John Glenn just passed away. I remember his space trip on Friendship 7 in 1962, when I was stationed on Turks. Some of the photos are posted in the IUSS Turks Photo Library. He landed near Turks and spent most of time at the Air Force Base on the south end of the island.
John Glenn's 1974 Response to Sen Howard Metzenbaum's Criticism During the Republican primary That Glenn Had Never Held a Job.
"I spent 23 years in the United States Marine Corps. I lived through two wars. I flew 149 missions. I was in the space program. It wasn't my checkbook, it was my life that was on the line.
"You go with me as I did out to a veterans' hospital and look those men with their mangled bodies in the eye and tell them that they didn't hold a job. You go with me to any Gold Star mother and you look her in the eye and you tell her that her son did not hold a job. You go to Arlington National Cemetery — where I have more friends than I'd like to remember — and you think about this nation, and you tell me that those people didn't have a job.
"I tell you, Howard Metzenbaum, you should be on your knees every day of your life thanking God that there were some men, some men, who held a job. And they required a dedication to purpose, a love of country, and a dedication to duty that was more important than life itself.
"And their self-sacrifice is what has made this nation possible.
"I have held a job, Howard."
Note: Glenn defeated a sitting Senator during that primary and won the general election.
