[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 140 (Thursday, October 8, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11958-S11959]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            A HERO MOVES ON

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, the Random House College Dictionary defines 
the term ``hero'' first as ``a man of distinguished courage or ability, 
admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities,'' and second as ``a 
small loaf of Italian bread.''
  There is, of course, a wide disparity in these two definitions. I 
think I shall appropriately use the initial definition to describe the 
hero of whom I am about to speak, Senator John Herschel Glenn, Jr. I 
have had the honor of serving with him in the Senate for the last 24 
years.
  He is a gentleman. He is a great public servant to all the Ohioans 
whose beliefs and values he has so ably represented in this body.
  As Senator Glenn prepares to officially retire from the Senate and 
take up his wings of flight once again, I shall take a few minutes to 
thank this distinguished Senator from Ohio for all that he has done for 
our Republic as a United States Senator and as a hero.
  I thank him for his achievements as a Senator. I thank him for his 
dedication to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, on which he 
has served since 1975.
  Following his personal motto: ``You Keep Climbing,'' Senator Glenn 
has moved up in the ranks.
  From 1987 to 1995 he served as the chairman of the committee, and 
then as the ranking Democratic member until the present time.
  As a member of the committee, Senator Glenn has worked to protect our 
Nation and its people, using his expert knowledge to combat the issue 
of nuclear proliferation, to protect our fellow Americans from all the 
environmental dangers that are associated with the byproducts of 
nuclear weapons, and is making the Government more accountable for 
waste and fraud.

  As a member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, on which I am 
pleased to serve with him, Senator

[[Page S11959]]

Glenn has worked to ensure that the United States military remained 
ready and strong in the perilous aftermath of the cold war.
  He has shared a concern over the dangers of chemical weapons. He has 
joined with others of us in attempting to ensure that our military has 
absorbed the lessons of the gulf war and is prepared to protect our 
troops from low levels of chemical weapons.
  On these two committees, Senator Glenn has served as a voice of 
reason and common sense.
  Senator Glenn is a hero for all of us to emulate as a result of his 
honor and dedication to his country, his family, and his own high 
standards.
  I have asked this question in the Senate before: ``Where have all the 
heros gone?''
  To this question I have no definitive answer, but I do know where 
this hero is going to go . . . again.
  Senator John Glenn is a steam engine in britches; he is atomic energy 
in the flesh.
  The senior Senator from Ohio has been a daredevil virtually all of 
his life.
  Not one to know when to slow down, Senator Glenn has risked life and 
limb, both on the Earth's surface and in the vastness of space which 
encompasses it, for one thing, and one thing only--the United States of 
America.
  John Glenn has been uniquely blessed to have had the opportunity 
to soar above this Earth of ours, soar like an eagle, surveying the 
beauty of creation that is God's Green Earth.

  To quote William Shakespeare in ``twelfth night,''

       Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have 
     greatness thrust upon them.

  Senator Glenn is one who has achieved greatness through his service 
to his country; he is truly a great American hero.
  Not only a veteran of World War II, having served in combat in the 
South Pacific after he was commissioned in the Marine Corps in 1943, 
John Glenn is also a veteran of the Korean war.
  Having survived 149 combat missions as a marine, our hero--our hero, 
my hero, your hero--our hero wanted to move on to a more challenging 
career as a test pilot of fighter and attack aircraft for the Navy and 
Marine Corps. And then, looking for new and extreme ways to test his 
mortality, on February 20, 1962, Astronaut John Glenn gently squeezed 
his body into the Friendship 7 rocket and became the first American to 
orbit the Earth at almost 18,000 miles per hour.
  Think of that. When I was young, I read a book by Jules Verne titled, 
``Around the World in 80 Days.'' John Glenn went around the world in 89 
minutes.
  This may well have been the pinnacle of John Glenn's life and career.
  On that fateful Tuesday in 1962, not only was America waiting with 
nervously clenched fists for news on Lt. Col. John Glenn's condition 
after his return to Earth, but the whole world was watching.
  People from all nations prayed for the safe return of this brave man.
  Mr. President, I quote from an article entitled ``Man's `Finest 
Hour.' '' I have been saving this article, now, for almost 37 years--
``Man's `Finest Hour','' by the late David Lawrence, which was 
originally published in the March 5, 1962, edition of U.S. News & World 
Report:

       Miracles do happen when the world shows its humility in 
     prayer.
       The voices that besought Almighty God to save the life of 
     Colonel Glenn can speak again, as even more of us petition 
     him to save humanity from nuclear war.
       For those prolonged minutes of prayer on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 
     constituted man's ``finest hour''.

  Now, if the Good Lord is willing, on October 29, our friend and 
colleague--and hero--John Glenn, still brimming with vital energy, will 
be leaving the relative comfort of Mother Earth far behind.
  It is always a melancholy time when the institution of the United 
States Senate has one of its finest Members move on. But it is a glad 
time when one of its Members moves on to something greater.
  ``Excelsior, ever upward.'' That is the motto of John Glenn. He has 
bigger fish to fry, so he is ready to get away from Washington, DC--
far, far away.
  Senator Glenn's return to space aboard shuttle Discovery will add 
another significant page to the annals of history.
  The capacity in which Senator Glenn will be operating on the 
Discovery is representative of the way in which he had lived the last 
three decades of his life, despite his global fame--modestly and 
without great fanfare.
  I am certain that he will perform his mission on Discovery with the 
same diligence and sense of duty that he has shown in serving his great 
State of Ohio in the United States Senate.
  The world in 1998 is a lot different from that world of 1962, when 
John Glenn was first catapulted into space. Similarly, the space 
shuttle Discovery is about as close in design to the Friendship 7 
rocket as an old Oliver typewriter--I was trying to remember the name 
of an old typewriter I had around the house when I was a boy--about as 
close in design to the Friendship 7 rocket as an old Oliver typewriter 
is to a home computer.
  The one thing that shall remain constant in this most recent launch 
is that the world will once again be watching, gripping chairs, biting 
fingernails, and saying its prayers for the Glenn family. For John 
Glenn, and for all the crew members of Discovery, and for Annie, that 
sweet little wife of Johns.
  It is hard to relate, to those Americans who were not yet born in 
1962, the thoughts and emotions of the world on Tuesday, February 20, 
of that year.
  Technology has become so advanced that flights into space are 
routine.
  Men and women are able to live for months at a time in floating space 
stations.
  America tends to take for granted the risks that our Nation's 
astronauts take to perform scientific experiments, carefully placing 
communications satellites into orbit, and repairing important 
instruments of observation--all of which make life on Earth much more 
enjoyable.
  In 1962, the risks were greater and there were many unknown factors 
that experience has now brought to light and revealed and smoothed 
over.
  Senator Glenn's return to space brings that all back, and reminds us 
of the tremendous changes wrought by Americans within the career of one 
man.
  So, this evening I take this opportunity to wish the best of luck to 
John Glenn and to Annie and to others of his family.
  I anxiously anticipate Discovery's safe return to Earth, and I extend 
my best wishes, and those of my wife Erma, to Senator Glenn and to 
Annie for many years of health and happiness after he returns to Earth 
and leaves the Halls of the Capitol behind.
  Thank you, thank you, thank you, Senator Glenn.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sessions). The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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