approachable, so genuine. people felt as though he could sit down in their parlor for a chat and be right at home. or like steve lindsay says, that he would be a great neighbor. john glenn was deeply compassionate. he valued everyone, no matter his race or gender. he was ahead of his time in many ways. it was he who personally requested that catherine johnson, a black woman from west virginia, from white sulfur springs, west virginia, working as a human computer at the langley research center, he requested that catherine johnson do the verifying of the calculations for his historic flight as a backup to the ibm electric computer. john was just like that. john made us look up. not only to the sky thinking we
few words in honor of our esteemed friend and colleague. there are those here today who have known senator glenn for 60, 70, even 90 years. most of us knew him long before we actually met him. we knew him through news reports and flickering events among those so spectacular. the suspense of the countdown, the majesty of the liftoff, the technical brilliance. our nation was proud of the achievement and proud of our brave and dashing hero. more than that, we cared about him personally. we prayed for him personally, for his family, for his happiness and his safety. the mission captured our minds, but john glenn won our hearts. there were many reasons for that. foremost among them was the quality of john glenn the man, a
for the faith and the friends p friendship, and for always leading us higher. even though the marines s hymn was written over 200 years ago, they had john glenn in the mind when they wrote the lines, first to fight for right and freedom and to keep our honor cle clean. we re proud to claim the title of united states marine. colonel john glenn has made tis last takeoff, and he ll be missed but never forgotten. seven, six, five, four, three, two godspeed, john glenn. one, ignition, liftoff.
he lost his wingman on his very first combat mission. he understood the risk. he knew firsthand the heavy task of gathering a friend s personal effects and writing a letter to the next of kin. john went on to fly 140 combat missions in two wars. he never shirked from danger. drew enemy fire like a meg net giving rise to a more infamous nickname which i can t repeat here. he shot down three migs, and on two occasions he landed with more than 250 bullet holes in his airplane, but the man himself was bulletproof. john s exemplary service in two wars earned him a slot as a test pilot. his most memorable mission was to fly super sonic across the country and set the world speed record. it was to test the durability of engines in continuous
miles traversed, three hours, 23 minutes, 8.4 seconds. we broke the record by quite a bit, by 20 minutes or so. to annie, the true source of john s remarkable strength for their many years together, to david and lynn who shared their father with a grateful nation, i am honored to be here today to celebrate the life of a man i am proud to have called both a hero and a friend. only a handful of people in history have been called upon to publicly embody the ideals of an entire nation. fewer still have stood to the task at both wartime and piece, and none have answered the call more perfectly than john glenn.