My John Glenn Story
Keith’s note: Although I met him more than once in my 30 years in Washington, my association with John Glenn was one of a degree of separation – I knew many people who knew him well.
In 2009, I spent a month on a mission to a strange, beautiful, dangerous place with someone (astronaut Scott Parazynski) who spent several weeks on a mission to a strange, beautiful, dangerous place with John Glenn.
There is a scene in “The Right Stuff” (that never actually happened) where Gordon Cooper watches Glenn fly over Australia at night with some aborigines while sparks fly upward from their fire. Years later, on my way to Everest to meet up with Scott, I taught a Sherpa to spot satellites in the night sky – and that movie scene flashed through my mind.
That is my John Glenn story.
Thanks, Keith, and thanks especially for marking the lives of these Americans, famous and not, exceptional all.
In some ways I never wanted to be alive when none of the Mercury 7 walk our Earth.
My John Glenn Story ,
When I was 10 years old I had to write an essay about who my hero was. I wrote it about John Glenn and Neil Armstrong my father who was a raging alcoholic at the time read it and gave me a horrible beating for not saying He was my hero. I would take that beating all over again and still write the same thing. RIP Mr.Glenn.