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John Glenn passed away today.
All the heros are getting old and dieing, and I don't see people to take their places. Each generation should have heros, real bonafide heros.
Another Hero Gone
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YEP!
YEP!
I know that feeling, I met Pete Conrad (Apollo 12 cmdr) by accident and got a great signed pic of him with mom and me.
""Four months later, Mr. Conrad, the shortest man in the corps of astronauts, made his walk on the Moon's cratered Ocean of Storms. ''Whoopee!'' he exclaimed when his foot touched the dry lunar dust. ''That may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me.''""
Gotta love that quote from him!
Too bad NASA has been gutted like a fish!
think of all that money wasted in Iraq on nearly nothing? NASA with 1/2 of that$$$ would have built a 3 or 4times larger space station by now, gone to the moon a few times and maybe left a station in orbit there?
then add to that employed well over 100,000 people in great fun jobs while doing it!
and made hero's to look literally UP too!
Proud member of the Whateley Academy Drow clan/collective
epitaph
this may not be his epitaph, but it sounds good.
May he ascend to his
place among the stars
He so courageously chased.
quidquid sum ego, et omnia mea semper; Ego me.
alecia Snowfall
The reason our generation does not have many heroes is simple
At least those that there is not controversy for is that nothing really big has happened. We have not headed for Mars, or back to the moon, and our space program has been stagnating.
Also just like with Vietnam, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have heroes its just not all of them are proud of the wars and none most are not going to be heroes the world over to all nations. Military heroes are heroes, it is just that most often they are only heroes to the nations they serve, where as astronauts, Cosmonauts, explorers and people who make big discoveries can be respected by all nations. And alas the only thing that has really been happening for the last 15 years is War. Too many wars in my opinion. But that is what has dominated things since 2001. We need someone to discover a cure for Aids and Cancer (wait they have for some forms of Cancer but alas they are not mentioned it in the mainstream media), or end World Hunger but it has been war that made the news and nasty elections. Anyone else feel depressed now.
"Cortana is watching you!"
RIP John Glenn.
I saw that flight on a black and white TV with rabbit ears. I was in the forth grade. the whole school watched from the floor of the gym.
may he rest in peace.
Just this-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5soUes2-LrU
Crazy 'bout a Mercury
Wow, I forgot how small those Mercury rockets were. Just enough oompf to get that little capsule into orbit.
Takes some kind of guts to ride on top of one of those. Being on the west coast they sent those Cape Canaveral rockets up before dawn, our time. I watched every minute of every launch they televised---unless there was a delay and it went up after I left for school---and couldn't believe it when viewers lost interest halfway through the Apollo program; that it somehow wasn't enough anymore. It always was for me.
I don't know about an afterlife but I like to think John Glenn is up there having a beer with Yuri Gugarin, that dog from Sputnik II (who was horribly sacrificed by those heartless Commie bastards), those three astronauts who died on the ground in Texas and Ham the chimp...
What borders on stupidity?
Canada and Mexico.
.
Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee, and Ed White.....
Died in the Apollo 1 capsule on January 27, 1967 at Cape Canaveral, FL - not in Texas.
The capsule was in place atop a Saturn 1B rocket on Pad 34. It was slated for launch on February 21, 1967, and the crew was onboard performing a "plugs out" test, meaning that the rocket was not fueled nor were any of the pyrotechnics active. A fire was ignited in the capsule's 100% oxygen atmosphere due to faulty wiring in the capsule, which combined with the fact that it took some 90 seconds to open the hatch (which had to be done from outside), resulted in the nearly instantaneous deaths of all three crew members. It was estimated that death occurred within ten seconds.
This story brings to light one of the morals of military life - never forget that your equipment was built by the lowest bidder.
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
My father worked for NASA......
On the Gemini and Apollo projects. I can remember going into his office at the Cape on numerous occasions, and actually met quite a few members of the astronaut corps, including John Glenn. I actually have a picture which my father took of me standing with the crew of Apollo 1 several months prior to the fire. It is one of my cherished keepsakes.
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
+1 to what DallsF said about
+1 to what DallsF said about Apollo 1. Also I'll note that John Glenn flew in a Mercury capsule atop an Atlas booster (a re-purposed ICBM, basically).
And let's not forget the dead on two Shuttle missions, the Soviet cosmonauts lost on various missions, and astronauts who died in training (aircraft accidents).
A lot of brave souls have been lost.
Kris
{I leave a trail of Kudos as I browse the site. Be careful where you step!}
To quote
To quote Launch control before the final countdown before the Friendship 7, "God Speed John Glenn".
Today's heroes are just not the same.....
They don't measure up. A bunch of thugs and criminals.
Heroes used to stand for something - they represented the best in all of us. My heroes were never sports figures or so-called musicians who are nothing more than gang bangers. My heroes were men like Dwight Eisenhower, or Omar Bradley; Alvin York, or perhaps Charles Doolittle.
My real, true hero was Gunnery Sargeant Thomas Brandt.
I miss you Tommy - I'll be seeing you and the boys soon enough, so save me a seat at the bar. I'll be the one in dress whites, and you'll finally get to see me in a skirt.
Christmas just isn't the same without you guys.
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
God speed John Glen!
God speed John Glen!
Well he is one kind of hero
And yes he did a great thing - with a great support team behind him.
I sincerely believe the early transitioners of our community did just as brave thing with only the minimum of support and risked there entire life, future and liberty to fulfill their dreams, with absolutely no hope for public adoration, fame etc at the end.
His, is the shared hero of the public imagination and gets magnified accordingly, so to me he is okay but 'true greatness', who knows.
Ignorance
Then you haven't truly looked at the entire life of John Glenn.
Remember, there are heros then there are Heros. I'm not downplaying or cheapening the actions of what has been done by what are commonly termed 'everyday heros', they just aren't the larger than life Heros that come along each generation. People like Glenn, Ghandi, George Washington or Dr. Martin Luther King, to name a few, whose lives shine like a beacon.
Many heros shine for their moment in life. The Medal of Honor winners, the doctors and emergency workers, have their well-deserved moments in the spotlight. Their acts of bravery, or lives dedicated to improving the human condition well deserve their accolades. But much like a meteor they flare up and shine for a short while then dim down. A Hero shines like a supernova, lighting up the sky for their generation and beyond.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
The Heros of this generation
The HEROS of this Generation are the men and women that run towards the disaster.
The Fire Fighters and Police on 9/11 that rushed in to the World Trade Center.
They knew the building where coming down as they climbed higher to save just one more life.
You are correct there.
Yes the World Trade Center and Pentagon first responders are the big Heroes of our generation. When I just wish we had heroes that can hang around for a while. Many of our first responders were killed or are now suffering health complications from that day.
"Cortana is watching you!"