John Glenn Oral Histroy Interview

Interview with Lt. Col. John H. Glenn, Jr. by Walter B. Sohier, General Counsel, National Aeronautics and Space Administration June 12, 1964 Seabrooke, TX

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Interview with Lt. Col. John H. Glenn, Jr. Mr. Sohier: This is the beginning of an interview with Colonel John H. Glenn, Jr., in connection with the oral history project of the John F. Kennedy Library. We are seated here in Colonel Glenn's home in Seabrook, Texas, which is about a mile or two, I guess, from the site of the Manned Spacecraft Center, on June 12, 1964. Maybe we could begin, Colonel Glenn, with some discussion of your first encounters with President Kennedy. The record we have here shows a visit to the White House on February 5, 1962, prior to the MA-6 flight. Can you detail this a bit? Did you meet him before that, incidentally? Colonel Glenn: No, I believe that was the first time I had met the President. I had seen him several times before that, but I think that was the first time we had actually met and it was a very cordial time. Of course, that was during the preparation period for the orbital flight of Friendship 7, and I had come home over a weekend to be with Annie and the children in Arlington. We weren't getting much family time, in those days, and the President sent word out that he would like for me to stop by the White House before I went back to the Cape--Cape Canaveral at that time, Cape Kennedy now--and so I did, of course, and it was just a very cordial get- together. He just wanted to talk about what was planned on the flight and I went into some of the details of what we expected to experience. In fact, later on after the flight when I came back, he recalled quite a number of these things I had said in this preflight meeting on the 5th of February. Most of the things that we had expected in space flight were encountered and he recalled these all very accurately. He evidently had remembered all the things we talked about that day--the 5th of February. Mr. Sohier: What kind of thing do you have in mind? Were these sort of technical problems? Colonel Glenn: Yes, he was interested very much in the anticipated g level during launch; what kind of sensations we expected during launch; what kind of control we had over the booster during launch; were we actually going to drive