mr. polk served as president for meeting 45 to 1849 maybe best known for the u.s. expansion. when mexico was forced to cede much of what today is the american southwest. watch tuesday beginning at 8 pm eastern and enjoy american history tv every weekend on c-span three. >> born on july 18th 1921, john glen was a decorated u.s. marine aviator, an astronaut, the first american to orbit the earth and much later in life, the oldest person to travel to space. he represented ohio in the u.s.

senate from 1974 to 1997. senator glen died on december 8th, 2016 at the age of 95. up next on american history tv, the national air and space museum remembers drawn glenn on which would have been his 96th birthday. this discussion included former u.s. senator david prior and geologist and astronaut catherine sullivan, veteran of three space shuttle missions, and the first woman to walk in space. this is about an hour. >> >> great to see this crowd. this is a great event. good evening, ladies and gentlemen. i'm jack dailey. it is my pleasure to welcome you to a very special john h. glenn lecture in space and history. we established this lecture

series in 2004 to spotlight the legendary figures in aviation in over the last 13 years we welcome to truly shorten aryan vigils. but none of them has loomed larger in the history books than our programs namesake, john glen. for many years, senator glen hosted these events and the last few years when he was not able to come in person, they were with us and spirit. senator glen passed away and december after a lifetime of service to his country. he was a marine aviator, a combat veteran of two wars. the first american to orbit the earth in the united states senator and the great friend. it's not up to us to carry on in his honor and celebrate his legacy of friendship and discovery. that is why we are here tonight. today would have been senator glenn's 96th birthday. we had him for nearly a century

and that still was not enough. throughout our history few americans have so perfectly embodied the ideals of that era. and senator glenn's example will continue to inspire for generations to come. this evening's program as in previous years, would not be possible without the generous sponsorship of boeing. lieutenant chuck johnson, vice president of air force mobility systems. johnson, would you stand and be recognized here? [applause] so we can show our appreciation. thank you tumbling for their many years of support to the lecture series and for so many other important programs. we would not be the museum we are today without your health. we are joined tonight by senator glenn's friends and colleagues who will reflect on their time with him.

if i were to do a proper job of introducing our panelists i would take the rest of the hour. so i have taken the liberty of consolidating their incredible careers into a few short sentences. doctor kathy sullivan is a distinguished scientist, astronaut and oceanographer. she was the first american woman to walk in space. along with bruce mercantilist was the recipient of the very first national air and space museum trophy in 1985. her three space flights including the mission to launch the hubble telescope were just the beginning of a career of adventure, exploration and education. doctor sullivan was the inaugural director of the john glenn school of public affairs at the ohio state university. she served as undersecretary of commerce in the administrator and state chief scientist for the national oceanic and atmospheric administration,

noah. in 2014 she was named by time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people. she is currently the chair of aerospace history. beginning in 1961 knee honorable david prior served the people of arkansas in the state house of representatives. the u.s. house, the governor's mansion in the united states senate. after three full terms in the senate he was named the full right distinguished fellow in law and public affairs. senator pryor went on to serve as director of the institute of politics of the harvard kennedy school of government, becoming the naaga rule director of the university of arkansas's clinton school of public service. bob schieffer's story career in journalism began in the united states air force at the rotc

program. -- in a dallas tv station, mr. xi furred joined cbs news where he remained four for 46 years. he became the next works chief russian correspondent in 1982 and has covered every major beat of the white house to the hill and from the pentagon to the state department and in 1991 hearing began 24 year tender as opposed to face the nation. mr. schieffer is a recipient of eight emmys. the walter concrete award and in 2013 was named the living legend by the library of congress. it doesn't get any better than that. it is now my pleasure to turn the program over to our moderator, mr. schieffer. [applause] >> thank you.

thank you. this is a great pleasure to be here, and truly an honor. i don't think there is a downside to getting your name in the same sentence as john glen. and when you put kathy sullivan and david pryor into it, it makes you feel pretty good. i want to start off by just saying a little something here. that is, we live in the age of instant celebrities where it is -- possible to become famous for simply being famous. it is easy and times like that to blur the line between heroes

and celebrities. we are here tonight to talk about our heroes. the one we are talking about also became a celebrity. but most of all he was a true american hero. some heroes become famous for doing great things. some do great things and if you even know about it. the sacrifices to make a good life or a child with special needs. a teacher who becomes a role model for young people who go on to do great things and even more importantly, have great lives. it is important to remember, and that is why i'm so happy to be here tonight, is that america came to be wet it is, because of heroes. great heroes. some we knew all about them.

some few knew what they had done. but they remained heroes. the man we are talking about tonight was both a celebrity and a hero. we know a lot about him. we hope you will know more about him from east to people we knew john glenn so very well in different periods of his life. he was also a friend of mine. i covered him when he was in the united states senate, and some of his campaigns. got to know him and amy. we really did become real friends. but the people who are here knew him as well as anybody. and i want to start tonight by asking both them, david prior, and sullivan, i want to ask both of you, when did he become

part of your lives? -- thank. you it's a pleasure to be here today. with all of you tonight. who have come to celebrate the life of john glenn. i first met john glenn in 1978. i was a member of the new class in 1978. bradley, a whole bunch of us came in, 78. i was on the train, on the way over to the u.s. capital. the only person on the train that night, on the push card as we called it, was john cohen. we talked all the day.

if one person asked me what we talked about i didn't know what this was about. nor did i know what's a long-standing friendship i would be bond at that particular moment. it was a special bond friendship. and he was a special human being. and he was a hero. >> john first came into my life in a indirect way watching the magazine every, week watching the television, seeing these men in their silver suits and watching them go off on these extraordinary adventures. really oh my gosh how did they do that adventures with every pass entering.

these people doing extraordinary things, he came directly into my life in 1996. i have been recruited by the science ministry, as iconic in columbus as this place is in d.c., but i didn't know anyone in columbus. they were introducing the new kid who would have to be the organization through a major transformation. the board who hired me was asked to come out and introduce. me it was a big event in the atrium. big elected leaders, especially female leaders. the guy who i watched on tv. you know there's neil armstrong. there is john glenn. he's said i did not know quite

what about me. he got on the stage and his opening line was can i just tell you how else i am of this woman. she had more space time before her first let that i had in my whole career. john letting me up to my hometown audience and endorsing me as a nation of trust, and welcoming me into the community. he flew into d.c. for that event and back that day just to do that. and i was floored that the john glenn that i had watched since ten years old would go to that effort for me. >> let me ask you the question that i often ask about famous people. the most famous person i ever knew it was walter. the question that people always

ask me was what was well to really like? was he the way he was on television. the answer was he was exactly the way he was on television. but i would like to ask both of you what was john glenn like? >> the man i read about in the life magazine on washington television as a youngster was a faint and shallow character of the man he was. he was richer and better than anything that came there in the magazines. he was that confident. and he was that passionate. he was that dedicated. he was that patriotic. but all of that came in such a fabulous package of just really caring humanity that was just extended so generously. so i think everybody came in contact with. >> they've. it >> i think that john glenn was in person on a daily basis,

every day, every hour, was the same person that came across and every television. there is no pretense. there was no attempt to sell something or part of me that did not exist. there was no attempt to sell the part of john glenn. i would have to describe him as authentic. he was a authentic individual. he was authentic from the time that i grew up, in rural ohio. a small, little town. his father used to take enough money out to the airport to let him give them a plane, lessons, on flying airplane. and john glenn at that time fell in love with flight. flight was his first love. i think when he fell in love

with flight all of the other things just kind of assimilated together. as a result of that love that he had with flight, i think that he pretty well decided at that moment that that was going to be in some part or another part of his life. and he was very much whetted to that idea. >> you know, i think you really understand the impact that that orbit, when john glenn wanted to orbit. i know there are lot of people -- in fact most people here are younger than i am. it is impossible to describe the national psyche at that point. it was half as if america lost its groove. in 1957 i was in high school. this is when sputnik went

around. it was a young man, russian, thing the year before john glenn went up to russians had orbited the earth. it was as if people were asking, they were number, won the cold war was getting close. people were worried about a nuclear confrontation. and all of a sudden, the soviet union could put a man into space. yeah and it was almost terrifying. and people were really, really worried about it. and then they had the launch. john glen went up. he made three orbits i guess it was kathy. you could almost see it. you can see a change. i remember seeing it on the black and white television. we were so relieved that he got up there. he was more relieved about his safety. it was almost like we're back. where were you all when it

happened? what were you doing that day? >> i had gone back to law school later in life and i had my family in little rock, arkansas. we had moved to little rock. i had one son at the time, i have three now. we watched it i guess from the time, early in the morning until late at night, when all of the after flow was there. but there's another interesting thing bob about that flight. 350,000 people wrote a letter to john glenn. 350,000 human beings wrote a letter to john glenn thanking him for his leadership and vision in this particular field, and it was a, it shattered

every public human aspect of everything was shattered at the time i think. and it was a good, good program. and shawn glenn had a section in new york i guess it was, kathy. but it was a fabulous period. >> it was a great day for america. >> the interesting that i recall. >> i was in grade school. i would've been ten or 11. we were all glued to the tv. you could talk to anyone who we went with and junior high. televisions were rolling. clubs to stop. everyone was watching. there's a backdrop piece to that story.

when was the united states -- it was stumbling and rumbling in a really horrific fashion. we all kind of sensed how daring allen shepard and john were those first three flights. but step back another notch and right as they are getting ready to fly the guys a river or trying to get -- blew up 13 rockets in a row. it worked so not well, that they blew them up. it flew sideways up the banana river. and we were like no, john, you've got this. you're going to be just fine. like at the same time. it was such an astonishing thing to work against that. >> this was a great achievement

and engineering. do you think either of you think that john glenn himself understood the impact he had on the americans? i'm not sure he did. >> i can only comment from a much smaller version of being an astronaut and continuingly discovering the response i get. i'm not armstrong. i'm not john glenn. astronaut is magical. there is something that captured our imaginations and aspirations. every best thing we hope we are and which we can be. we all love to touch those things. and it does permeate the psyche and the personality of the culture and country in strange ways, but johns became at the

very dawn of this era. we are the first -- you all are the first generations of human beings -- to live in a space era. where people leave the planet. we look back at the planet from afar and get those perspectives that help us better understand this lace and how it works. to be someone who helped launch such a profoundly transformative era and to be the emblem, the best emblems and ambassadors of that era. >> did he ever talk about it when you came to know him? david? >> did he ever talk about -- says >> no. he never talked about the impact that he was having on people and whatever. in addition to that, and some say it was john glenn, i don't know who it was. it was one of the astronauts. they pulled a huge contraption

around that they climbed up in it. he says when he was climbing up the only thing he could think about was this contraption was built by -- he tried to always keep things simple. he tried to minimize the heroism that went with that practice. john glenn never for one minute looked at himself like a hero. >> that was the impression i got as well. i got to thinking about this as i was preparing for this tonight. maybe the reason was that this was not new for him. that is part of the things that i think people today do not really understand. this was somebody who flew, was it, 70 combat missions in world

war ii as a fighter pilot? later flew, i think it was 30 something or no, 59 combat missions. it was 59 combat missions over the pacific and went on to fly 90 combat missions in the korean war. this was not the first courageous thing he ever did in his life. david told me something interesting. guess who he flew with when he was in korea? >> he flew with that great boston globe fred williams. >> ted williams? >> and with that in itself, they said williams was so far superior to everyone else. everybody wanted to gather around williams and join him and his plight. it could not be managed of

course but a lot got to fly with williams and he was a very good leader. >> go ahead, cathy. >> i want to push back on what you said about john and how he acted the way he did because it was not the first courageous thing he did. that made it a factor, but every time i was around john, talking to folks, talking about space life, he did not react the way he did because he did not do that -- for him, he did this as part of being in american. this was advancing the country. it was about all of us. it was about serving the country. i don't think it had anything to do with whether he was, first second or had done something before. he just did not see it as him standing out. you cited him doing his part to help all of us to help this country. >> video we said, would happened to me was what would have happened to anybody that had come down the same path. >> serendipity? you had the right experience,

the right place, the right time. that's another thing that leads to him not thanking or holding himself out of something totally special. it was not about him. it was about us. it was about the country. >> don't you think kathy, that it was also just about being a pilot? >> he loved to fly. >> for sure. he did not get to do a whole lot of flying. >> but he flew all his life. i remember even when he was in the senate. i used to talk to him. he always reminded me of the people i was within the air force. he talked like an air force or a pilot -- used phrases like no sweat. it is something i had not heard since i had been in the air force. >> one old story that i tell. i had been in the senate for about ten years. john glenn was invited to speak in arkansas. i was going to fly down and get

on a plane with john glenn, his private plane at the national airport. and the wonderful, wonderful hero -- we sat in the front two seats. five hours into this flight for three out of five hours, i finally realized that this plane did not have a men's room in it. i said wait a minute. something isn't quite right. i made it to little rock and was very glad to make it. but he always used to kid me about that. always gave me a hard time with that. >> i'm glad everything worked out. >> another thing he was proud of is that he kept flying till

he was 90. that was a milestone. 90 was a big important number. >> he kept his pilots license until he was 90. as i understand it, complained about having to sell the airplane. he had kept it and did not want to give it up. >> he will had a twin engine beach. he was a rigorous pilot. he took rigorous courses every year. john like any good pilot, he would religiously go down and do the b triple beak. >> i think what he said, if i recall, when he finally did sell the airplane it was not because he did not want it anymore, but he felt it was too hard on his knees and annie's knees to climb upon to the wing to get into the cockpit. that is why they -- >> it was pretty high. >> i want to go back to what you said about he did not get to fly them much after that

first orbit. people thought at the time that kennedy would not let him fly because he was becoming so popular that he might someday want to run against president kennedy. that turned out, as i understand, it's not to be true, because in december of that year, robert kennedy invited him out for dinner and set you really ought to think about running for the senate out in ohio.

stop it all watering holes and the senators and representatives of folks on the crew and john's office but it's always a -- spot for obvious reasons. i will not make a contrast between senator glenn and another senator whose office we have to go by. the program of your flight. we've done. you go by another senator's office and it's all about his flight.

that he had been on. but i would not comment on who that was. but the event that really stands out for me, there was eight children's charity in columbus that therapy camps had -- the world's largest, oversized -- they ask me one year if i would come into a booth and sign autographs for three dollars a pop. i got there and i discovered that john had also -- that was a little bit of late breaking news. i thought i am going to entertain people while they wait for johnson mature. i can go home. it's fine. everyone will want your autograph.

>> well they were waiting for johnson to growth. every now and that they would say yes please. >> it went on for maybe five to ten minutes. then john reach across. he brought me over to his booth. he said it's gone up next. dollars it's going to four. one as they try to get past me and over to him it was like he was my agent. he wrapped his arms around me. he would not let me be there as a fifth wheel. he would not let me be overlooked. he wrapped me in his orbit and i was complete in his orbit. we slayed him on the fund-raiser. >> you would sometimes needle him a little bit. tease him a little bit. >> every now and then that might happen. pilots being the way that pilots are. the best case there is that the very famous senator is going to fly back in space.

ohio state university was going to feature them and honor john at a big football game. the university called up and asked if i would like to go to the game. and then asked a vote like to come to the presidents luncheon before the game. 300 or so of your closest personal friends. and actually would i be willing to speak at the luncheon. possibly the closing remarks and maybe they would need to be completely serious. so this luncheon is we have john glenn speaker after speaker. he took his watch off. after all of that book wrap piling up. you have to have your watch up higher up so that it wouldn't get dirty. he had built this space ship

that he proceeded to tone down all this adulation that had come his way. i put together a top ten list of things that are slightly different than the last time you were flying. john. things like you will be broadcast include tv now so people will be able to tell if you are turning green with space signals. they won't be purchase this time. there will be wheels and tires. you won't have your feet wet. you ought to share a bathroom this time. you don't have to do that. -- which is the control stick, from friendship seven. this is a single use space ship, i've built it up, your personal spaceship. anything you want, you can take with, that even have the hand controller. john, there are eight hand controllers on the spacecraft and let me promise you they all belong to kirk brown.

if you so much as touch one you may come home with your severed hand in a glass case. he and annie were cracking up the whole way through. >> that's great. he was very, very competitive. i want to ask you if either of you could actually confirm this story. i read that when he was trying to get into the astronaut program coming along, he had a height limit where he would be 5:11. i was told he would also put weeds on his head trying to compress, so that he wouldn't be over the height limit. is that true? >> i can't confirm that but if you get to zero gravity your spine as it expands. there's a story i read where someone walked into the library,

he was reading a, book and books on his head. did he ever do that in the senate room? >> he never did it in the senate. but i would not be surprised if he had done it. but to the best of my knowledge that never occurred. it was just one of those great little folks, folks stories. let's talk a little bit about the senate days. we know he was a strong voice he also had a special interest in anti nuclear proliferation. what was he really passionate about? >> he was passionate about the anti nuclear proliferation, he had been in the senate for two years at which point he passed the anti nuclear proliferation.

that passed through his determined interest, and the emphasis that he showed that went through the whole system. there was another system that he was, here, to want to be to open that for you. there was another program the other program that he was interested in when the senator of -- got 70 cosponsors for a piece of legislation, but to never get it before the right committee, can never get it zeroed in. but this was the legislation to

reimburse the japanese. the japanese americans in california, the western coast. arkansas for example had two camps. two camps. and we have greek displays of there are, and the flowers that they painted. the guards that they grew. that is really something that moves on with arkansas people. but in late 1899 or so they got behind the legislation. he said sparky we want to get behind the legislation and pass it. he did. it passed. he was passionate about the issue. he was passionate about the issue because he felt like this person's constitutional rights,

they had lost the rights as japanese american citizens.