The Hero

Not since Lindy had the U.S. had such a hero. From the moment he stepped out of his capsule onto the deck of the Noa, Glenn was a marked man. His footprints on the deck were marked in white paint, to be appropriately preserved later on just as the touchdown spot of the Spirit of St. Louis was marked at Paris' Le Bourget Field. Glenn accepted his apotheosis as coolly as he had handled Friendship 7 on its flight through space. In the torrent of questions, he was articulate and at ease. There was honest pride in his great achievement, but Glenn went out of his way to acknowledge the roles of hundreds of others who stood behind him. "We," a word reminiscent of the other lean young colonel of 1927, was always on his lips.

Helping Hand. From the Noa, Glenn proceeded by helicopter, carrier and plane to Grand Turk Island for his two-day debriefing and the preparations for his homecoming. But he had time to go spearfishing and to lend a helping hand to Fellow Astronaut Scott Carpenter when a skindiver lost consciousness at a depth of 80 ft. Carpenter brought him to the surface, and Glenn hauled him into a boat, where the diver quickly recovered. Then Vice President Lyndon Johnson flew in from Washington to escort Glenn back to the overwhelming welcome at Cape Canaveral. "In my country," said Johnson, on the flight up to Florida, "we'd say you're pretty tall cotton." Glenn grinned. "Were you very tense at take-off?" asked the Vice President. "I imagine I was," murmured Glenn. Said Johnson: "You were about as near the Lord's end as a person ever is."

At Canaveral, Glenn showed poignant emotion when he was reunited with his wife Anna. After a long hug and kiss, he wiped his eyes hastily with a handkerchief, then turned to embrace his children (David, 16 and Lyn, 14) and his mother and greet the other members of his family, who had flown down from Washington the night before with President Kennedy. Said John Glenn Sr., as he casually greeted his son: "How're you doing?"

Along the 18-mile route to Hangar S, cheering crowds lined the highway. Welcoming signs and banners decked the motels of Cocoa Beach. One banner read simply: WELCOME TO EARTH. Riding on the back of a white convertible, Glenn held Annie Glenn tightly with his right arm. At one point, Lyndon Johnson halted the motorcade to greet a small boy wearing a space helmet. Immediately the Glenn car was engulfed in well-wishers.

At the south gate of Cape Canaveral, Glenn smilingly produced his identity card for the guard. Minutes later, he stood on the airstrip and shook the hand of President Kennedy, who had just flown in from Palm Beach. Like most of his fellow citizens, the President had risen early on the morning of the Glenn flight, had followed the tense hours from countdown to recovery of the capsule on his TV set. After the speeches, the President and Glenn inspected the capsule. Kennedy --on his first trip to Canaveral--seemed fascinated, and Glenn, in matter-of-fact "hangar talk," described the tense moments when he was reentering the atmosphere. During the inspection, Mrs. John Glenn Sr. expressed some motherly concern over the lack of space in a spaceship: "I'd think your feet would go to sleep lying there so long." John reassured her that in a weightless state there is no feeling of discomfort. "I meant before you went off, while you were waiting there," commented Clara Glenn. Explained her son patiently: "Well, you can exercise and move your legs."

"Your Representative." The ceremonies at Canaveral were only the beginning for John Glenn. This week he would return to Washington for a more formal reunion with the President. He would ride in a gala parade and address a joint session of Congress. "Usually the honor is reserved for heads of state," Lyndon Johnson told him, "but in this case the whole country has elected you." After Washington there would come New York --and what promised to be the biggest ticker-tape welcome in history. And after that, John Glenn may tour the free world for his country.

But through the whole ordeal of instant heroism, he continued to display a remarkable modesty and control. In his greetings to his backstage co-workers at Canaveral, Colonel Glenn put his feelings extemporaneously, and in his own fashion: "There is much acclaim for this flight, but it is only one step in a long program. I'd like all of you who worked on it to feel that I am your representative. I'm getting the attention for all the thousands of you who worked on it."

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