A life of service, courage, grace

Don Mitchell served on John Glenn’s U.S. Senate staff for 15 years. He is the author of “Liftoff: A Photobiography of John Glenn” (National Geographic Society, 2006).

When you visit the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., you enter the Milestones of Flight Hall. Prominently featured there is the Friendship 7 space capsule that John Glenn piloted when he became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962. If you linger a bit, you’ll observe tourists peering into the cockpit and marveling how anyone could be brave enough to fly into space in such a tiny craft.

Over 54 years ago, tens of millions of Americans marveled at Glenn’s heroism and patriotism. His space flight gave Americans a much-needed shot in the arm during the tense atmosphere of the Cold War. He embodied the values Americans have traditionally prized most: courage, duty, integrity, and decency. John Glenn was the quintessential 20th century American hero. It was a mantle that he wore with modesty and grace.

Glenn grew up in New Concord, Ohio. Life in New Concord was small-town life at its best — a wholesome mix of patriotism and a strong sense of community, where people looked out for each other yet where individuals relied on their own abilities. He later recalled of his early years: “Love of country was a given. Defense of its ideals was an obligation. The opportunity to join in its quests and explorations was a challenge not only to fulfill a sacred duty, but to join a joyous adventure. That feeling sums up my childhood. It forms my beliefs and my sense of responsibility.”

When his family was at risk of losing their home during the Great Depression, the Glenns benefited from a New Deal program offering assistance in paying their mortgage. Such programs provided John Glenn with a firsthand lesson on how government can play a meaningful role in changing people’s lives for the better and in helping those who are unable to help themselves. He would apply these lessons one day as a member of the U.S. Senate.

Beneath his good-humored modesty, Glenn was a fierce competitor. And like most highly goal-oriented people, he didn’t wait for things to happen to him. He made things happen. He demonstrated that tenacity time and again throughout his life: becoming a highly skilled and decorated combat pilot in World War II and the Korean War; setting a transcontinental supersonic speed record in 1957; becoming one of the original Mercury astronauts; representing Ohio in the U.S. Senate for an unprecedented four terms; and returning to space in 1998 in the space shuttle Discovery at 77 years of age.

After the space shuttle Challenger blew up shortly after liftoff in January 1986, Sen. Glenn traveled to Houston to attend the memorial service for the seven astronauts. When he returned to Washington, D.C., he assembled his Senate staff to share his impressions of the service. He discussed the importance and dangers of space flight and became emotional as he described the “missing Man” aerial formation of jet fighters at the memorial service, which is performed as a tribute to those who die in service to the nation. Then the Senator counseled his staff, “If you ever have an opportunity to do something bigger than yourself, seize the opportunity.” Glenn seized that opportunity throughout his life. For him, there was no higher calling than public service.

Glenn was an American original. He grew up in rural, conservative Ohio, but was a lifelong Democrat. He was raised to believe citizenship was not a right to be taken for granted, but a responsibility that required the active participation of all Americans. A highly decorated combat veteran who had experienced the horrors of war first-hand, he was always cautious about the use of military force. Forty years old when he first flew into space — the oldest of the Mercury astronauts — and the oldest person ever to go into space when he took his second flight over 36 years later, he defied expectations for his age.

After his Senate career — where he emphasized the importance of research and education in moving America and its individual citizens forward, Glenn continued to keep busy. Next to his devotion to his beloved wife, Annie, and the rest of his family, few things were more meaningful to him than developing a new generation committed to public service at the John Glenn College of Public Affairs at Ohio State University.

In a long and active life filled with significant service to our nation, Glenn inspired millions of people around the world — both young and old — not just with words, but by the eloquence of his example. His commitment to public service is a model to everyone who seeks to make the world a better place. It can be said of John Glenn, as was said of Simon Kenton, another great pioneer from Ohio’s early frontier days: “Full of Honors, Full of Years.”

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