re: John Glenn is in the hospital

John Glenn after being told he never had a real job.


Senator Glenn: “Howard, I can’t believe you said I have never held a job.
"I served twenty-three years in the United States Marine Corps. I served through
two wars. I flew 149 missions. My plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire on twelve different
occasions. I was in the space program. It wasn't my checkbook; it was my life on the
line. It was not a nine-to-five job where I took time off to take the daily cash receipts to
the bank.
“I ask you to go with me, as I went the other day, to a Veterans Hospital and look
those men, with their mangled bodies, in the eye and tell them they didn't hold a job.
You go with me to any gold-star mother and you look her in the eye and tell her that her
son did not hold a job.
“You go with me to the space program, and go as I have gone to the widows and
orphans of Ed White and Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee, and you look those kids in the
eye and tell them that their Dad didn't hold a job.
“You go with me on Memorial Day coming up and you stand in Arlington
National Cemetery, where I have more friends than I'd like to remember, and you watch
those waving flags. You stand there, and you think about this nation, and you tell me that
those people didn't have a job.
“I'll tell you, Howard Metzenbaum, you should be on your knees every day of
your life thanking God that there were some men – some men - who held a job. And they
required a dedication to purpose and a love of country and a dedication to duty that was
more important than life itself. And their self-sacrifice is what made this country
possible.
“I have held a job, Howard!”