John Glenn

This is about the astronaut and senator. Perhaps you sought the English film director John Glen (with one 'N')?

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John Herschel Glenn Jr. (born July 18, 1921) is a former American fighter pilot, astronaut, and politician. He was the third American astronaut to travel in space and the first American to complete an orbit of the earth.

Born in Cambridge, Ohio, he obtained a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Muskingum College. He enrolled in the Naval Aviation Cadet Program in 1942, and was assigned to the Marines VMO-155 group in 1944. Glenn flew a Corsair over the Marshall Islands, specifically Maloelap, where he was tasked with attacking anti-aircraft gunnery and ground bombardment. By 1945, he was transferred to the United States Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, Maryland, where he became a test pilot and was promoted to Captain by the war's end.

After the war, Glenn flew patrol missions in North China, based in Guam, but in 1948 he became an flight instructor at Corpus Christi, Texas, then undertook an amphibious warfare course and was assigned a staff assignment, all the while angling to get transferred to combat in Korea. Once there, after flying combat missions for the marines, Glenn got the chance to fly with the Air Force on an inter-service exchange. Flying an Air Force F-86 Sabre, he shot down three MiGs. He received several medals for his service.

He returned to Patuxent River after the Korean war, where he completed the first supersonic transcontinental flight on July 16, 1957, in a Vought F8U "Crusader." The flight was from California to New York and lasted 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8 seconds.

In 1958 Glenn joined NASA as one of the original group of Mercury astronauts for the Project Mercury, and flew the first American manned orbital mission termed "Friendship 7" on February 20, 1962. He completed three orbits, the mission lasted 4 hours, 55 minutes, and 23 seconds.

Glenn worked for NASA until 1964, before entering the business world as an executive in Royal Crown Cola.

In 1970, he entered politics and represented Ohio for the Democratic Party in the Senate between 1974 until finally retiring in 1999. In 1970, Glenn contested for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate; however, Glenn lost to fellow Democrat Howard Metzenbaum, who went on to lose the race to Robert Taft Jr. In the bitterly fought 1974 Democratic primary rematch, Glenn defeated Metzenbaum, who had been appointed to the Senate seat to fill out the term of William B. Saxbe, who had resigned to become U.S. attorney general. In the 1974 general election, Glenn defeated Republican Mayor of Cleveland Ralph J. Perk.

In 1980, Glenn won re-election to the seat, defeating Republican challenger James E. Betts. In 1986, Glenn defeated challenger U.S. Rep. Thomas N. Kindness.

Glenn was one of the five U.S. senators caught up in the Keating Five Scandal. However, Glenn, like Republican Sen. John S. McCain III, was exonerated of any wrongdoing. However, the association of his name with the scandal gave Republicans hope that he would be vulnerable in the 1992 campaign. However, as it happened, Glenn handily defeated defeated U.S. Rep. Michael DeWine to keep his seat again. (This 1992 re-election victory, as it happens is the last time a Democrat won a state-wide race in Ohio; DeWine later won Metzenbaum's seat upon his retirement.)

In 1998, Glenn declined to run again. The Democratic party chose Mary O. Boyle to replace him, but she was defeated by then Ohio Gov. George Voinovich.

He made a bid to run as vice president with Jimmy Carter in 1976, only to be declined after the 1976 democratic national convention. He mounted a bid to be the 1984 Democratic presidential candidate. Early on, Glenn polled well, coming in a strong second to Walter Mondale. However, Glenn turned his attention to national politics too early, neglecting the sensitive voters of the Iowa caucuses. Media attention turned to Mondale, Gary Hart, and Jesse Jackson, leaving Glenn the strongest also-ran. The 1984 presidential bid left Glenn with a substantial debt that took years to pay off.

During his time in the Senate, he was chief author of the 1978 Nonproliferation Act, served as chairman of the Committee on Governmental Affairs from 1978 until 1995, and sat on the Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees and the Special Committee on Aging.

Glenn lifted off for a second space flight on October 29, 1998, on Space Shuttle Discovery's STS-95 in order to study the effects of space flight on the elderly. His age of 77 made him the oldest person ever to go into space. Glenn's presence on the nine-day mission was widely criticized by many in the space community as an expensive junket for one of NASA's Congressional supporters.

The NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field in Cleveland, Ohio, is named after him.

Glenn married his childhood sweetheart, Anna Margaret Castor, and has two children. After his retirement, John and Anna Glenn founded the John Glenn Institute for Public Service at the Ohio State University. Glenn and his wife were both delegates on the Ohio delegation to the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

Preceded by: Howard M. Metzenbaum

U.S. Senators from Ohio

Succeeded by: George Voinovich