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Our View: A true American hero

John Glenn, the last of the original Mercury 7 astronauts, died on Thursday. The accolades  that started pouring in can only begin to explain the true worth of this real American hero.

Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth, circling the globe three times on Feb. 20, 1962 in a four-hour, 55-minute, 23 second flight. Manned space flight was brand new back then, and America held its breath the whole time, from launch to splashdown.

Glenn was a skilled flier, a daring fighter pilot who flew 59 combat missions in World War II and the Korean war, and a test pilot who set the cross-country speed record, Los Angeles to New York City in three hours, 23 minutes and eight seconds in 1957.

He returned to space at age 77 in 1998 aboard the space shuttle Discovery, setting the record for the oldest person to fly in space.

But for all his successes and derring-do, Glenn lived his life according to very basic and decent principles, that one’s talents are to be used in the service of others, and that individuals who work together, combining their talents, can do more than an individual. He devoted 24 years of his life to public service as the longest-serving U.S. Senator from the State of Ohio.

When author Tom Wolfe wrote his famous about the Mercury 7 astronauts and the early space program, he entitled it “The Right Stuff.” John Glenn possessed the Right Stuff, all right, and the grace and character to use it well. Few Americans embody the spirit that makes America great the way John Glenn did.

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