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* * Biographical Data *
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NAME:
John Herschel Glenn, Jr. (Colonel, USMC, Ret.)
NASA Astronaut (former)
PERSONAL
DATA: Born July 18, 1921 in Cambridge, Ohio.
Married to the former Anna Margaret Castor of New
Concord, Ohio. They have two grown children and
two grandchildren.
EDUCATION:
Glenn attended primary and secondary schools
in New Concord, Ohio. He attended Muskingum
College in New Concord and received a Bachelor of
Science degree in Engineering. Muskingum College
also awarded him an honorary Doctor of Science
degree in engineering. He has received honorary
doctoral degrees from nine colleges or
universities.
SPECIAL
HONORS: Glenn has been awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross on six occasions, and
holds the Air Medal with 18 Clusters for his
service during World War II and Korea. Glenn also
holds the Navy Unit Commendation for service in
Korea, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the
American Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory
Medal, the China Service Medal, the National
Defense Service Medal, the Korean Service Medal,
the United Nations Service Medal, the Korean
Presidential Unit Citation, the Navy's Astronaut
Wings, the Marine Corps' Astronaut Medal, the NASA
Distinguished Service Medal, and the Congressional
Space Medal of Honor.
EXPERIENCE:
He entered the Naval Aviation Cadet Program in
March 1942 and was graduated from this program and
commissioned in the Marine Corps in 1943. After
advanced training, he joined Marine Fighter
Squadron 155 and spent a year flying F-4U fighters
in the Marshall Islands.
During his World War II service, he flew 59 combat
missions. After the war, he was a member of Marine
Fighter Squadron 218 on the North China patrol and
served on Guam. From June 1948 to December 1950
Glenn was an instructor in advanced flight
training at Corpus Christi, Texas. He then
attended Amphibious Warfare Training at Quantico,
Virginia. In Korea he flew 63 missions with Marine
Fighter Squadron 311. As an exchange pilot with
the Air Force Glenn flew 27 missions in the in
F-86 Sabrejet. In the last nine days of fighting
in Korea Glenn downed three MIG's in combat along
the Yalu River.
After Korea, Glenn attended Test Pilot School at
the Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River,
Maryland. After graduation, he was project officer
on a number of aircraft. He was assigned to the
Fighter Design Branch of the Navy Bureau of
Aeronautics (now Bureau of Naval Weapons) in
Washington from November 1956 to April 1959,
during which time he also attended the University
of Maryland.
In July 1957, while project officer of the F8U
Crusader, he set a transcontinental speed record
from Los Angeles to New York, spanning the country
in 3 hours and 23 minutes. This was the first
transcontinental flight to average supersonic
speed. Glenn has nearly 9,000 hours of flying
time, with approximately 3,000 hours in jet
aircraft.
NASA
EXPERIENCE: Glenn was assigned to the NASA
Space Task Group at Langley Research Center,
Hampton, Virginia, in April 1959 after his
selection as a Project Mercury Astronaut. The
Space Task Group was moved to Houston and became
part of the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center in 1962.
Glenn flew on Mercury-6 (February 20, 1962) and
STS-95 (October 29 to November 7, 1998), and has
logged over 218 hours in space. Prior to his first
flight, Glenn had served as backup pilot for
Astronauts Shepard and Grissom. When astronauts
were given special assignments to ensure pilot
input into the design and development of
spacecraft, Glenn specialized in cockpit layout
and control functioning, including some of the
early designs for the Apollo Project. Glenn
resigned from the Manned Spacecraft Center on
January 16, 1964. He was promoted to the rank of
Colonel in October 1964 and retired from the
Marine Corps on January 1, 1965. He was a business
executive from 1965 until his election to the
United States Senate in November 1974. Glenn
retired from the U.S. Senate in January 1999
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