John H. Glenn Jr, A real life Dudley Do Right | Eastern North Carolina Now

As usual with most of my articles, I try to put my personal slant on the events described. The reason is because these articles are written for a later audience of grandkids and beyond in the family Grandpa's Diary series of my family. Thanks for bearing with me in the narrative. Bobby Tony

    Most people will remember John Glenn as the astronaut who was the first American to orbit the earth in 1962. After that event, his image was a carefully crafted and protected all American boy. But unlike many who have a fake image, I think you will find that he was the real All American Boy. He was raised in New Corcord, Ohio. The town had less than 1000 population in his youth and only about 2400 in 2015. That's small town America folks.

    John was not some cowboy who hopped in the cramped capsule and hollered "YEEHAW." He was a disciplined test pilot and with highly developed mental and physical attributes. When they shut the door to his capsule the launch team moved 3 miles from the pad to bunkers because of the fiery blast from the Atlas Rocket. The rocket had 40% failure rate in test up until his launch. No one really knew how the human body would react in the weightless environment of space. We had little knowledge of the one orbit by the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin one year before in 1961.


John Glenn by the tail of his battle-damaged Marine Corps F9F "Panther" during the summer of 1953. The plane had 714 holes in it from enemy shrapnel. (U.S. Air Force photo)
    America of the late 1950s and early 1960s was the beginning of the transition from print and photo photogenic celebrities to real time television and video crafted images. The first distinction of that fact was possibly the debate between Richard Nixon and John Kennedy. Nixon was the old style politician and Kennedy the new vibrant young face of the future. It was a time when reality and fantasy morphed into a carefully crafted persona. It is of some interest to note that Nixon was only four (4) years older than Kennedy was. But the carefully crafted image of JFK, created in large part by his father's ambition, wealth, and a cadre of sycophants, set the tone for a new and vibrant age of make a believe youthful Camelot. Surrounded by a phonies like him, JFK was a stark contrast to the seventy (70) year old Ike. The nation bought the product without ever looking inside the wrapping. Many today are still polishing that image that never was reality.

    As we now know both Kennedy and Nixon were deeply flawed men and perhaps the lesson of image has been lost to the full-fledged phoniness of our current celebrities and politicians. Those of us that made the transition into adulthood in the intersection of 1950 and 1960 may remember our heroes in that blurred haze that was a bit touched up but not as carefully crafted. Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Elvis and a host of other billboard luminaries were later found to be blemished images like us all.

    However, when you peer beneath the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd layer of John H. Glenn Jr., who died on December 8, 2016 at 95 years old, you will find a much deeper and solid character that many others just tried to emulate. His life before the notoriety of the Mercury era is just as interesting and real as his image and life after his three orbits of the earth in 1962. Of the 30 Mercury, Gemini Apollo astronauts, only seven marriages survived the test of time and testosterone. John and Annie were one of those that did.  Astronauts Wife Club
John and Annie Glenn
    With his death, you can find numerous recounts of his accomplishments, so I will not repeat them here. I will just offer a tip of the hat, (sounds quaint doesn't it?) to what I think was the real deal. Scratch below the surface on John Glenn and you will find Dudley Do Right. He was flawed likes us all, but his life was not a carefully crafted image. It was a life lived based on the old fashion American spirit. The idea that you can be anything you want to be if you just dedicate yourself to a goal and work hard to accomplish it.
John Glenn's aircraft of the USAF's 51st Fighter Wing in Korea. There were three stars by the windscreen indicating the three MiG-15s he had shot down and "Lyn, Annie and Dave" was painted on the plane for his daughter, wife and son. (U.S. Air Force photo)
    Perhaps his only scandal was his involvement in the Lincoln Savings and Keating Five Scandal, which he was found to have exercised "poor judgment. I guess politics will do that to people. Both he and John McCain were excused for their lack of judgment. That may have been based on their celebrity status, but I believe that it may have only been just a sharp curve in what was otherwise an almost picture perfect life for John Glenn.

    While most of the tributes to John will cover the period from the Mercury astronaut time and his senatorial career, his true story is the story of America. He had one foot in the American Dream and one foot in the American Future. I think he did it with amazing grace and dedication. Perhaps we can all get some solace and inspiration from his life if we just delve beyond the surface tributes to read and find out about the real man. He was another of the greatest generation and may he rest in peace.
John Glenn enters "Friendship 7" on Feb. 20, 1962. The tiny Mercury spacecraft was less than 7 feet tall and about 6 feet in diameter. His ascent to orbit took about 5 minutes, and the flight lasted 4 hours, 55 minutes. (U.S. Air Force photo)
   

Semper Fi John Glenn and Godspeed.

Plane and capsule Pictures sourced from National Museum

Written December 9, 2016