{"id":3717,"date":"2011-07-18T04:30:01","date_gmt":"2011-07-18T08:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/?p=3717"},"modified":"2011-07-18T07:17:36","modified_gmt":"2011-07-18T11:17:36","slug":"happy-birthday-john-glenn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/?p=3717","title":{"rendered":"Happy Birthday John Glenn"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Today, war hero, space hero, and Democratic Senator, John H. Glenn, turns 90 years-old.<\/p>\n

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John Glenn, Friendship 7 Astronaut<\/p><\/div>\n

Glenn holds several distinctions for the life he has led. He was the first American to orbit the earth. To date, he is the oldest person to fly in space (at the age of 77.) He is also the only astronaut to have flown in both the Mercury and Shuttle Program.<\/p>\n

Glenn was born in Cambridge, OH\u00a0and grew up in New Concord, OH to become a Marine Corps pilot. During World War II, he flew the F-4U Corsair logging 59 combat missions in the South Pacific. When the Korean conflict erupted, Glenn flew 63 combat missions over two tours in jet fighters. He also flew with the famous ballplayer, Ted Williams.<\/p>\n

After the war, Glenn attended the Navy\u2019s Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, MD.\u00a0 He was primarily responsible for testing weaponry on various aircraft.\u00a0 In mid July 1957, he set a transcontinental speed record flying a Vought F8U-1 Crusader from NAS Los Alamitos, CA to Floyd Bennett Field in New York. The record flight\u00a0took 3 hours, 23 minutes, and 8.4 seconds.<\/p>\n

Although he did not yet have his college degree, NASA officials selected Glenn for the Mercury program in April 1959.\u00a0 After training, managers assigned Glenn to fly the third Mercury mission, slated to orbit the earth three times. \u00a0The flight, which took place on February 20, 1962, orbited the earth three times on a mission lasting just over 4 hours in 55 minutes.<\/p>\n

Glenn returned home as a national hero, receiving a ticker-tape parade in New York.\u00a0 This garnered the attention of the Kennedy\u2019s; he would soon become a personal friend of the President.\u00a0 Influenced by a suggestion of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, Glenn would resign from NASA six weeks after Kennedy\u2019s assassination to run for senator in his home state of Ohio.<\/p>\n

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John Glenn, Shuttle crew<\/p><\/div>\n

For his exploits in space, in 1978, Congress awarded Glenn the Congressional Space Medal Of Honor and in 1990,\u00a0he became a member of the Astronaut Hall of Fame.\u00a0 On October 29, 1998, Glenn achieved another record\u2014as a member of the Discovery crew on STS-95. As a member of the\u00a0Shuttle\u00a0crew, Glenn became the oldest person ever fly into space.\u00a0 As part of that distinction, he is the only astronaut to have flown in the Mercury and Shuttle Programs.<\/p>\n

Once\u00a0accused of being a Boy Scout when he was a member of the Mercury Program, Glenn, a Presbyterian, is married to the former Anna Margaret Castor. \u00a0The childhood sweethearts have been married since April 6, 1943.<\/p>\n

Happy birthday, Mr. Glenn.<\/p>\n

-30-<\/p>\n

\u00a92011 J. Clark<\/em><\/em><\/div>\n
Subscribe by email<\/a><\/em><\/div>\n
Note: Email subscribers, please go to <\/em>my blog<\/em><\/a> to view vids and photos<\/em><\/em><\/div>\n

<\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, war hero, space hero, and Democratic Senator, John H. Glenn, turns 90 years-old. Glenn holds several distinctions for the life he has led. He was the first American to orbit the earth. To date, he is the oldest person … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7,8],"tags":[4914,4915,4912,4925,4926,4924,4920,4927,4907,4911,4904,2031,4908,2321,4917,4923,4906,4913,4916,4909,4921,4910,4922,4918,4919,4905,4320],"class_list":["post-3717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aviation-history","category-history-2","category-life-in-general","tag-59-combat-missions-in-the-south-pacific","tag-63-combat-missions-over-korea","tag-a-marine-corps-pilot","tag-a-national-hero","tag-a-personal-friend-of-the-president-kennedy","tag-a-ticker-tape-parade-in-new-york","tag-and-8-4-seconds","tag-attorney-general-robert-f-kennedy","tag-democratic-senator","tag-flew-in-both-the-mercury-and-shuttle-program","tag-happy-birthday-john-glenn","tag-jet-fighters","tag-john-h-glenn","tag-marines","tag-navys-test-pilot-school-at-patuxent-river-md","tag-orbit-the-earth-three-times","tag-space-hero","tag-the-f-4u-corsair","tag-the-famous-ball-player-ted-williams","tag-the-first-american-to-orbit-the-earth","tag-the-mercury-program","tag-the-oldest-person-to-fly-in-space","tag-the-third-mercury-mission","tag-the-vought-f8u-1-crusader","tag-transcontinental-speed-record-of-3-hours-23-minutes","tag-war-hero","tag-world-war-ii"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3717"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3738,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3717\/revisions\/3738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}