• About Us
  • Activity
  • Advertising
  • Books
  • Business
  • Contact
  • Dashboard
  • EB5
  • Entertainment
  • feedback
  • Forgot Your Password?
  • Government
  • Home
  • Home 20723
  • Interviews
  • Login
  • Members
  • Meme generator
  • National
  • Nevada
  • Nevada News and Views
  • Newsmax
  • NN&V Ads
  • Opinion
  • Pick a New Password
  • Politics
  • Polls
  • Privacy Policy
  • Profile
  • Recent comments by me
  • Recent comments on my posts
  • Register
  • Submit post
  • Subscribe
  • Subscription Confirmation
  • Survey
  • Survey
  • Terms of Service
  • Today’s Top 10
  • Travel
  • Travel
  • Travel
  • Welcome!
  • Yop Poll Archive
Nevada News and Views
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • More
    • Opinion
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Pinterest

  • RSS

Opinion

Weinberg: Colonel John Glen USMC (Retired), 1921-2016

Weinberg: Colonel John Glen USMC (Retired), 1921-2016
Chuck Muth
December 20, 2016

(Fred Weinberg) – I’m a child of the 60’s. I remember watching the original seven Astronauts being introduced on a black and white TV. I remember watching Alan Shepard’s history-making Mercury sub-orbital flight.

I remember watching us do it again with Gus Grissom.

I remember watching all three orbits of John Glenn’s history making flight. And understanding in detail how Glenn’s Mercury capsule would fire its retro-rockets, change its attitude and re-enter the atmosphere, heat shield first, land near the USS Noa and be recovered.

I also knew that Glenn had to manually take control of the capsule and fire the retro-pack himself.

I remember Wally Schirra, Gordon Cooper, Scott Carpenter and Deke Slayton. Slayton didn’t fly in project Mercury because he had a heart murmur and was forced to wait many years for his day in space.

These guys were genuine American heroes who most young people growing up knew as well as any baseball player in the Hall of Fame.

Those of us who followed the space program more closely knew that the man pulling the strings at NASA those days was Chris Kraft, the flight director.

We knew things like the first suborbital flights were achieved by using a Redstone rocket while the rest of the orbital flights used an Atlas ICBM which was originally developed to deliver an atomic bomb to Moscow USSR from Moscow Idaho.

And we knew these things as surely as we knew the intricacies of the infield fly rule. I remember the Gemini and Apollo missions and I especially remember the day Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon in 1969.

I was a kid and I just knew we were doing the right thing. I still know today that we did the right thing.

The last of the Project Mercury astronauts died last week at age 95.

Marine Colonel John Glenn (retired) was the first American to orbit the earth and take manual control of a space capsule, Friendship 7.

In 1998, at age 77, he flew on the Space Shuttle Discovery to further research on the space environment’s effects on aging.

Asked why he told the chance in 1998 he said that he thought it would be helpful for the nation.

We use the word “hero” pretty loosely these days.

But, I’m pretty sure that’s the word which my contemporaries would use to label John Glenn.

 

Mr. Weinberg is publisher of the Penny Press. Get to know more about him by visiting www.PennyPressNV.com.

Prev postNext post

Related Items
Opinion
December 20, 2016
Chuck Muth

Related Items

More in Opinion

Amodei Statement on Debt Ceiling Bill

Chuck MuthJune 1, 2023
Read More

Tark: Trans “Rights” … and Wrongs

Chuck MuthMay 26, 2023
Read More

Stone: The Truth About AB 250: Will Patients Really Benefit?

NN&V StaffMay 26, 2023
Read More

“Ungrateful Miscreants”: Miller, Segerblom Insult Local Small Business Owners

NN&V StaffMay 24, 2023
Read More

Quarter-Million Dollar Ad Campaign Targets Nevada Legislators for Trapping Hispanic Families in Unsafe Schools

NN&V StaffMay 22, 2023
Read More

Nevada News & Views: May 20, 2023

NN&V StaffMay 20, 2023
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Subscribe Free By Email

Looking for the best in breaking news and conservative views? Let Chuck do all the work for you! Subscribe to his FREE "Muth's Truths" e-newsletter.

* indicates required
Nevada News and Views
Nevada News & Views is an educational project of Citizen Outreach Foundation, a non-partisan IRS-approved 501(c)(3) organization. It is not associated or affiliated with any political party or group. Nevada News & Views is accessible by the public at no cost. It funds its operations through tax-deductible contributions from donors and supporters and does not accept government money or grants.

TAGS

Featured Article Muths truth

Copyright © 2023 Citizen Outreach | Maintained by VirtualAlly

Bennett students’ joy for surprise visit fills auditorium
Galen: Don’t Blame Donald