Rant #1,798: Starman

We lost a real, true, American hero yesterday.

John Glenn, whose 1962 flight as the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the earth made him a national treasure, died yesterday. The last of the original Mercury 7 astronauts was 95.

Glenn later had a long-time career as a senator, and later re-galvanized himself with the American public as the oldest astronaut, launching off with the space shuttle Discovery in 1998 at the age of 77.

If this guy wasn't the real, honest to goodness, All-American Jack Armstrong, then I don't know who was.

Sure, Neil Armstrong was better known as an astronaut, the first one to walk on the moon, but after his momentous time, he kind of faded from view.

Glenn, without whose bravery Armstrong would have never touched down on the moon, never shied away from the spotlight, and was in our consciousness pretty much from the time he was 40 years old and chosen as one of the original Mercury astronauts to his time of death.

I was only five years old when he orbited the earth, and I probably really didn't understand what an incredible thing this was.

But I can tell you that I knew the name John Glenn, even at that age, and it was a name I never forgot.

I mean, who really could?

But even before he became an astronaut, Glenn was a national treasure, the guy we all hope we grow up to be. He was a fighter pilot in two wars, he set a transcontinental speed record as a test pilot just prior to becoming one of the first astronauts.

And then he orbited the earth, and he became, at that moment, bigger than any sports star, any president, any other luminary you can think of.

There is a famous photo of President John Kennedy standing with associates and advisors by a TV, hands nervously in his pockets, awaiting word that Glenn had lifted off successfully and was OK.

And he was, allowing JFK to exhale. Remember, it was he who said we would reach the moon later in the decade of the 1960s, and this was the giant step that needed to be taken--and completed--for that dream to become reality, so there was a lot on the President's head when Glenn lifted off.

After all the fanfare, Glenn served 24 years in the Senate, and even heroes can have their down moments.

He was implicated in a graft scandal, in which he was later exonerated, and he ran for President, and failed at galvanizing the country as he had once did with aplomb.

But he got himself up, brushed himself off, and continued on, like any good hero does.

Riding on the space shuttle as our oldest astronaut really capped an incredible life and career, one that we can only marvel at today.

He once said that he wanted to go into space because "it was the closest I will ever get to heaven," but I don't think that even he truly understood the impact that he had not only on Americans, but on mankind in general.

So may he rest in peace. And yes, I think he actually did get to heaven.

Speak to you again on Monday. Have a good weekend.