, unified our country during a decade of great unrest. Even when the Cold War raged, and racial tensions increased, and hippies protested the Vietnam War, nearly everyone rallied together to support the space program. We were glued to our TVs every time another rocket blasted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral, also known as Cape Kennedy from 1963-1973, in honor of the president who had pushed so hard to make the fledgling space program a successful reality. If a rocket was scheduled to launch or splash down during school hours, a teacher would push the heavy TV cart into the school gym so all 150 fifth and sixth graders could gather together, sitting on the floor around the solitary TV, to watch the spectacle.
Within a couple of years of his record-breaking flight, John Glenn retired from NASA. It wasn't long before he was elected as a Democratic Senator from his home state of Ohio. He served as Senator for 24 years.
I was probably in Junior High or early High School when John Glenn visited Fairbury. It didn't matter that he was there, in a predominantly Republican community, to campaign for the Democratic presidential candidate. It didn't matter that he was from Ohio. It didn't even matter that he had retired from the space program. He was still our hero.
I positioned myself at the back of the crowd that gathered on the east side of the courthouse square to listen to his speech. He stood on a bunting-draped platform of some kind, speaking into a microphone for about twenty minutes, before he got back in his car to head for his next campaign stop, perhaps in Kansas somewhere. I don't remember what he had to say. That wasn't important to me then. All that mattered, for most of us, was his presence in our little town. We got to see the famous John Glenn!
John Glenn came out of retirement briefly, at the age of 77, when he was launched aboard the space shuttle, Discovery, becoming the oldest man to ever orbit the Earth. He also ran for president, unsuccessfully. He might not be remembered for either of those achievements, but his name will always be found in the history books, as the first American to orbit the Earth in a rocket-propelled space capsule. At a time when America needed him most, John Glenn became a national hero.
Back when I was growing up in Norfolk, and then in Fairbury, Nebraska, everyone knew John Glenn's name. He was always called by both names, John and Glenn, never just John or Mr. Glenn. He was the one and only John Glenn--a household name, and a legend from the very day he orbited the Earth. It only took five hours on February 20, 1962, for John Glenn to circle the Earth three times, but in that brief period, he became a national hero, joining the ranks of other adventuresome Americans, like Lewis and Clark, and Charles Lindbergh, and the Wright brothers. And, even better, he proved that America had what it took to keep up with, and maybe even surpass, the Russians, who had been the first in the world to send a manned spacecraft around the Earth.
And so, the great Space Race was on its way, at breakneck speed. The space capsules grew bigger, so two or three astronauts could work together to accomplish their ever-expanding goals. By July 20, 1969, another astronaut, Neil Armstrong, took his historic first steps on the surface of the moon. In little more than seven years, NASA had progressed through the steps necessary to meet their lofty goals.
John Glenn, and other astronauts like him, unified our country during a decade of great unrest. Even when the Cold War raged, and racial tensions increased, and hippies protested the Vietnam War, nearly everyone rallied together to support the space program. We were glued to our TVs every time another rocket blasted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral, also known as Cape Kennedy from 1963-1973, in honor of the president who had pushed so hard to make the fledgling space program a successful reality. If a rocket was scheduled to launch or splash down during school hours, a teacher would push the heavy TV cart into the school gym so all 150 fifth and sixth graders could gather together, sitting on the floor around the solitary TV, to watch the spectacle.
Within a couple of years of his record-breaking flight, John Glenn retired from NASA. It wasn't long before he was elected as a Democratic Senator from his home state of Ohio. He served as Senator for 24 years.
I was probably in Junior High or early High School when John Glenn visited Fairbury. It didn't matter that he was there, in a predominantly Republican community, to campaign for the Democratic presidential candidate. It didn't matter that he was from Ohio. It didn't even matter that he had retired from the space program. He was still our hero.
I positioned myself at the back of the crowd that gathered on the east side of the courthouse square to listen to his speech. He stood on a bunting-draped platform of some kind, speaking into a microphone for about twenty minutes, before he got back in his car to head for his next campaign stop, perhaps in Kansas somewhere. I don't remember what he had to say. That wasn't important to me then. All that mattered, for most of us, was his presence in our little town. We got to see the famous John Glenn!
John Glenn came out of retirement briefly, at the age of 77, when he was launched aboard the space shuttle, Discovery, becoming the oldest man to ever orbit the Earth. He also ran for president, unsuccessfully. He might not be remembered for either of those achievements, but his name will always be found in the history books, as the first American to orbit the Earth in a rocket-propelled space capsule. At a time when America needed him most, John Glenn became a national hero.
To read more about John Glenn's accomplishments, follow this link:
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