Sen. John Glenn developed a love for flying and for taking risks at an early age. When he was 8, just two years after Charles Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight, his father paid to take them both up in an open-cockpit biplane from a field in Cambridge, Ohio. It was literally a high point for Glenn that opened the door to years of successful piloting, in combat, on supersonic test flights and into space.
Glenn was a highly decorated Marine Corps fighter pilot who flew 149 combat missions in World War II and the Korean War. In Korea, he shot down three MiGs and became good friends with his wingman Ted Williams, one of Major League Baseball’s greatest hitters. The photo below shows his flight logbook from July 12, 1953, the first time he shot down an enemy jet. He drew his F-86 Sabre in blue, complete with the “MIG Mad Marine” and “LynAnnieDave I” painted on the side. He illustrated the gunfire he had aimed at the Soviet plane, which was falling through the air with flames coming out of the top. His note on the page: “1 MIG-15 DESTROYED.”
He was unafraid to push the envelope during his days as a military test pilot for experimental aircraft. In 1957, he set a transcontinental speed record in an F8U Crusader, flying coast to coast in just over 3 hours and 23 minutes. The ensuing fame led to his appearance on a popular game show, “Name That Tune,” at the time. Along with a 10-year-old partner, he eventually won the grand prize of $25,000, which became a startup college fund for his children.
On more than one occasion while flying, Glenn dodged some bullets, literally at times, that could have ended his life. He set the tone for taking risks and facing danger as a youngster when he continually climbed a giant sycamore tree at the edge of a ravine and mustered the courage look down over a drop of more than 55 feet.
“Every time I climbed that tree, I forced myself to climb to the last possible safe limb and look down,” Glenn wrote in his memoir. “Every time I did it, I told myself I’d never do it again. But I kept going back because it scared me and I had to know I could overcome that.”
Watch Ohio State Public Policy Archivist Carly Dearborn discuss Glenn’s military service.