Fifties Frogs Magazine

Vol  10

Pg 4 John Glenn Tells It Like It Is
 

Home Page
Message Board
Questionnaire


Vol 1 (index)
Vol 2 (index)
Vol 3 (index)
Vol 4
(index)
Vol 5
(index)
Vol 6 (index)
Vol 7 (index)
Vol 8
(index)
Vol 9
(index)
Vol 10
(index)

Cover
Old Ironsides
'60s Stories
John Glenn...
Killing Che
Preserving...
Carrico's Corner

Fifties Reunion
In Memory
Addresses
Announcements

Vol 11 (index)

Contacts
Search Site


Some people still don’t understand why military personnel do what they do for a living. This exchange between Senators John Glenn and Sen Howard Metzenbaum is worth reading. No only is it a pretty impressive and impromptu speech, but it’s also a good example of one man’s explanation of why men and women in the Armed Forces do what they do for a living. This is a typical, though sad, example of what some who have never served think of the Military.

Senator Metzenbaum to Senator Glenn: "How can you run for the Senate when you’ve never held a real job?"

Senator Glenn: "I served 23 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 12 different occasions. I was in the Space Program. It wasn’t my checkbook Howard, it was my life on the line. It was not a nine to five job with 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 at those men with mangled bodies, look them the eye and tell them they didn’t hold a job! You go with me to the Space Program at NASA, as I have gone, to the widows and orphans of Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee… and you look those kids in eye and tell them that their Dads didn’t hold a job.

continue-


[ top ]

continued-

You go with me on Memorial Day and you stand in Arlington National Cemetery, where I have more friends buried 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 who held a real job. And they required a dedication to a 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—What about you?"

(For those who don’t remember—During WWII, Howard Metzenbaum was an attorney representing the Communist Party, USA. Now he is a Senator.)

Editor: From a friend’s email.


"Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events."

—Sir Winston Churchill

[ top ]