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Glenns deserving of recognition

To the editor:

July 18 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of John H. Glenn Jr., a true American hero and icon, who was born in and grew up in nearby Cambridge and New Concord, respectively.

Glenn, who passed away in 2016, was a highly decorated fighter pilot, serving in the U.S. military during World War II and the Korean War, but is best know as the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth, on Feb. 20, 1962, which he did three times in his Mercury capsule, which bested Russian cosmonaut Yuri A. Gargarian, who had orbited the Earth one time on April 12, 1961. As a result of Glenn’s monumental achievement, the United States assumed the undisputed lead in the very critical space race over our arch-rival, the Soviet Union, which was never relinquished.

In addition, Glenn, as a jet airplane pilot, set the cross-country speed record for traveling at a rate of 725 miles per hour.

In 1998, Glenn made a return flight into space in order to help determine the impact space travel might have on older individuals.

In 1974, Glenn was elected to serve his home state of Ohio in the United States Senate, a seat he admiredly held with distinction until his retirement 28 years later.

Glenn is, without question, one of the greatest Ohioans, and Americans, of all time, who helped make our state, our nation and the world all the better.

I applaud the members of the Ohio House of Representatives for their passing of a recent resolution to formally request the Congress to posthumously award Glenn and his cherished wife, Annie, who died in 2020 at the age of 100, the Congressional Gold Medal, a tribute that I feel would be very appropriate and a fitting tribute to honor the lives and the outstanding achievements of these two great Americans.

Richard Hord

Martins Ferry

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